Doing the same thing from different views

Question

I have an MVC app, which has multiple views that give overviews (from different angles) on items.

For now, let's just call these views

• View1
• View2
• ...
• ViewX

They all use the same Model Collection as a basis

As of now I have one controller per view (View1Controller, View2Controller, ...), and furthermore, I have ItemEditView and ItemEditController for the item edit window.

When certain interactions occur inside the numbered views, the same actions have to be done:

• Action Chain 1: Boil down the clicked position/button to two values, check whether these two values allow to make a new item, if so, open the ItemEditView to create a new item.
• Action Chain 2: Check whether this item may be shown, if so, open ItemEditView to edit the item.
• Action Chain 3: Check whether this item may be changed, if so, update it based on the position it was dragged to.

How would I best split this into functions and controllers?

As of now, the function View2Controller.ItemClicked() calculates some additional parameters required by View1Controller, and then calls View1Controller.ItemClicked()... I guess this is a terrible mess, but where would I put common functions of all ViewXControllers?

Or should I put all functions of all the Views into a common controller?

Answer 1

If I understand this correctly, you are describing a composition rather than distinct views.

1. There is a item which can be clicked and which opens a edit view.
2. There is a view which contains the item and decides if editing of the item is allowed.
3. There is a view which contains the item and performs model modifications without opening a edit view.

I don't know if the framework you work with allows this kind of composition, but this is how I would design this: The item itself consists of a view and controller and handles the clicking and opening a edit view. The second view enables/disables the item based on rules if the item may be edited. The third view disables editing for the item and only uses it for displaying data.