naming conventions of Controller and Model Java classes in Spring / MVC webapp?

Question

Let's say I have "settings" classes in my controllers and models, in my Java/Spring/MVC webapp. Now, in both /controllers/ and /models/, should I...

1) ...name them both Settings.java?

2) ...name them SettingsController.java and SettingsModel.java or something similar?

I'm curious about typical naming conventions as well as naming conventions used in your personal experience that worked well. Feel free to reference your own webapp project in place of my, perhaps poor, example.

This is my first MVC webapp, and I'm trying to get a feel for it.

Answer 1

Since model classses describe 'real-life' entities it's better to call them by name, so in your case it would be Settings.java.

Controller, on the other hand, is just a byproduct of using specific architecture (MVC) so it gets the Controller suffix, and in your case becomes SettingsController.java.

If you did your application using jsf, for example, you could still have Settings.java as model, but SettingsBean.java as a controller (obviously that's just another convention and you could call it however you like).

Answer 2

I'd suggest you to call your controller SettingsController and model just Settings. It is because model actually contains you data. What kind of data does your model contain? The answer is: settings. So, call it settings.

Controller is different story. It is a class that deals with you data. There are probably many classes that deal with settings: SettingsBuilder, SettingsFactory, SettingsUtil, SettingsService etc. This one is controller, so call it SettingsController.