Model-View-Controller
The MVC pattern simply is broken down into 3 main parts:
- Model — Models hold onto application data (typically in the form of structs or simple classes)
- View — Views communicate to their controller via IBActions
- View Controller — Controllers coordinate between models and views
Important to Note
- Models and views should not hold strong references to their owning controller because this would cause a retain cycle
- Use the MVC design pattern as a starting point and be open to implementing other patterns as you build your app
Code
- When implementing a MVC design pattern, it’s convenient to organize your app bundle’s files with a Model, View, and Controller directory.
Model
- I created a simple struct that represents a single programmer
View
- I created an IBOutlet for each of the properties I have in the Programmer model
- I set the class of the default UIView element to the view I set-up programmatically (ProgrammerView).
- I dragged 3 UITextFields from our Object Library and placed it within the UIView.
- Go ahead and connect the 3 UITextFields with the IBOutlets using the Connection Inspector of the UIView.
- Make sure to set Auto Layout constraints for your UI elements.
Controller
- In your main view controller, you can hold a strong reference to the view and model that it owns.
- It’s the controller’s job to coordinate between the model and view → In this case, the controller should update its view using the values from the model.
- If a programmer is set after viewDidLoad() is called, the controller should update ProgrammerView → You can use a didSet to accomplish this.
- This is an example of how the model can tell the controller that something has changed and that the view needs updating.
- Conversely, this is an example of how the view can tell the controller that something has changed and the model needs updating.
- I connected the IBAction to all three of the textfields in Main.storyboard.
- To see the IBAction work with a UITextField, I connected each of the textfields to the same IBAction with an Editing Changed event.
Cautions
1. Not every object fits into a category of a model, view, or controller
2. Be-ware of the “Massive-View-Controller” or view controllers growing too big
3. Feel free to use other design patterns to build on top of MVC
Conclusion
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If you have any questions or comments, please don’t feel afraid to ask or connect with me on social media! You can also send me an email at jkim@cloudiosx.com
