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Asked: 2026-05-23T17:41:15+00:00

I need help clarifying the correct structure and process flow for an MVC application

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I need help clarifying the correct structure and process flow for an MVC application in PHP.

I think I’ve got the concept round the wrong way because currently most of my processing is done (or at least initiated by) the Views. — I kind of inherited this way of thinking from the company I’m working for, but now I’m not sure that they are understanding the MVC model correctly!

Having looked at it again I think that the proccess should be as follows (very basicly):

  • The users actions are sent to the Controller
  • The Controller process those actions using any Models required
  • The Controller then instantiates the relevent View and passes the required data to it
  • The View renders the page to the user

I’m also having some difficulty deciding wether the view should even have any real functionality in it or not.

i.e. Is it just a wrapper to hold the page data and load the required template files (header, page, footer etc.), OR should any functions to do with rendering data (i.e. preparing HTML and outputting HTML) be in the View?

Another question is does the controller ‘hand over’ to the model and have nothing to do with the actual DBconn (so that the Model acts like a Bouncer on the doors of the DB nightclub, and we’re not on the list) OR does the controller ‘own’ the DBconn and simply lends it to a model when it needs it?

I’d really appreciate any help and advice anyone can offer.

Thanks

edit — I found this helpful!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I’ll answyer to your two last questions:

    1) The Views should have basic output capabilities, for example escaping values to avoid security issues or display a html table starting from a list of objects. Another responsibility could be the translation of labels and other constant values (for example you could have $this->_(‘Your label’) where function _($val) is a function included in all your view classes that translates the strings starting from a csv file).

    2) Depending on the complexity application, you could have two sub-layers in the model layer. The upper layer is the classic model with the functionality of your entities. The lower level is the resource model class associated that performs the db operations. You could also have a single layer with your models that implements the DAO pattern. Anyway, the controller shouldn’t have nothing to do with db connection.

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