CODEWITHSUNDEEP
springmodel-view-controllerformatting
acvcu
acvcu

Reputation: 2506

Where to format non-standardized data into a standard format (View, Service, or DAO layer)?

I am using Spring MVC for my presentation layer, and am also using Spring for my Service and DAO layers. Normally I would format data in the View layer of MVC (in my case JSPs), but what if the data that is retrieved from the database is not in a standardized format?

For instance, I am pulling phone numbers from one of my company's databases, but they could potentially be in any format (111)-555-1234 or 1115551234, etc. This seems like it would be too much functionality and processing to place in the JSP/View layer. I would prefer to put all of the numbers in the same format somewhere else and then re-format on the View. Where should I format in this situation - Service layer? DAO?

This would also allow me to take advantage of libraries that I could not potentially call from a JSP (or that would not make sense to call from a JSP).

Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 181

Answers (2)

Nathan Hughes
Nathan Hughes

Reputation: 96375

I would have the DAO query methods remove the formatting characters from the phone numbers, and have the presentation layer give them a consistent format (probably in JSP tags). I am not a fan of putting business logic in DAOs, but this seems extremely data-related.

(Actually if the formatting code first removes any pre-existing formatting before doing its own formatting, you might be able to get by without removing formatting characters anywhere else. I just like having things in a canonical form.)

As an alternative to putting the formatting-char-removal in the DAO, if you are using Hibernate then you can create custom user types that remove or insert formatting characters from the phone number attributes.

Upvotes: 2

shazinltc
shazinltc

Reputation: 3666

I generally do formatting, when I map the Model to Value object (VO or whatever you want to call them), mostly in the presentation layer (or i put a layer in between the presentation and service layer, If I have too many things to do). This brings consistency in the format across the application, if that is what you want.

When i want the name to be in camelcase, I do this

BeanUtils.copyProperties(userAccount, userAccountVO, ignoreProperties);
userAccountVO.setName(StringUtilities.convertToCamelCase(userAccountVO.getName()));

Upvotes: 0

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