• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Tim Cooke
  • paul wheaton
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
Sheriffs:
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Tim Holloway
  • Roland Mueller
Bartenders:

When using JavaFX, what replaces MVC?

 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 271
1
Android Eclipse IDE Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
When using JavaFX, I have been applying the MVC architecture but getting some online advice that MVC is "dead" and not to use it.

Working thru books and when looking up Oracle's demos and samples for guidance, the codes that used to be in Controller are now together with the Modal and View i.e. the user interacts with the GUI and the setOnAction bits are all in the same class

In eclipse, with the e(fx)lipse and Scene Builder add-ons, the MVC architecture is still used and I can drag-and-drop with Scene Builder to create the .fxml document

So use MVC or not use MVC?

If not, then use what?
 
Bartender
Posts: 15737
368
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Well, seeing as you got advice from someone to not use MVC, what did they tell you to use?
 
AhFai Chan
Ranch Hand
Posts: 271
1
Android Eclipse IDE Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Nothing, they just canned it.
I've been working with it on and off for the last weeks and am getting used to its complexity, so I'll stick with it.
 
Marshal
Posts: 80230
424
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
. . . and who gave you that advice? As Stephan implies, it appears dubious.
 
Sheriff
Posts: 28368
99
Eclipse IDE Firefox Browser MySQL Database
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

AhFai Chan wrote:Working thru books and when looking up Oracle's demos and samples for guidance, the codes that used to be in Controller are now together with the Modal and View i.e. the user interacts with the GUI and the setOnAction bits are all in the same class



Yes, it's quite common for Swing code (and now JavaFX code too) to have controller code and GUI code intermingled. Or at least, to appear that way; for example code creating a GUI component is obviously part of the View, but then you might add a listener to the GUI component. The code inside that listener is part of the Controller, as it's going to interact with the Model or the View or both, but it does appear to be in the same class. You can make the point that the listener code is in an anonymous inner class, which is separate from the class which contains it, but when you change the anonymous inner class to a lambda expression then it's harder to believe that.

You could be fastidious about MVC and require that the listener should do nothing but call some code which is in a class defined as "Controller" code in the architecture. For example, create a separate class which implements whatever listener and then use an instance of that class. Personally I haven't done that very much, I just mentally note that the listener code is part of the Controller.

Also, a lot of the tutorials were written before the developers of Java were really into architecture; some of the older ones include bad practices (like extending JFrame) which are still imitated by beginners who read those tutorials. Well-architected code takes more work to write and results in a lot more classes. For example consider Java's first try at date-handling: there was basically Date, Calendar, and TimeZone and a few other supporting classes. When the architects got through redesigning that horribly flawed set of classes they produced the java.time package with its 15 classes along with four other packages for non-standard time systems, date and time formatting, working with date and time components, and time zones. I count 39 classes in total plus a non-trivial number of interfaces and enums.
 
AhFai Chan
Ranch Hand
Posts: 271
1
Android Eclipse IDE Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
@Paul Clapham
Thanks, you have made the whole architecture more palatable for me. I am getting used to it and I will really just do what works... even if the coding does not strictly conform to the architecture.
 
Saloon Keeper
Posts: 28472
210
Android Eclipse IDE Tomcat Server Redhat Java Linux
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The reason Model/View/Controller architecture became so popular was that it provided Separation of Concerns. This makes creation and maintenance easier/cheaper/faster because when you need something, you don't have to launch a "treasure hunt" all over the application source code tree to find out where things are done.

Pure MVC is actually pretty much useless. All MVC is responsible for is ensuring that the data presented in the View matches its corresponding values in the Model and vice versa. At some point in the Real World, however, you're going to need something to load up the model and/or take what's in it and Do Something with it - business logic and/or persistence.

What you call that extra stuff is up to you. Ideally, that's all going to be in its own set of classes and the Model classes, the View classes and the Controller classes should be distinct. That maximizes your flexibility, since true MVC doesn't require a 1/1 relationship between Models and Views (my favorite example is a display where one or Models serve as the source data for simultaneous spreadsheet and chart Views). Plus Separation of Concerns also means that code is more likely to be re-usable and that you are more likely to be able to use an Inversion of Control framework (such as Spring) to wire together components.

There are basically 2 ways to construct a View. Some systems, such as JavaServer Faces, Android, and the archetypal Macintoshâ„¢ GUI system allow you to define the View via a static templating facility. That is, you have a Domain Specific Language (View Definition Language - VDL or View Template Language - VTL) that is designed to speed the graphic design, make the layout more obvious, and allow compile-type checking of the definition. Other systems, such as Swing, require you to do it all the hard way. The net result, however is the same.

A VDL template virtually mandates Separation of Concerns, since it's a completely separate language from the language used by the Model code. Some horrible examples why templates are preferable can be seen in legacy ASP and PHP web pages. They give IDEs fits, and since they're doing 2 different things, the code is twice as long. For frameworks where GUI elements are built in code, it's still a good idea to keep Model and View code apart, however. As I said, it's more flexible and you are less likely to have annoying coupling effects between GUI and Model functions.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution, When your components are small and simple, it's more annoying than useful to split everything out in excruciating detail. But as complexity grows, it's nice to be organized.

Now you'll have to excuse me. I need to ransack my office and try and find something that doesn't have a standard place to keep it.
 
AhFai Chan
Ranch Hand
Posts: 271
1
Android Eclipse IDE Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thank-you all, for the explanations on the pros and cons of MVC.
This is a feel-good piece
 
If I'd had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. -T.S. Eliot such a short, tiny ad:
Smokeless wood heat with a rocket mass heater
https://woodheat.net
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic