December 04, 2000, 12:00 AM — The task of designing and developing the client tier of an n-tier Web
architecture often challenges developers. This is particularly true in
the Web world, where the sheer variety of servers, deployment
platforms, and protocols turns the challenge into a headache. A client-
tier architect must address a number of questions:
* How should I structure my GUI?
* How will users interact with my GUI?
* How should I separate server-side/transport data formats from my
GUI?
* How should I provide sound mechanisms for event management,
application flows, and widget control?
In order to understand some of these key issues, we must differentiate
between the presentation layer (or client tier) and the GUI layer. The
GUI layer deals with a small subset of the whole presentation layer,
namely the UI widgets and the immediate effects of user actions -- a
JTextField and its ActionListener, for example. The presentation layer
needs to deal with application flows and server interaction in addition
to providing GUI services. The terms presentation layer and client tier
are used interchangeably in this article.
Framework-based approach
To mitigate the risk associated with creating a robust client tier,
developers have produced several frameworks and design patterns with
varying degrees of success. The Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm
remains one of the more enduring patterns. However, the traditional MVC
scope falls short when it comes to the control of GUI elements
(widgets). MVC does not handle the complexities of data management,
event management, and application flows. As an adaptation of the MVC
triad, the HMVC -- Hierarchical-Model-View-Controller -- paradigm seeks
to redress some of the above-mentioned issues. We developed this
pattern during the course of our work in the field. HMVC provides a
powerful yet easy-to-understand layered design methodology for
developing a complete presentation layer. While MVC provides an
efficient framework for developing GUI interaction, HMVC scales it to
the entire client tier. Some key benefits of a responsibility-based,
layered architecture include:
* Defined intralayer communication and isolation from higher layers
* Defined interlayer communication with minimal coupling
* Localization of exposure to third-party code
This article explores the application of the HMVC design pattern in the
development of a Java-based client-tier infrastructure.
Note: The entire source code for this article can be downloaded as a
zip file from the Resources section below.
Model view controller
