MVC framework and Parse

Question

Hello all, I wrote this question on SA and was hoping I could get some help from the treehouse forum as well.

In my app I have a TableViewController which controls all the Habit objects. So when they come in from Parse, I take each PFObject and make a new Habit object from it with their respective properties (name, current streak, date created, user who created it). After loading, the user might delete, edit, add new habits which leaves me question how I should handle all these modifications?

Should I keep going with my Habit objects and with every modification upload the changes to Parse or simple leave the Habit object out of it and deal with PFObjects which in turn leaves me to write less code for each modification.

An example:

When the user creates a new Habit, I can either create the new Habit object and the PFObject as follows:

Habit *habit = [Habit habitWithTitle:self.habitField.text];
habit.frequency = self.howOften;
habit.currentStreak = @0;

// add it to back end
PFObject *newHabit = [PFObject objectWithClassName:@"Habit"];
newHabit[@"name"] = self.habitField.text;
newHabit[@"currentStreak"] = @0;

or forget about Habit class and use PFObjects and pass those around:

PFObject *newHabit = [PFObject objectWithClassName:@"Habit"];
newHabit[@"name"] = self.habitField.text;
newHabit[@"frequency"] = self.howOften;
newHabit[@"currentStreak"] = @0;

Another example would be when deleting a habit from a tableViewCell swipe, I have to create the PFObject from the Habit object in order to send it to the back end, find it and delete it.

Where MVC comes in: It is my understanding that in this situation, the Habit object is the Model, the View is well the views and the controller is my class that manages the interaction between those two. Could my model be the PFObjects?

Answer 1 · 2014-05-11T04:19:34Z

May 11, 2014 4:19am

German,

If you are going to use Parse, I would suggest that you use the PFObjects that Parse provides rather then trying to maintain data in two differnet places. Creating your own objects will just cause you more work and syncronization issues as you mentioned in your post. Your model is the PFObjects which are just stored externally rather then on the device.

Parse provides a lot of support for this functionality, so be sure to read the documentation on creating/updating/deleting objects. Also, make sure to use the background processes when accessing data from Parse to keep the UI responsive. This can be challenging in that the processes are asynchronous so you do not know exactly when the task will be completed.

Answer 2 · 2014-05-11T04:35:30Z

May 11, 2014 4:35am

Thank you Dennis. I just wanted to make sure that it was OK to use PFObjects as my 'model'. Being a beginner makes me doubt myself.

Answer 3 · 2014-05-11T05:03:07Z

May 11, 2014 5:03am

German,

Questioning is a good practice, I am not an expert by any means. The MVC pattern does not specify where the model data is stored, just that you keep the view, the model, and the controller independent of each other. This allows each component to function without knowing the details of how the other components are implemented.

There are no absolute answers when using any pattern (MVC is one of many patterns), they are guidelines on how others have successfully solved similar problems while keeping the code encapsulated, flexible and extensible. There are always exceptions, you just need a really good reason for any exception, and your specific case my require some "alterations" to adapt the pattern. You an also checkout these texts on the subject of design patterns if you want to learn more:

Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

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German Espitia

German Espitia

MVC framework and Parse

3 Answers

Dennis Walsh

Dennis Walsh

German Espitia

German Espitia

Dennis Walsh

Dennis Walsh

German Espitia

German Espitia