MVC in Java

This project aims to provide an MVC Java framework for you to use in your projects. If you want to see an example there is a simple and complete example about a scheduler in example folder.

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What is MVC?

Briefly, MVC (Model View Controller) is a design pattern widely used in projects because it leaves the project structured in order to facilitate the identification of application modules, understand how it is structured, in addition to facilitating maintenance. It structures the project in three modules:

Name	Funcion
Models	Responsible for business logic
View	Responsible for the visual part
Controllers	Responsible for the behavior of the visual part

This project is based on book Head First design patterns. Below are some illustrations from this book about how MVC works.

Nomenclature

This project adopted the following naming pattern:

Type	Name
Controller	<ControllerName>Controller
View	<ViewName>View

Note: This is just an adopted standard; if you do not like it, you can use another one.

How to use this structure in my project?

In src folder is all what you need to apply this pattern in your project.

How to create new models, views and controllers?

Models

Models should implement Model interface. This interface is like an observable and has three methods that must be implemented: "attach", "detach" and "notifyViews".

Views

Views should implement View interface. This interface just have one method that must be implemented: "update".

Controllers

Controllers should extend Controller class. This class has one method that must be implemented: "run".

Application execution

To execute the application just run Main class. It will execute HomeController (that will execute HomeView).

Classes and interfaces

core

Name	Type	Description
Controller	Abstract class	Contains the main frame of the application. All controllers must extend this
Model	Interface	Has behavior of a Observator. All model classes should implement this interface
View	Interface	Has behavior of a Observer. All view classes should implement this interface

controllers

Name	Type	Description
HomeController	Class	It will be responsible for HomeView behavior.

models

Name	Type	Description
Model1	Class	Example model

views

Name	Type	Description
HomeView	Class	Responsible for the look of application's main screen

Project organization

The MVC structure is in src folder. In it, there are three folders and one files.

/

Name	Type	Function
bin	Directory	Binary files (.class files)
example	Directory	Example of a project using mvc
media	Directory	Visual information
src	Directory	MVC framework
.classpath	File	IDE generated file
.project	File	IDE generated file

/src

Name	Type	Function
assets	Directory	Contains all application content files
controllers	Directory	Contains all application controller classes
core	Directory	Contains classes and interfaces essential for the functioning of the MVC structure
models	Directory	Contains all application model classes
views	Directory	Contains all application view classes
Main.java	File	Class responsible for starting the application

Example

To be clear how the framework works I made a small application that consists of a scheduler, being possible to create new events and see the ones already created. It is located in example folder.

References

• Freeman, Eric, Elisabeth Robson, Kathy Sierra, and Bert Bates. 2004. Head First design patterns. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.