08/02/2006

MVC Pattern
(MVC Framework)

In this session, we will learn about basic concept of MVC (Model

View Controller) pattern and frameworks. Understanding MVC
pattern is required in order to understand Struts and JSF later on.

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Agenda
? Layered (or tiered) application design
? Introduction of MVC pattern
? Evolution of Web Application design
architecture
– Model 1
– Model 2
– Application frameworks

This is the agenda. First, we will talk about general concept behind
layered (or tiered) application architecture. Then we will discuss how
MVC pattern fits in with this layered architecture.

During the rest of the session, we will discuss the evolution of web
application design architecture starting with Model 1, then talk about
Model2 and finally application frameworks.

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Layered Application
Design

First, let's talk about general concept of layered application design

before we talk about MVC pattern for Web applications.

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08/02/2006

Layered Application Design

? Structure application in two layers
- Interaction Layer and Service
Client
Processing Layer
? Interaction layer
- Interface to clients
- Receive requests and perform
required translations and Interaction
transformations Layer

- Delegate request to Processing

processing layer for processing Layer

- Respond to clients
4

Typically a distributed application is composed of two layers - interaction

layer and processing layer.

The interaction layer provides an interface to clients and receives requests

and perform any required translations and transformations. Then it
delegates or dispatches the request handling to process layer. It receives
whatever result from the processing layer and then send response to clients.

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08/02/2006

Layered Application Design

Service
Client
? Processing layer
- Process request by performing business logic
- Access database
- Integrate with EIS
Interaction
Layer

Processing
Layer

The processing layer processes the request by performing business logic.

The business logic might involve accessing database or integration with
Enterprise Information Systems.

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Why Layered Application Design?

? Clearly divide responsibilities
– De-couple business logic from presentation
– Change in business logic layer does not affect the
presentation layer and vice-versa
? Provide a common “place” for pre-processing
and post-processing of requests and
responses
– logging, translations, transformations, etc.

Now let's talk about why you want to use layered application design?

Layered design clearly divides responsibilities as mentioned in the

previous two slides. For example, the business logic handling is separated
from interaction with clients. This separation allows one layer to change
without affecting the other.

The layered design also provides a common place where pre and post
processing such as logging, translations and transformations can be
performed.

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Introduction to
MVC Pattern

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MVC Pattern

This picture shows MVC pattern, in which Model, View, and Controller
components are shown and how they interact.

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Three Logical Layers in a Web

Application: Model
? Model (Business process layer)
– Models the data and behavior behind the business
process
– Responsible for actually doing
?
Performing DB queries
? Calculating the business process

? Processing orders

– Encapsulate of data and behavior which are

independent of presentation

So the MVC pattern is basically layered architecture for a Web application.

The Model provides business process layer. It models the data and
behavior behind the business process. As part of performing business
process, the model layer might perform database access, calculating
business process, or processing orders for example.

One important point to remember is that Model encapsulate data and

behavior independent of how they are presented. That is, the presentation
could change depending on the client type but the Model should not
change.

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Three Logical Layers in a Web

Application: View
? View (Presentation layer)
– Display information according to client types
– Display result of business logic (Model)
– Not concerned with how the information was
obtained, or from where (since that is the
responsibility of Model)

10

The View represents presentation layer. The view handles displaying

information according to client type. The view displays result of business
logic processing, that is Model. Since View is independent of Model, the
view is not concerned with how and where the information in Model was
obtained.

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Three Logical Layers in a Web

Application: Controller
? Controller (Control layer)
– Serves as the logical connection between the user's
interaction and the business services on the back
– Responsible for making decisions among multiple
presentations
? e.g. User's language, locale or access level dictates a
different presentation.
– A request enters the application through the control
layer, it will decide how the request should be
handled and what information should be returned

11

(read the slide)

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Web Applications
? It is often advantageous to treat each layer
as an independent portion of your
application
? Do not confuse logical separation of
responsibilities with actual separation of
components
? Some or of the layers can be combined into
single components to reduce application
complexity

12

(read the slide)

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Evolution of Web
Application Design
Architecture

13

Now let's talk about the evolution of web application design architecture.

