J2EE Design Patterns 2 Front Controller（前端控制器）

表示层请求的统一入口，content retrieval, view management, and navigation。

 

Problem

 

• Each view is required to provide its own system services, often resulting in duplicate code.

• View navigation is left to the views. This may result in commingled view content and view navigation.
• Additionally, distributed control is more difficult to maintain, since changes will often need to be made in numerous places.

 

 

Solution

Use a controller as the initial point of contact for handling a request. The controller manages the handling of the request, including invoking security services such as authentication and authorization, delegating business processing, managing the choice of an appropriate view, handling errors, and managing the selection of content creation strategies.

 

Typically, a controller coordinates with a dispatcher component. Dispatchers are responsible for view management and navigation. Thus, a dispatcher chooses the next view for the user and vectors control to the resource. Dispatchers may be encapsulated within the controller directly or can be extracted into a separate component.

 

An application may use multiple controllers in a system, each mapping to a set of distinct services.

 

 

Controller

The controller is the initial contact point for handling all requests in the system. The controller may delegate to a helper to complete authentication and authorization of a user or to initiate contact retrieval.

Dispatcher

A dispatcher is responsible for view management and navigation, managing the choice of the next view to present to the user, and providing the mechanism for vectoring control to this resource.

A dispatcher can be encapsulated within a controller or can be a separate component working in coordination. The dispatcher provides either a static dispatching to the view or a more sophisticated dynamic dispatching mechanism.

The dispatcher uses the RequestDispatcher object (supported in the servlet specification) and encapsulates some additional processing.

Helper

A helper is responsible for helping a view or controller complete its processing. Thus, helpers have numerous responsibilities, including gathering data required by the view and storing this intermediate model, in which case the helper is sometimes referred to as a value bean. Additionally, helpers may adapt this data model for use by the view. Helpers can service requests for data from the view by simply providing access to the raw data or by formatting the data as Web content.

A view may work with any number of helpers, which are typically implemented as JavaBeans components (JSP 1.0+) and custom tags (JSP 1.1+). Additionally, a helper may represent a Command object, a delegate (see "Business Delegate" on page 248), or an XSL Transformer, which is used in combination with a stylesheet to adapt and convert the model into the appropriate form.

View

A view represents and displays information to the client. The view retrieves information from a model. Helpers support views by encapsulating and adapting the underlying data model for use in the display.

 

Finally, because the command processing is not coupled to the command invocation, the command processing mechanism may be reused with various types of clients, not just with Web browsers. 

Controller拿到request，交给相应的command，处理完之后给Dispatcher分发。

 

 

Multiplexed Resource Mapping Strategy

This is actually a substrategy of Logical Resource Naming Strategy. This strategy maps not just a single logical name, but an entire set of logical names, to a single physical resource. For example, a wildcard mapping might map all requests that end with .ctrl to a specific handler.

A request and mapping might look as shown in Table 7-1.

Table 7-1

Request	Mapping
http://some.server.com/action.ctrl	*.ctrl = servletController

 

 

Consequences

• Centralizes Control
  A controller provides a central place to handle system services and business logic across multiple requests. A controller manages business logic processing and request handling. Centralized access to an application means that requests are easily tracked and logged. Keep in mind, though, that as control centralizes, it is possible to introduce a single point of failure. In practice, this rarely is a problem, though, since multiple controllers typically exist, either within a single server or in a cluster.

• Improves Manageability of Security
  A controller centralizes control, providing a choke point for illicit access attempts into the Web application. In addition, auditing a single entrance into the application requires fewer resources than distributing security checks across all pages.
• Improves Reusability
  A controller promotes cleaner application partitioning and encourages reuse, as code that is common among components moves into a controller or is managed by a controller.

Related Patterns

• View Helper 
  The Front Controller pattern, in conjunction with the View Helper pattern, describes factoring business logic out of the view and providing a central point of control and dispatch. Flow logic is factored forward into the controller and data handling code moves back into the helpers.

• Intercepting Filter
  Both Intercepting Filter and Front Controller describe ways to centralize control of certain types of request processing, suggesting different approaches to this issue.
• Dispatcher View and Service to Worker 
  The Dispatcher View and Service to Worker patterns are another way to name the combination of the View Helper pattern with a dispatcher, and Front Controller pattern. Dispatcher View and Service to Worker, while structurally the same, describe different divisions of labor among components.

 

经过过滤器处理后的请求交给Front Controller，来继续进行一些请求的必要处理。

Controller根据请求的参数将请求发给Helper或command。经过处理后再有Dispatcher分发给不同的View。

好处是分层清晰明确，易于维护。