Tonight I spent some time planning out UI Mapper integration into Codus. After doing a fair amount of thinking and planning, I came to a realization. I've seen what I'm working on described somewhere else! Problem is, I couldn't figure out where it was. Then I had a flashback to a conversation I had with Jason Bentley regarding UI for NTeam. During this conversation Jason mentioned a 'thing' called MVC. At the time I was a bit clueless as to what he was talking about, so I did a quick Google search and found that it was a pattern used for GUI's. I then pulled out my copy of Fowlers "Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture" that I had, at the time, just started reading. Wouldn't you know, starting on page 330, Fowler goes in to fairly in-depth coverage of a MVC definition, when to use it, and how. I skimmed it, and put the book down.

That leads me to tonight. Tonight I read through chapter 14, skimming parts, and realized, much of what I am attempting to accomplished is rather clearly defined in Fowlers book, chapter 14. The MVC model is already very clear. The Model is the object I want to build a UI for. The view is the final output that will be rendered based on the Model, for both Web and Win Forms (Web first). The controller is still a bit grey, however, it will come in due time.

As I read through chapter 14, I thought that I would also be implementing either the Template View(350) or the Transform View (361). Both have their respective Pros and Cons. As I continued reading, I found the actual pattern I will be implementing: Two Step View(361). This patterns essentially uses pieces from both Template View and Transform View, and merges them into one. Utilizing this pattern will give developers the most control over the UI created for them, while staying very intuitive, and easy to maintain. Potentially, a business user could update the UI for an application without getting a developer involved. However, that is not my goal at this point.

One concern I do have is how to keep Win Forms in mind. It is especially tough for me since I have never written a Win Forms application. Not even a simple "Hello World". Hopefully I can rely on others for guidance in this area for this project.

I'm really kind of kicking myself in the butt for not moving along faster with my reading of Fowlers book. I've been highly focused on OR Mapping patterns and Domain Logic patterns for the past month or so, that I've not read much further into this book.

I think it's time to move forward. How about you?