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Evolution of MVC Architecture

1.No MVC
2.MVC Model 1 (Page-centric)
3.MVC Model 2 (Servlet-centric)
4.Web application frameworks
? Struts
5.Standard-based Web application framework
? JavaServer Faces (JSR-127)

14

Now when we talk about Web application framework, we are basically

talking about the evolution of MVC architecture, which stands for
Model, View, and Controller.

So in the beginning, we used no MVC. Then we had JSP Model1 and

Model 2 architecture. And people came up with so called Web
application frameworks such as Apache Strut based on Model 2
architecture. And finally we are at the phase there will be a standard
based Web application framework.

So let's talk about these in a bit more detail.

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Evolution of Web Application Design

until Model 1 Architecture

No MVC Model 1 architecture

15

This picture shows the evolution of web application starting from a

simplest one which then evolves into more sophisticated and more robust
design.

So in the first phase of the evolution, just static HTML pages were used to
display static information. Then in the subsequent evolution phase,
dynamic contents generation technologies such as CGI initially, then
servlet and JSP are introduced to generate and display dynamic contents
along with static contents.

When you are using JSP pages, you can use only the basic features that
come with it. Or you can leverage more sophisticated features such as
component-based dynamic contents generation, for example, leveraging
JavaBeans or custom tags, which provide more reusable, more
maintainable, more flexible development and deployment options.

Then in a more sophisticated environment, people use so-called template

based design or eventually they might want to delegate their business logic
processing to EJB tier.
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Model 1
(Page-Centric
Architecture)
16

Let's see Model 1 architecture first. The model 1 architecture is page-centric

architecture.

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Model 1 Architecture (Page-centric)

1
Request
JSP
4 pages
BROWSER

Response

3
Java Bean

Servlet Enterprise
Container Information Systems
(EIS) 17

The literature on Web-tier technology in the J2EE platform frequently uses the terms
“Model 1” and “Model 2” without explanation. This terminology stems from early
drafts of the JSP specification, which described two basic usage patterns for JSP
pages. While the terms have disappeared from the specification document, they
remain in common use.

Model 1 and Model 2 simply refer to the absence or presence (respectively) of a

controller servlet that dispatches requests from the client tier and selects views.

A Model 1 architecture consists of a Web browser directly accessing Web-tier JSP

pages. The JSP pages access Web-tier JavaBeans that represent the application
model. And the next view to display (JSP page, servlet, HTML page, and so on) is
determined either by hyperlinks selected in the source document or by request
parameters.

In a Model 1 architecture, view selection is decentralized, because the current page

being displayed determines the next page to display. In addition, each JSP page or
servlet processes its own inputs (parameters from GET or POST). And this is hard
to maintain, for example, if you have to change the view selection, then several JSP
pages need to be changed.
17
In some Model 1 architectures, choosing the next page to display occurs in scriptlet
code, but this usage is considered poor form.
08/02/2006

Page-centric Architecture
? Composed of a series of interrelated JSP pages
– JSP pages handle all aspects of the application -
presentation, control, and business process
? Business process logic and control decisions are
hard coded inside JSP pages
– in the form of JavaBeans, scriptlets, expression
? Next page selection is determined by
– A user clicking on a hyper link, e.g. <A HERF="find.jsp>
– Through the action of submitting a form, e.g. <FORM
ACTION="search.jsp">

18

In page-centric architecture, the application is composed of a series of

interrelated JSP pages. And these JSP pages handle all aspects of
application including presentation, and control and the business process.

Now an issue is that, in page centric architecture, the business process

logic and control decisions are hard-coded inside JSP pages in the form of
JavaBeans, scriptlets and expressions. Here JSP is performing the role of
model.

Also in page-centric architecture, the page selection is determined inside

JSP pages either user clicking on a hyperlink or action forms. Here JSP
pages are playing the role of view selection which is typically handled by
controller.

