I'm now using NetBeans as my IDE-of-choice, and it has a plugin for UML modeling. In the class diagram, there are model elements known as Boundary Class, Control Class, and Entity Class. However, I can't find a good definition of them, but I did find this site on UML Class Diagrams.
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These are class stereotypes used in analysis.
boundary classes are ones at the boundary of the system - the classes that you or other systems interact with
entity classes classes are your typical business entities like "person" and "bank account"
control classes implement some business logic or other
Often used with/as a part of OOAD and business modeling. The definition by Neil is correct, but it is basically identical to MVC, but just abstracted for the business. The "Good summary" is well done so I will not copy it here as it is not my work, more detailed but inline with Neil's bullet points.
Actually, the Robustness Diagrams (or Analysis Diagrams, as they are sometimes called) are just specialized Class Diagrams. They are a part of UML, and have been from the beginning (see Jacobson's book, The Unified Software Development Process - part of the "Three Amigos" series of books). The aforementioned book has a good definition of these three classes on pp 183-185.
Boundary Control Entity pattern have two versions:
- old structural, described at 127 (entity as an data model elements, control as an functions, boundary as an application interface)
- new object pattern
As an object pattern:
- Boundary is an interface for "other world"
- Control in an any internal logic (like a service in DDD pattern)
- Entity is an an persistence serwis for objects (like a repository in DDD pattern).
All classes have operations (see Fowler anemic domain model anti-pattern)
All of them is an Model component in MVC pattern. The rules:
- Only Boundary provide services for the "other world"
- Boundary can call only to Controll
- Control can call anybody
- Entity can't call anybody (!), only be called.
jz
Source: Stackoverflow.com