Introduction to Application Architecture
Architecture, in general, explains the assembling of parts or components within the structure. Application Architecture is not different from that. It explains the assembling of components and the interaction of the components with each other. Also, how they interact and the behavior of these components when each structure is modified is also explained in the architecture. This makes the developers meet customer requirements as well as business requirements as understanding the customer is the base for all the businesses. This is a part of enterprise architecture, and hence understanding Application Architecture is important to know the enterprise and its levels.
Explanation of Application Architecture
- Application architecture comes at the top level of the system, which should contain quality and reliability throughout its components. Mostly, rather than the functional aspects, this architecture satisfies the technical and operational requirements of the system. Therefore, all the quality attributes must be satisfied along with performance measures.
- The most used application architectures are server-side rendering and client-side rendering.
- When a user clicks on a link to access the web page, the URL sends the request to the server, and it provides the page with the required HTML and page contents. When the user wants the page again, the same process is repeated. This is server-side rendering. In client-side rendering, once the page is loaded, it will not request the server to load the page again. Dynamic scripts are generated, and only a single request is made to generate the page in the application.
- Different servers and databases decide the model of the architecture in the system. The three different models are one server, one database model, many servers, one database model, and many database models. Let’s have a look at each of these.
1. One Server One Database Model
This is the simplest model in architecture. As the name suggests, it is not as reliable as when the single server goes down; the entire application does not work. Hence, it is not used in real-time applications. This model is used for study purposes and to know the fundamentals of architecture.
2. Many Servers One Database Model
Here, the main advantage is that even if one server goes down, the other will do the work. All the data is not stored in the server but in the database. This is to avoid loss of data even if the server fails. Data is processed in the server, and the information is passed to the database. Otherwise called as stateless architecture, the web application stops working if the database goes down. If one server fails, the requests are redirected automatically to the other server, and hence this model is reliable.
3. Many Servers Many Database Model
In this model, we can either store the data in a single database or distribute the databases’ data. This model is considered as an efficient model because both the database and server can be replaced if a failure occurs. Either we can balance with two servers and databases. If the load is more, we can employ more servers, and it is better to use load balancers in that case. Database normalization helps to analyze the situation.
- Application Architecture can be divided into three types such as Single Page Application, Microservices, and Serverless Architecture.
1. Single Page Application
This is popular with its single page and less storage and space. Those who prefer fewer resources can look into SPA. The user experience is well maintained with fewer elements, and dynamic interaction is made on the page.
2. Microservices
This is faster and efficient than others with specific functionality in the application. This can be written in any coding language, and hence flexibility is a factor to select microservices. Any technology and any language can be used in architecture.
3. Serverless Architecture
There are no servers in this architecture and hence no infrastructure issues in this type. Backend servers will not create any problem here as they are not present in the architecture.
- Understanding the working of architecture is simple. It receives the requests from the user, processes them, and displays them to the user. The components and types help to understand the infrastructure and maintain it for further use. This helps to scale the application easily and to make deployments automatically in the server. Queries can be managed in a consistent manner, and response time can be reduced in the system.
Components of Application Architecture
- The components are easy to understand, as we have heard it already from the models of the architecture. The components of the architecture are classified into the user interface and structural components. Structural components are client and server that explain the functions, control, and user interaction with the database. Structural modes are explained, and hence understanding this is important in architecture. This helps to control the servers and the storage.
1. Client: The user interacts with the client written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The client is basically the web browser in a system. This takes in the inputs and provides the outputs. The user interface is important for the client, and it must satisfy the customer who uses it.
2. The server has a web server and database. Server-side development needs the knowledge of languages to manage the database and the server. All the data is stored in the database server, and the main control center is on the webserver. Here we increase the number of servers and databases, and the functionality of the application is changed.
- User interface components give an idea about the display of web pages along with their configurations and settings. Development is not a part of the user interface, but notifications and dashboards comprise this component in the architecture.
Conclusion
Business needs must be evaluated properly before selecting an architecture. Understand the architecture more and develop the web pages and application so that we can easily rectify the problems even if the failure occurs. Architectural standards must be followed while building one. I hope this article is helpful for your purpose.
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