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Page-centric Architecture

memu.jsp catalog.jsp checkout.jsp

dataBase

page–centric catalog application 19

This picture shows what I mentioned in the previous slide. In page-centric

architecture, the next page selection is determined by each JSP page. So
the page selection is distributed. (On the other hand, servlet-centric
approach, which we will learn later, the page selection will be handled by a
single servlet which is a centralized approach in terms of page selection.)
The same thing can be said about input handling. Here each page has to
handle input handling such as translation or transformation. So controller
function is also distributed among different pages.

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Page-centric: Simple Application

? One page might display a menu of options,
another might provide a form for selecting
items from the catalog,and another would be
to complete shopping process
– This doesn't mean we lose separation of presentation
and content
– Still use the dynamic nature of JSP and its support for
JavaBeans component to factor out business logic from
presentation
– The pages are tightly coupled:
• Need to sync up request parameters
• Be aware of each other's URLs
20

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Page-centric: Component Page

Diagram
header.jsp Item details

Commodore 1541
Capacity 180k
details.jsp Cost: 200
Aligened: sometimes

[main][logoff]
footer.jsp

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Component design

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Page-centric: Component Page

? Create headers, footers and navigation bars
in JSP pages
– Provides better flexibility and reusability.
– Easy to maintain.
? <%@ include file = "header.jsp" %>
– Use it when the file (included) changes rarely.
– Faster than jsp:include.
? <jsp:include page="header.jsp" flush="true">
– Use it for content that changes often
– if which page to include can not be decided until the
main page is requested.
22

Now if you decide to use page centric approach, here are a few
suggestions.

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08/02/2006

Page-centric Scenario
View
search.html
Request 1

response list.j s p
Client
Model
response
forward

JavaBeans

Request 2
Controller
find .jsp
Request 3
redirect

delete.jsp

23

In page centric scenario, the role of controller is played by JSP pages.

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08/02/2006

Model 2
(Servlet-Centric
Architecture)
24

Now let's talk about model 2 architecture which we call servlet-centric

architecture.

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08/02/2006

Model 2 Architecture (Servlet-centric)

MVC Design Pattern

1
Request
(Controller)
Servlet
BROWSER

Ins
Redirect 3

tan
2

tia
te
5
(View) (Model)
Java Bean
Response JSP 4

Servlet Container (EIS)

25

A Model 2 architecture introduces a controller servlet between

the browser and the JSP pages.

The controller centralizes the logic for dispatching requests to the

next view based on the request URL, input parameters, and
application state. The controller also handles view selection,
which de-couples JSP pages and servlets from one another.

Model 2 applications are easier to maintain and extend, because

views do not refer to each other directly. The Model 2 controller
servlet provides a single point of control for security and logging,
and often encapsulates incoming data into a form usable by the
back-end MVC model.

For these reasons, the Model 2 architecture is recommended for

most web applications.

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08/02/2006

Why Model 2 Architecture?

? What if you want to present different JSP pages
depending on the data you receive?
– JSP technology alone even with JavaBeans and custom
tags (Model 1) cannot handle it well
? Solution
– Use Servlet and JSP together (Model 2)
– Servlet handles initial request, partially process the
data, set up beans, then forward the results to one of a
number of different JSP pages

26

I mentioned in previous slide, under Model 1 architecture, a view

selection is done by each JSP page. And this poses a maintenance
problem.

Now there is another limitation of using Model 1 architecture. In

many cases, you want to select JSP pages depending on the data
you received from the client. This means there has to be some
software entity that handles the processing of the data and then
selection of the view. And JSP is not really a good place that you
can put this programming logic.

So what is the solution? Model 2 architecture. In Model 2

architecture, both servlet and JSP are used together. In other
words, Servlet handles initial request, partially process the data,
then forward the results to different JSP pages.

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08/02/2006

Servlet-centric Architecture
? JSP pages are used only for presentation
– Control and application logic handled by a servlet (or
set of servlets)
? Servlet serves as a gatekeeper
– Provides common services, such as authentication,
authorization, login, error handling, and etc
? Servlet serves as a central controller
– Act as a state machine or an event dispatcher to decide upon
the appropriate logic to handle the request
– Performs redirecting

27

In servlet-centric architecture, JSP pages are used only for presentation and
control and business process are handled by a servlet or a set of servlets.

