[Concept] Model View Present (MVP) Pattern for Architecture Android~ DroidUMM

Model-View-Presenter (MVP) is an architecture pattern for the presentation layer of software applications. The pattern was originally developed at Taligent in 1990s and first was implemented in C++ and Java. In MVP, the View and the Model are neatly separated and the View exposes a contract through which the Presenter access the portion of View that is dependent on the rest of the system.

[Next Article Implement MVP on Android]

The Model is the component which preserves data, state and business logic; it just exposes a group of service interfaces to Presenter and hides the internal details. The View is the user interface, it receives user’s action and contract to Presenter to achieve user’s need, and then the View responds user by result information. The Presenter sits in between the View and the Model; it receives input from the View and passes commands down to the Model. It then gets result and updates the View trough the contracted View interface.

Illustrates the parts of MVP pattern and how they interact with each other. Since the MVP pattern was put up in 1990s, it has been widely discussed in the area of software engineering; Martin Fowler reported some methods of implementing MVP at his papers and books. However, few wittier have considered how to implement it on concrete program; this process is extremely dependent on experience of developers.

Contrast to traditional presentation layer, the advantage of presentation layer with MVP pattern is based on tree facts:

• The View doesn’t know the Model. Because of this, there is a low coupling between Model and View. It means that if Model or View was changed, another part not needs to modify as long as interfaces are stable. This also stands for the flexibility of architecture and the reusability of business logic in Model.

• The Presenter ignores any UI technology behind the View. According to this, the replacement of UI technology, such as transfer Windows Forms to WPF or to Web Forms, is not need any change of other parts. Even one application could have more than one UI technologies but one Model so that the C/S deployment and the B/S deployment are supported by it at the same time.

• The View is mockable for testing purposes. In tradition, it is impossible to test View or business logic component before another has completed because of the tight coupling between View and business logic. By the same token, the unit testing for View or business logic component is difficult. All of those problems are solved by MVP pattern. In MVP, there is no direct dependency between View and Model. For that reason, developer could use mock object to inject into View or Model so that they can be tested on one’s own.

Over the years I have mentored many developers on using design patterns and best practices. One question that keeps coming up over and over again is: What are the differences between the Model View Controller (MVC) and Model View Presenter (MVP) patterns? Surprisingly the answer is more complex than what you would suspect. Part of reasons I think many developers shy away from using either pattern is the confusion over the differences.

Before we dig into the differences let’s examine how the patterns work and the key benefits to using either one. Both (MVC & MVP) patterns have been use for several years and address a key OO principal namely separation of concerns between the UI and the business layers. There are a number of frameworks is use today that based on these patterns including: JAVA Struts, ROR, Microsoft Smart Client Software Factory (CAB), Microsoft Web Client Software Factory, and the recently announced ASP.Net MVC framework.

Model View Controller (MVC) Pattern

The MVC pattern is a UI presentation pattern that focuses on separating the UI (View) from its business layer (Model). The pattern separates responsibilities across three components: the view is responsible for rending UI elements, the controller is responsible for responding to UI actions, and the model is responsible for business behaviors and state management. In most implementation all three components can directly interact with each other and in some implementations the controller is responsible for determining which view to display (Front Controller Pattern),

Model View Presenter (MVP) Pattern

The MVP pattern is a UI presentation pattern based on the concepts of the MVC pattern. The pattern separates responsibilities across four components: the view is responsible for rending UI elements, the view interface is used to loosely couple the presenter from its view, the presenter is responsible for interacting between the view/model, and the model is responsible for business behaviors and state management. In some implementations the presenter interacts with a service (controller) layer to retrieve/persist the model. The view interface and service layer are commonly used to make writing unit tests for the presenter and the model easier.

Key Benefits

Before using any pattern a developers needs to consider the pros and cons of using it. There are a number of key benefits to using either the MVC or MVP pattern (See list below). But, there also a few draw backs to consider. The biggest drawbacks are additional complexity and learning curve. While the patterns may not be appropriate for simple solutions; advance solutions can greatly benefit from using the pattern. I’m my experience a have seen a few solutions eliminate a large amount of complexity but being re-factored to use either pattern.

- Loose coupling – The presenter/controller are an intermediary between the UI code and the model. This allows the view and the model to evolve independently of each other.

- Clear separation of concerns/responsibility

· UI (Form or Page) – Responsible for rending UI elements

· Presenter/controller – Responsible for reacting to UI events and interacts with the model

· Model – Responsible for business behaviors and state management

· Test Driven – By isolating each major component (UI, Presenter/controller, and model) it is easier to write unit tests. This is especially true when using the MVP pattern which only interacts with the view using an interface.

· Code Reuse – By using a separation of concerns/responsible design approach you will increase code reuse. This is especially true when using a full blown domain model and keeping all the business/state management logic where it belongs.

· Hide Data Access – Using these patterns forces you to put the data access code where it belongs in a data access layer. There a number of other patterns that typical works with the MVP/MVC pattern for data access. Two of the most common ones are repository and unit of work. (See Martin Fowler – Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture for more details)

· Flexibility/Adaptable – By isolating most of your code into the presenter/controller and model components your code base is more adaptable to change. For example consider how much UI and data access technologies have changed over the years and the number of choices we have available today. A properly design solution using MVC or MVP can support multi UI and data access technologies at the same time.

Key Differences

So what really are the differences between the MVC and MVP pattern. Actually there are not a whole lot of differences between them. Both patterns focus on separating responsibility across multi components and promote loosely coupling the UI (View) from the business layer (Model). The major differences are how the pattern is implemented and in some advanced scenarios you need both presenters and controllers.

Here are the key differences between the patterns:

· MVP Pattern

· View is more loosely coupled to the model. The presenter is responsible for binding the model to the view.

· Easier to unit test because interaction with the view is through an interface

· Usually view to presenter map one to one. Complex views may have multi presenters.

· MVC Pattern

· Controller are based on behaviors and can be shared across views

· Can be responsible for determining which view to display (Front Controller Pattern)

Hopefully you found this post interesting and it helped clarify the differences between the MVC and MVP pattern. If not, do not be discouraged patterns are powerful tools that can be hard to use sometimes. One thing to remember is that a pattern is a blue print and not an out of the box solutions. Developers should use them as a guide and modify the implementation according to their problem domain.

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