Why should I use view models?

Question

I'm new to developing web apps using ASP.NET MVC. In fact, I'm rather new to developing web apps, regardless of technology.

Currently, I'm working on a project just to get to know the ASP.NET MVC framework better. When reading on SO and elsewhere on the internet, the consensus seems to be that the views should never deal directly with the business objects (i.e. objects implementing business logic and containing associated attributes). Instead, view models should be used. However, this introduces a couple of issues:

• Where do I put my validation code?
• I need to add code to map between business objects and view models.

In fact, it seems rather cumbersome and I haven't really seen anyone explaining properly why it's a bad idea passing business objects to the views. Could someone please try to explain this (or point to a good explanation)?

Just a clarification; I'm not looking for examples on how to handle the two issues with view models above but simply an explanation on why I should use view models at all.

Kant

Answer 1

Where do I put my validation code?

On the view models you should validate everything that's specific to the application like for example the date should be in en-US format culture, ....

I need to add code to map between business objects and view models.

That's why there are tools such as AutoMapper.

Different problems arise when you use directly your domain models in the views:

• The views have specific requirements for displaying the data (localization/globalization) so you either end up with spaghetti code in your views or you put this code on your models so that they become less reusable in other applications because you have polluted them with specific presentation stuff
• You have different validation requirements based on the view. Let's take for example the case of Add and Update views. In the Add view the Id property won't be needed and it won't be required because you will be inserting a new item. In the Update view the Id property would be required because you would be updating an existing item. It would be difficult to handle those specific validation rules without view models.

• The models might contain properties such as IsAdmin and then I am leaving to your imagination the implication of a controller action with the following signature:

  [HttpPost]
  public ActionResult CreateUser(BusinessObjectUser user) { ... } 
  

  assuming that you have hidden this property from the underlying form by not including it.

• The business models don't change often whereas the UI could change more often. What if your customer asks you to split your screen in two? The way you present the information changes and the way it is formatted also change. If you use your models directly into the views the spaghetiness of your views becomes worse and worse with every change.
• About 60% of the question I am answering on StackOverflow in the asp.net-mvc tag wouldn't have been asked if the OP have used a view model.

Abbotsun

Thanks for the reply but I wasn't really looking for an answer on how to handle those issues but I was rather looking for an explanation on why I should bother with view models to begin with. – Kant

Answer 2

Three reasons to why you should use View Models:

Reason 1: Remove logic from your Views

Reason two: Security

Reason three: Loose coupling

Below link may useful: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/223547/Three-reasons-to-why-you-should-use-view-models

Machinery

Answer 3

First off, allowing the Views to have direct access to the Business Objects in ASP.NET MVC introduces some extra security concerns. ASP.NET MVC does a lot of Model binding for you when a user posts a value back to your controller. This can open you up to various kinds of attacks. By introducing a View Model in between, you can be sure that only the fields you are interesting are bound (because the ViewModel will only contain the fields you care about).

As for the other questions:

Where do I put my validation code?

I use DataAnnotations on my ViewModels directly. That allows me to use the Model validation architecture built in to ASP.NET MVC. If there's any validation beyond that I handle it in my controller.

I need to add code to map between business objects and view models.

True. But using something like AutoMapper can greatly reduce the amount of boilerplate code that you have to write by hand.

Bedstead

Tools like AutoMapper help with transferring tghs – Steakhouse

Answer 4

MVC is easy to understand and has very little overhead. But those that have used the Model-View-Controller pattern for some time know that it isn't perfect. Not even close. The Model-View-ViewModel pattern offers an interesting alternative.

It is important to understand that the Model-View-ViewModel pattern extends the Model-View-Controller pattern. It isn't a dramatic paradigm shift if you are used to MVC. Even though the advantages of MVVM are subtle, they are profound.

What are some of the advantages MVVM has over MVC?

1. Better Separation of Concerns
2. Improved Testability
3. Transparent Communication

Desrosiers