So here, this servlet serves as a gatekeeper providing common services

such as authentication, logging, translation, and transformation for all
incoming requests.

This servlet also serves as a central controller acting as a state machine or

event dispatcher to decide upon appropriate logic to handle the request. It
also performs the redirecting the request.

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08/02/2006

How many Servlets in Servlet-

centric Approach?
? It depends on the granularity of your
application
– One master Servlet
– One servlet per use case or business function
– Combination of the two
? master servlet handles common function (i.e.

common login) for all business functions

? master servlet then delegates to child servlets for

further gatekeeping tasks

28

One question people ask is who many servlets are desired to build servlet-
centric architecture. The answer is of course “it depends”. It depends on
the granularity of your application. For a simple application, you could
have a single master servlet that handles everything or you could have
multiple servlets each of which handles different business function. Or
you could build a combination of these two approach in which you have a
master servlet that handles common functions such as common login for all
business functions and then delegate to child servlets for further
processing.

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08/02/2006

Servlet-centric Scenario
View
search.html
Request 1

response list.jsp
Client
Model
response

forward

JavaBeans

Request 2
Controller

Request 3
servlet

29

This picture shows servlet-centric scenario. Here the role of controller is

played by a single (or a set of) servlets.

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08/02/2006

Dispatching and Saving

Data in both Model 1 and
Model 2 Architectures
30

Now let's see some techniques you can use for dispatching and saving data in
model 1 and model 2 architectures.

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08/02/2006

Flow Control: Dispatching Requests

? How to control the flow?
? String url="relativeURL";
RequestDispatcher dispatch =
request.getRequestDispatcher(url);
//OR
String url="abosluteURL"
RequestDispatcher dispatch = getServletContext().
getRequestDispatcher(url);

? Use forward or include methods:

– Call forward to completely transfer control to
destination page
– Call include to insert output of destination page
and then continue on
31

So in a servlet, how do you perform the delegation, that is dispatching

requests? (This is something we already learned when we talk about
advanced servlet in “J2EE programming” class.)

You can call “forward” to completely transfer control to destination page.

Or you can call “include” to insert output of the destination page and then
continue on.

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08/02/2006

Storing Data in a JavaBean in

Request
? Store data that servlet looked up and that JSP
will use in thisrequest
? Sevlet: store data
BeanClass value = new BeanClass(..)
request.setAtrribute("bean", value)
? JSP: retrieve data
<jsp: useBean id=”bean” class=”BeanClass”
scope=”request”/>

32

This slide shows how servlet stores data in a JavaBean and then saves it as
a Request scope variable from which JSP page will later retrieves data.

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Storing Data in Session

? Store data that servlet looked up and that JSP
will use in this request and in later requests from
the same client
? Sevlet: store data
BeanClass value = new BeanClass(..);
HttpSession session=request.getSession(true);
session.setAttribute("bean", value);
? JSP: retrieve data
<jsp:useBean id = "bean" class="BeanClass"
scope="session" />

33

This slide shows how servlet stores data in a JavaBean and then saves it as
a session scope variable from which JSP page will later retrieves data.

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Storing Data in Servlet Context

? Store data that servlet looked up and that JSP
will use in this request and in later requests
from the any client
? Sevlet: store data
BeanClass value = mew BeanClass(..);
getServletContext().setAttribute("bean, value);
? JSP: retrieve data
<jsp:useBean id = "bean" class="BeanClass"
scope="application" />

34

This slide shows how servlet stores data in a JavaBean and then saves it as
an application context scope variable from which JSP page will later
retrieves data.

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When to Use Model 1 or

Model 2?
35

Even though most relatively sophisticated Web applications are expected to use
Model 2 architecture, let's compare them here anyway.

