Abstract Factory pattern

Abstract Factory pattern

Intent

Provide an interface for creating families of related or dependent objects
without specifying their concrete classes.

The Abstract Factory pattern is very similar to the Factory Method pattern.
One difference between the two is that with the Abstract Factory pattern, a
class delegates the responsibility of object instantiation to another object
via composition whereas the Factory Method pattern uses inheritance and
relies on a subclass to handle the desired object instantiation.

Actually, the delegated object frequently uses factory methods to perform
the instantiation


Applicability
Use the Abstract Factory pattern in any of the following situations:

A system should be independent of how its products are created,
composed, and represented
class can't anticipate the class of objects it must create
A system must use just one of a set of families of products
A family of related product objects is designed to be used together, and you
need to enforce this constrain

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~tarr/dp/lectures/Factory.pdf