Composite MVP Components

A Composite component is formed where a more complex model is connected to a composite presenter and to a composite view structure. When the model is connected to the composite presenter it is often treated as several sub-models which are then individually doled out to various sub-presenters. The end result is that a composite triad inevitably consists of a hierarchy of sub-triads, which are comprised either of basic, or composite triads themselves.

A good example of a composite component is a MethodBrowser.

The model of the MethodBrowser presenter is the singleton instance of SmalltalkSystem and the view is a composite built using the View Composer. The composite presenter contains two additional components; a ListPresenter is used to display the list of methods being browsed and the method source text is displayed in a SmalltalkWorkspace presenter.

Let's take a look at some examples of the objects that make up composite MVP components in the basic Dolphin image:

Presenter class	Model class	View name	View class	Notes
PersonalAccountShell	PersonalAccount	PersonalAccountShell. Default view	ShellView	From the Personal Money sample. The view has been built with the View Composer as a top-level shell window containing named elemental views for all of the individual objects within the PersonalAccount model.
ClassBrowserShell	SmalltalkSystem	ClassBrowserShell. Default view	ShellView	One of the major tools in the development system. Here, the model (SmalltalkSystem) is an object representing a facade onto the underlying development environment.

Notice how the above components are very specific to the applications in which they are used. This tends to be the case with composite MVP components.