Web-application development using the Model/View/Controller design pattern

Abstract

The Model/View/Controller design pattern is very useful for architecting interactive software systems. This design pattern is partition-independent, because it is expressed in terms of an interactive application running in a single address space. Applying the Model/View/Controller design pattern to web-applications is therefore complicated by the fact that current technologies encourage developers to partition the application as early as in the design phase. Subsequent changes to that partitioning require considerable changes to the application's implementation-despite the fact that the application logic has not changed. This paper introduces the concept of Flexible Web-Application Partitioning, a programming model and implementation infrastructure, that allows developers to apply the Model/View/Controller design pattern in a partition-independent manner Applications are developed and tested in a single address-space; they can then be deployed to various client/server architectures without changing the application's source code. In addition, partitioning decisions can be changed without modifying the application.