Ruby on Rails patterns - decorator vs presenter

ruby-on-rails design-patterns decorator presenter
keruilin picture keruilin · Oct 22, 2011 · Viewed 34k times · Source

There is all sorts of talk lately in the Ruby on Rails community about decorators and presenters.

What is the essential difference between the two? If there is, what are the clues that tell me which one to use over the other? Or perhaps to use the two in conjunction?

Answer

Dave Newton picture Dave Newton · Oct 22, 2011

A decorator is more of a "let's add some functionality to this entity". A presenter is more of a "let's build a bridge between the model/backend and view". The presenter pattern has several interpretations.

Decorators are generic/general purpose. Presenters have a narrower range of responsibilities/uses. Decorators are used across domains, presenters are almost always related to view-like functionality.

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