Hierarchical model–view–controller

Hierarchical model–view–controller (HMVC) is a software architectural pattern, a variation of model–view–controller (MVC) similar to presentation–abstraction–control (PAC), that was published in 2000 in an article[1] in JavaWorld Magazine.

It is essentially a piece of content that needs to be displayed across multiple pages, and possibly even in different places, depending on the context of the main HTTP request.

Traditional MVC frameworks generally do not provide a direct answer for these types of content structures, so programmers often end up duplicating and switching layouts, using custom helpers, creating their own widget structures or library files, or pulling in unrelated data from the main requested Controller to push through to the View and render in a partial.

The downside is that the responsibility of rendering a particular piece of content or loading required data leaks into multiple areas and gets duplicated in the respective places.

In this regard, HMVC strives to increase code modularity, aid reusability, and maintain a better separation of concerns.