domain object model and DTO design consideration

 

Hello,

 

i have a question regarding the usage of DOM(Domain object model) vs DTO (Data Transfer object) in presentation layer in a typical n tier application.

 

Options:

1) should we use DOM to pass data from DAL (Data Access Layer) to Business layer and then to presentation layer

2) should we create light wieght DTOs instead

 

as i see,

 

Merits of 1)

a) no extra overhead in designing a seperate DTO class layer and implement code to copy data btw DOM and DTO

 

Demerits of 1)

a) exposing business layer methods in the presentation layer

b) in case of distributed deployment, performance overhead of serialization of heavy DOM object

c) ...