Question

In our setup, we have models+mappers for all db objects. Then there are controller actions which prepare model objects for respective actions based on business logic.

We have send entire model object to the view and if view (html) wants to show first name, it can call $obj->getFirstName() or if some other view (pdf) can even call $obj->getFullName(). Is this how it is supposed to be done?

What if country was left empty and the view ignorantly calls $obj->getCountry()->getISO3Code() will be fatal since getCountry() returned false instead of a expected country object.

One option is to bother the view with IF.. etc so it is made safe. but does it not defeat the purpose that views should be dump without logic? or maybe I over stressed it.

should we send the entire model object to the view (as now) or safely prepare and send a array of viewable fields? It kinda it makes the action to be aware how PDF view looks like and html view looks like, again maybe defeating controllers purpose.

Answer 1

I confess that I struggle with the same question. When the controller/action sets values in the view – $this->view->someKey = 'someValue' – then there is an implicit expectation that that the controller is aware of what the view requires. I guess the general idea is that this is ok; the view is responsible for how to render the data it is passed.

There is nothing wrong with using if statements inside your view-scripts. It is pretty common to see something like:

<?php if ($someCondition): ?>
<!-- some markup here -->
<?php endif; ?>

in a view-script. For example, take a look at the partials associated to a pagination control.

I have created view-model objects – kind of a read-only version of my model intended for use in a view – that permits me to do things in a view-script that are a bit cleaner. For example, you could have a view-model object with a method like hasCountry(), so that your view-script could do something like:

<?php if ($viewmodel->hasCountry()): ?>
<p>Country: <?= $model->getCountry()->getISO3Code() ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

Kind of a trivial example, but for more complex logic about the entity I am trying to render, I find that a view-model like this provides a home for some of that rendering-specific logic that doesn’t feel right in the controller and seems a bit complex for a view-script.