b-holanda Make MVC Web Service
MVC is a software architecture pattern that separates an application into three primary responsibilities: Model, View, and Controller. This separation improves maintainability, testability, and clarity when the application grows beyond a single script or page.
- Model: Owns data structures, persistence-facing behavior, and business rules. A model may represent a domain concept, persisted entity, value object, or read model depending on the framework and application style.
- View: Presents data to the user. A view can be an HTML template, UI component, page, partial, or response representation.
- Controller: Receives input, invokes application behavior, and selects the response. Controllers should remain thin and delegate business workflows to models, services, or use-case handlers.
Core Practices
- Separate Responsibilities: Keep data behavior, presentation, and request handling in their own layers.
- Keep Controllers Thin: Controllers should bind input, call services or model operations, and return a response.
- Use View Models or DTOs: Pass purpose-built data structures between layers instead of exposing persistence entities everywhere.
- Validate at Boundaries: Validate request input before it reaches business logic, and validate domain invariants inside the domain or service layer.
- Use Repositories Deliberately: Introduce repositories when persistence details need to be isolated from business logic or controllers.
- Use Services for Workflows: Use a service layer when a use case coordinates multiple models, repositories, policies, or external integrations.
- Avoid Business Logic in Views: Views should render data and simple display conditions, not enforce business workflows.
- Handle Errors Consistently: Map validation, not-found, authorization, conflict, and unexpected errors through predictable framework conventions.
- Secure by Default: Use server-side validation, output escaping, CSRF protection, access control, and parameterized queries.
- Test by Layer: Unit test models and services, integration test controllers and repositories, and add end-to-end tests for critical user flows.
- Externalize Configuration: Store environment-specific settings and secrets outside the codebase.
- Document the Shape: Document routes, models, services, repositories, environment variables, and deployment assumptions when scaffolding a project.
MVC Fit Criteria
- Web Applications: MVC is a natural fit for applications that receive requests, load or change data, and render responses.
- Small to Medium Applications: MVC gives enough structure to prevent tangled code without requiring a heavy distributed architecture.
- Server-Rendered Applications: MVC works especially well for apps built around templates, forms, redirects, and route-based screens.
- Applications with Multiple Contributors: MVC gives developers clear areas of ownership across models, views, controllers, services, and repositories.
- Applications Expected to Grow: MVC makes it easier to add features without putting every concern in controllers or templates.
Reference Guides
- Controller Guidelines
- View Guidelines
- Model Binding Guidelines
- Service Layer Guidelines
- Repository Pattern Guidelines
- Database Guidelines
- Testing Guidelines
- Security Guidelines
- Environment Variables Guidelines
- Docker Guidelines