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Model 1 (Page-centric)
? May encourage spaghetti JSP pages
– Business logic may get lost in the display pages
? Use JavaBeans or custom tags that captures

business logic (instead of scriptlets)

– Page selection is done by each page
? JSPs are harder to debug than straight Java
code:
– Result in a failed compilation and a long list of
useless compiler errors referring to the auto-
generated code

36

One issue with Model 1 architecture is that because the page selection is
done by each JSP page and business logic processing is done within JSP
pages, it may encourage spaghetti JSP pages. The recommended approach
if you are going to use page-centric approach is to capture business logic in
the form of JavaBeans or custom tags.

In general, JSP pages are easier to write than servlets but it is harder to
debug since the actual code is generated by the JSP compiler.

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08/02/2006

Model 2 (Servlet-centric)
? Loosens the coupling between the pages and
improves the abstraction between presentation
and application logic
– Use JSPs for pure data display and input collection
activities
– Most of the business logic can be debugged
through the servlet before passed to JavaBeans and
JSP

37

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08/02/2006

Best Practice Guideline

? Factor out the business logic into business
objects and complex display logic into view
objects
– Improves reusability, maintainability, unit testing
and regression testing.

38

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08/02/2006

How Do I Decide?
? Use page-centric
– If the application is simple enough that links from page to
page.
?
Use servlet-centric
– Each link or button click requires a great deal of processing and
decision-making about what should be displayed next.
? “How mapping between requests and responses
are done” can help you to decide
– Each request maps to one and only one response
? No need for controller.
– Each request spawns a great deal of logic and a variety of
different views can result
? A servlet is ideal 39

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08/02/2006

Web Application
Frameworks
40

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08/02/2006

Web Application Frameworks

? Based on MVC Model 2 architecture
? Web-tier applications share common set of
functionality
– Dispatching HTTP requests
– Invoking model methods
– Selecting and assembling views
? Provide classes and interfaces that can be
used/extended by developers

41

Now as people are gaining more experience, they found that most Model 2
architecture based web applications share a common set of functionality.
For example, they all do receive and dispatch HTTP requests, invoking
model methods, selecting and assembling views.

Well, if everybody is doing the same thing over and over every time they
write Model 2 based application, then people thought why don't we create
a common framework that support these set of functionality so only thing
you have to do is basically using or extending the frameworks using
common interface and classes.

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08/02/2006

Why Web Application Framework?

? De-coupling of presentation tier and business logic into
separate components
?
Provides a central point of control
? Provides rich set of features
? Facilitates unit-testing and maintenance
? Availability of compatible tools
? Provides stability
? Enjoys community-supports
? Simplifies internationalization
?
Simplifies input validation

42

In a more concrete terms, these are the benefits of using a common Web
application frameworks. Framework decouples presentation tier from
business logic, which would be useful for maintenance and reusability
of the code. It provides a central point of control. Popular frameworks
also come with other extra features

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08/02/2006

Why Web Application Framework?

? Frameworks have evolved with Java Server
technology
? JSP/Servlets are still hard to use
? Frameworks define re-usable components
to make this job easier.
? A good framework defines how components
work to create a usable application.

43

(read the slide)

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08/02/2006

Web Application Frameworks

? Apache Struts
? JavaServer Faces (JSR-127)
– A server side user interface component framework for
JavaTM technology-based web applications
? Echo
? Tapestry

44

Now one of the most popular Web application framework is Apache

Struts. Sun ONE Application framework has also popular.

Now Java community is almost done with JavaServer Faces (JSR-127)

and this will unify all existing web application frameworks such as
Struts and Sun ONE application framework into a single standard web
application framework.

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08/02/2006

Struts and JSF

? Struts is a very popular web application
framework
– Includes tag library for HTML presentation (overlapping area
with JSF)
? Struts-Faces Integration Library
– Use JSF component model for new UI components
– A few Struts-specific components / renderers
– Replace use of Struts HTML tags
– Maintain investment in Struts business logic

45

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08/02/2006

How It Fits Together

JSF S1AF
JSTL
Struts
JSP ™
java bean, expression
lang.,custom tag lib

Servlet
session tracking, filtering, listener
08/02/2006

Passion!

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