Conclusion

The presentation tier, being the most visible part of any system, is often considered the system by the users. It is a key tier in multi-tiered software architecture and distributed computing. This tier is responsible for packaging the data for display to users and for providing users with options for interacting with the system. This tier is becoming increasingly complex and is the cause for most project overruns and user adoption issues.

The presentation tier contains the client code (primary presentation tier) that executes on the user's local computer and the code that executes on the server (secondary presentation tier). Model View Controller (MVC) is an important design pattern for the presentation tier. The view (UI display component) and the controller (user interface process component) functions are the primary presentation tier responsibility.

The presentation tier is the key tier for supporting some of the following requirements:

• Internationalization and localization

• Personalization and co-branding

• Support for multiple device and access points

• Support for local business processes and data presentation

• Support for multiple technologies

• Potentially exposure of the applications to other systems as services