In the early days of PHP applications, “spaghetti code” was a familiar sight. Fragments of PHP code were mixed in with HTML mark-up. There were no frameworks, so Web applications were just a bunch of source files. As the PHP language matured, developers started to think about the cleanliness and maintainability of their code. The model-view-controller (MVC) pattern was introduced.

MVC is a software architecture that allows for the separation of business logic from the user interface. In this architecture, the user sees and interacts with the view that, in the case of Web applications, is generated HTML code (along with JavaScript, CSS, images, etc.)

User actions are passed (as HTTP requests, GET or POST methods) to the controller. The controller is a piece of code that handles and processes user input and then reads and makes necessary changes to the model, which is responsible for the storage and modification of data. (In simple terms, the model consists of the database structure and contents, and the code used to access it.) Then, the controller generates the proper view that will be sent and displayed to user.

Such separation of layers has many advantages…

• Code Is Easier to Maintain
• The Same Content in Multiple Views
• More Secure
• Better Code