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my GAE app is currently setup with the following filenames

  1. main.py (2 main models and logic for creating and updating the models)
  2. i18n.py (user interface logic how to view objects with i18n)
  3. reports.py (cron-based reporting script)

I think the names are clear enough but I am considering to follow a model-view-controller pattern so renaming these three files to model.py view.py controller.py is what I consider an option to follow a more standardized convention. Do you agree that this type of modularlization towards a MVC convention is the reasonable way to go in this case, do you need more information what's my app: I've got a lot of code that's functional towards the user which is code I feel is right to refactor in a way that follows a generally accepted design pattern such as MVC, publisher-subscriber, factory and more. In this case I think the MVC design pattern is appropriate. Do you agree or suggest other code and data treatment? Thanks for any comments and discussion.

Niklas Rosencrantz
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    Just a piece of advice: don't rewrite things *just* to rewrite them. The way this question is posed makes it seem like you just want to refactor so it looks more like other apps. Are you planning additions that require refactoring? – André Caron May 17 '11 at 18:04
  • Thank you for the answer. I'm planning doing this mostly for readability and so that new developers quickly can grasp which part containts which code. – Niklas Rosencrantz May 18 '11 at 04:05

1 Answers1

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You are miss-understanding MVC. Model, View, Controler is in three parts.

Model - contains the business logic. Knows how to read/write to the database. View - Contains the display logic. Knows how to fetch data from model and display it to the user. Controller - understands user gestures, loads/finds the correct model and view and tells them what to do.

(In a web environment, the view should unpack the data from POSTs, and the model should validate it).

You have M and C in main.py, and propably V in i18n.py and main.py (hard to tell). The cron-run reports are external to MVC.

Just renaming the files will not gain you anything, but will confuse any other maintainer.

If you are proposing to make significant changes to your code without a test suit to proptect you from introducing errors, then I must point out that such an action is not wise.

Ian
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  • Thank you for the answer. It's since it's hard to tell where a put the display logic (view) that I want to refactor to following a pattern. Also new developers can get more quickly introduced to the project if it's built following a standard they recognize. – Niklas Rosencrantz May 18 '11 at 04:09