What are the main advantages of MVC pattern over the old fashioned 3-layer pattern

Question

I am contemplating about using an MVC pattern in my new project and I can clearly see the main advantage of being able to put the data layer (the model) a little closer to the presentation layer (the view), which will allow a little increase in application speed. But apart from performance stand point are there any other advantages of MVC over the view-logic-data layered type pattern?

EDIT: For those who's interested I just uploaded a sample PHP code that I created to test the use of MVC. I purposly omitted all the security checks to make the code a little easier to read. Please don't critisize it too much, because I know it could be a lot more refined and advanced, but nevertheless - it works!!! I will welcome questions and suggestions: Here is the link: http://www.sourcecodester.com/sites/default/files/download/techexpert/test_mvc.zip

Answer 1

The separation of concerns that's quoted as being an advantage of MVC is actually also an advance of a 3-layer/3-tier system. There too, the business logic is independent and can be used from different presentation tiers.

A main difference is that in classic MVC the model can have a reference back to the view. This means when data is updated the model can push this data back to possibly multiple views. The prime example is a desktop application where data is visualized in multiple ways. This can be as simple as a table and graph. A change in the table (which is a change in one view) is first pushed via the controller to the model, which then pushes it back to the graph (the other view). The graph then updates itself.

Since desktop development is on the decline, a lot of programmers have only come in touch with MVC in some web variant, e.g. via JSF in Java EE.

In those cases the model almost never has a reference to the view. This is because the web is mainly request/response based and after a request has been served, the server cannot send additional information. I.e. an update pushed from the model to the client would be meaningless. With reverse ajax/comet this is changing, but many web based MVC frameworks still don't fully utilize this.

Thus, in the case of web based MVC, the typical "triangle" between M, V and C is less there and that MVC variant is actually closer to an n-tier model than 'true' MVC is.

Also note that some web MVC frameworks have an intermediate plumbing part between M, V and C called a backing bean (Java/JSF) or code behind (ASP.NET). In JSF the controller is provided by the framework, and the view often doesn't bind directly to the model but uses this backing bean as an intermediary. The backing bean is very slim and basically just pre-fetches data from the model one way and translates model specific messages (e.g. exceptions) into view specific messages (e.g. some human readable text).

Answer 2

Beside

• code reuse,
• separating of concerns,
• less coupling between the layers,

already mentioned by @bakoyaro and @arjan

i think that MVC is better than 3-tier when combined with the "convention over configuration" pattern. (i.e. "ruby on rails" or Microsofts "MVC for asp.net").

In my opinion this combination leads to to better and easier code maintanance.

In the first place it makes learning the mvc-framework a bit more difficuilt since you have to learn the conventions (a la controllers go into the controllers folder and must be named xxxxxcontroller)

But after you learned the conventions it is easier to maintain your own and foreign code.

Answer 3

Forget increasing application speed by moving to MVC. I have found the biggest benefit to be ease of code reuse. Once you move to MVC, there are no dependencies on the presentation of your data or the storage of the actual data.

For example you could write a servlet that served up .jsp pages as your presentation layer one day, and the next day write a web service as another presentation layer to your existing Model and Controller. Like wise if you want or need to switch your DBMS. Since accessing the Model is completely separate from everything else, you would just need to re-write just your data access objects to return the data in a way your Controller can handle it.

By separating concerns into 3 distinct pieces, you also facilitate true unit testing. Your Presentation layer can be tested free of the Model or Controller, and vice-a-versa.

On a side note, I've often felt that the MVC abbreviation was inaccurate. Whenever I see it I think of it as View->Controller->Model. The presentation layer will never have DAO code in it, and the model will never have presentation logic in it. The Controller is forced to act as a go-between.

Answer 4

Where 3-tier separates presentation from business and data access, MVC is a presentation layer pattern which further separates Model (data) from View (screen) and Controller (input).

There is no choosing MVC over 3-tier/3-layered. Use them both.