The Model-View-Controller
The Model-View-Controller pattern is an architectural pattern that encourages strict isolation between the individual parts of an application. This isolation is better known as separation of concerns, or, in more general terms, “loose coupling.” Virtually all aspects of MVC—and, consequently, the ASP.NET MVC Framework—are driven by this goal of keeping disparate parts of an application isolated from each other. Architecting applications in a loosely coupled manner brings a number of both short and long-term benefits:
Development
Individual components do not directly depend on other components, which means that they can be more easily developed in isolation. Components can also be readily replaced or substituted, preventing complications in one component from affecting the development of other components with which it may interact.
Testability
Loose coupling of components allows test implementations to stand in for “production” components. This makes it easier to, say, avoid making calls to a database, by replacing the component that makes database calls with one that simply returns static data. The ability for components to be easily swapped with mock representations greatly facilitates the testing process, which can drastically increase the reliability of the system over time.
Maintenance
Isolated component logic means that changes are typically isolated to a small number of components—often just one. Since the risk of change generally correlates to the scope of the change, modifying fewer components is a good thing!
