Model-view-controller

Model-view-controller (MVC) is an architectural pattern used in software engineering. Successful use of the pattern isolates business logic from user interface considerations, resulting in an application where it is easier to modify either the visual appearance of the application or the underlying business rules without affecting the other. In MVC, the Model represents the information (the data) of the application and the business rules used to manipulate the data, the View corresponds to elements of the user interface such as text, checkbox items, and so forth, and the Controller manages details involving the communication to the model of user actions such as keystrokes and mouse movements.

History
The pattern was first described in 1979 by Trygve Reenskaug, then working on Smalltalk at Xerox PARC. The original implementation is described in depth in the influential paper Applications Programming in Smalltalk-80: How to use Model-View-Controller.

Pattern description
It is common to split an application into separate layers: presentation (UI), domain logic, and data access. In MVC the presentation layer is further separated into view and controller. MVC encompasses more of the architecture of an application than is typical for a design pattern.

Model
The domain-specific representation of the information on which the application operates. Domain logic adds meaning to raw data (e.g., calculating if today is the user's birthday, or the totals, taxes, and shipping charges for shopping cart items).
Many applications use a persistent storage mechanism (such as a database) to store data. MVC does not specifically mention the data access layer because it is understood to be underneath or encapsulated by the Model.

View
Renders the model into a form suitable for interaction, typically a user interface element. Multiple views can exist for a single model for different purposes.

Controller
Processes and responds to events, typically user actions, and may invoke changes on the model.

MVC is often seen in web applications, where the view is the actual HTML page, and the controller is the code that gathers dynamic data and generates the content within the HTML. Finally, the model is represented by the actual content, usually stored in a database or XML files, and the business rules that transform that content based on user actions.

Though MVC comes in different flavors, control flow generally works as follows:

1. The user interacts with the user interface in some way (e.g. presses a button).
2. A controller handles the input event from the user interface, often via a registered handler or callback.
3. The controller notifies the model of the user action, possibly resulting in a change in the model's state. (e.g. controller updates user's Shopping cart).
4. A view uses the model (indirectly) to generate an appropriate user interface (e.g. the view produces a screen listing the shopping cart contents). The view gets its own data from the model. The model has no direct knowledge of the view.
5. The user interface waits for further user interactions, which begins the cycle anew.

By decoupling models and views, MVC helps to reduce the complexity in architectural design, and to increase flexibility and reuse.

Selected frameworks
GUI frameworks
Java: Java Swing
Java Swing is different from the other frameworks, in that it supports two MVC patterns:

Model
Frame level model-- Like other frameworks, the design of the real model is usually left to the developer.
Control level model-- Swing also supports models on the level of controls (elements of the graphical user interface). Unlike other frameworks, Swing exposes the internal storage of each control as a model.

View
The view is represented by a class that inherits from Component.

Controller
Java Swing doesn't necessarily use a single controller. Because its event model is based on interfaces, it is common to create an anonymous action class for each event. In fact, the real controller is in a separate thread (the Event dispatching thread). It catches and propagates the events to the view and model.

Combined frameworks
Java: Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE)
Unlike the other frameworks, Java EE defines a pattern for model objects.

Model
The model is commonly represented by entity beans, although the model can be created by a servlet using a business object framework such as Spring.

View
The view in a Java EE application may be represented by a Java Server Page, which may be currently implemented using JavaServer Faces Technology (JSF). Alternatively, the code to generate the view may be part of a servlet.

Controller
The controller in a Java EE application may be represented by a servlet, which may be currently implemented using JavaServer Faces (JSF).

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller