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I'm coming to the end of my first MVC project, and I'm not overly happy with how I constructed my Model objects and I'm looking for some ideas on how to improve them.

I use repositories for each DB table with Get, Save, Delete etc methods. The repositories use Linq2Sql for the DB access.

I do mapping from the Linq2Sql objects to MVC Model objects, in the main, these are very much 1 to 1 mappings.

My problem is, I don't think my MVC model objects were granular enough, and I am probably passing more data back and forth than needed.

For example, I have a User table. An admin can edit a users details as can the user themselves, so I reckon I should really have a "AdminUserModel" and "UserModel" objects, where "AdminUserModel" has a greater set of values (IsEnabled for example).

So my bigger question is really, what kind of architectures are people using out there in the wild, in order to map many similar, related Model objects down through the layers to the DB?

Any sample architecture solutions anyone can suggest beyond NerdDinner?

thanks in advance!

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First off, check out AutoMapper if you haven't yet. – Martin Nov 15 '10 at 14:27
Yep, using Automapper! thanks martin! – Ozz Nov 15 '10 at 14:27
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In the case of your user model, you should use inheritence in stead of 2 seperated models. In this way you can use the code that was created for user in the ones that inherite from it.

the type of model you use depends completely on what you want to do with it. A good thing might be to take a look at patterns and try to get the patterns working that are needed for your situation...

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yeah, I do that is some places, there is also the case of overlapping properties that inheritance won't help however. – Ozz Nov 15 '10 at 14:34
in that case, you'll probably need to refactor your code... and the next time split it up a bit more from the beginning. That's where your experience comes in... – Kennethvr Nov 15 '10 at 14:35
Yeah, that's where my question was coming from....I've gotten so far, and there are a few code smells, and I think it's coming from how I set up my architecture - that's why I am looking for real world examples. – Ozz Nov 15 '10 at 14:40
ps. thanks Kenneth – Ozz Nov 15 '10 at 14:40
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up vote 1 down vote

I usually take implement inheritance in my models. I usually have a base class of entity, which will have id, datecreated, valid and any other fields that are shared between entities (publishStatus, locked etc). If needs be you can create other base classes inheriting from entity: person entity, product entity etc.

this way you can have a generic repository base, constrained to Entity or IEntity, i find that most entities CRUD functions dont need much more behaviour than that provided by the generic base (perhaps you will need to add a few additional get methods for some types)

In your case, AdminUser could inherit from User

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