MVC Architecture:Building Scalable Web Applications
The model view controller pattern, also referred to as the MVC design pattern is a software architecture pattern which primarily segments your software application into three components — Model, View, and Controller. Used mainly in the development of Web applications, Desktop applications as well as mobile applications, the MVC architecture model separates the presentation layer of the software application from the business logic layer.
Why use MVC Application Design Model?
Developing your application through the MVC architecture patterns helps you to do software development in parallel/simultaneously and let you implement code re-usability most effectively and efficiently. Through the MVC architecture pattern, we can design software applications where the user interface is separated from the backend logic through a two-way interaction method.
Let’s Have a look at the MVC architecture diagram to understand the Two-Way Interaction between View and Model.
The above MVC architecture diagram shows the actual working of the application developed using the MVC design pattern. Now let’s understand about each of these components.
MVC Model:
An MVC MODEL is a component of the MVC architecture framework where the entire application’s business data and the related logic are stored. Its primary purpose is to maintain data and keep updating itself as per instructions sent from the CONTROLLER. As output, it responds to the requests sent from the second component called VIEW.
MVC View:
MVC VIEW is the second component of the software application’s MVC Design Model, where its primary responsibility is to display the application’s data through the presentation layer. These views are created as per the data collected from the MODEL layer. The View component receives information from the MODEL component to produce the output in the presentation layer of the software application.
MVC Controller:
An MVC CONTROLLER is the third component of the MVC application development framework responsible for handling user interaction. It sends instructions to the MODEL component as well as commands to the VIEW component associated to update their state by acting as a bridge between them and hence facilitating a two-way interaction.
Advantages of implementing the MVC Architecture
Develop Application Modules in Parallel:
With The Model View Controller design pattern, you can do simultaneous web application development. That means the core nature of the MVC framework is to decouple the application into three components called Model ,View and Controller.
Because of that, developers can work upon each of the components simultaneously without hindering the development of each other.
To make it further clear, let’s take an MVC architecture example and have a look.
Let’s say you are developing an e-commerce application based on the MVC design model. You have a frontend team as well as a backend team working on both aspects of the application.
The frontend consists of the MVC VIEW while the backend consists of MVC CONTROLLER and MVC MODEL. So both your team can work on each of the three components in parallel without anyone of them restricting the development of others. Once all the three MVC components are developed, they are connected, and hence the output is a complete working web application.
Code Re-Usability at Its Best:
The second advantage of the Model View Controller Paradigm is that it enhances code re-usability by a significant amount.
Using the MVC framework, you can create code components that are independent of each other and can be used for various purposes. Hence when you are developing multiple software application modules that can make use of the same component, you can call those components and reuse them.
This implementation of the Model View Controller Architecture saves a lot of application development time and money in the long run.
Let me take another MVC architecture example here as well. Let’s take into consideration the above e-commerce application example.
To explain clearly, we have displayed a frontend HTML and CSS code template that displays the product information on the client side. This template is a universal MVC VIEW template that can be used to display the product information for any product category.
So if you are developing backend functionality for two different product categories, you can use this one single MVC VIEW template across both the product categories. Hence no need to code a separate frontend template for two product categories. Therefore, the result is code reusability that saves at least 70% of development time.
Promotes Loose Coupling:
When we talk about the MVC application design model, we speak about Loose Coupling. What that means is that all the three components — The Model | View | Controller are loosely coupled amongst each other and that is the very nature of the MVC framework. The output of this benefit is that — All the three MVC components are least dependent on each other and the properties of each other.
Hence all of them function separately without having any dependency upon each other. This accounts for 85% more application efficiency overall.
So since they are very much least dependent upon each other, it is significantly easier to make changes into your MVC application components in the future. Hence you can also benefit from this in one another way. While scaling your business, you need to add new components or functionalities into your business application.
Hence because of MVC architecture pattern achieving scalability for your online business becomes quite a lot easier as compared to not using the MVC design pattern for building your business application.
Last but not least, using the Model View Controller Design pattern, you can develop multiple no of views for a particular specific MVC Model component. As a result of this, you can create various HTML and CSS templates to display the same data in multiple types of ways depending upon your needs and requirements.
So Wrapping It All Up,
Building your business application using the Model View Controller architecture benefits you in significant ways, as discussed above. If you want productivity, efficiency, high-performance, and wise resource management for your business application, use the MVC framework.
This framework/architecture is one of the best for developing the modern business application. Using this pattern not only will save your money and time,but also give you better productive results for your business.