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A web application architecture is the structure of your application. It's easy to get caught up in your code's details and forget how it fits together. But this is important because it helps you create a scalable, reliable product that can scale up or down as needed. In this article, we'll explore some different types of web application architectures so that you can decide which one works best for your business needs.
» What is Web Application Architecture?
A web application is one type of software application that runs on the Web. The term "web application" was coined by James Clark in 1994, and it refers to any software that runs over a network. A web server is an intermediary between clients and resources on the Web. It accepts requests from clients, processes them, sends back responses to those clients, and performs other tasks as needed for running its program or service—for example:
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- Receiving incoming HTTP requests from client applications (e.g., browsers)
- Processing these requests using appropriate methods (e.g., parsing HTML code into objects)
» Why is Web Application Architecture Important?
Web application architecture is an essential part of any modern web app. It determines how your application will be deployed, managed, and scaled. Web application architecture affects your web app's performance, scalability, and security, so it's essential to make sure you choose the right tool for the job.
» The Difference between Desktop and Web Applications
Web applications are distributed, stateless, more interactive, and more complex than desktop applications. They're also different from the traditional client-server architecture you might be familiar with. In a traditional client/server architecture (or "web application"), data is stored in one location on the server side and served to users whenever they request it. This means that all changes must be made through an administrator interface or via some other means of manual input or modification.
Web applications differ in that they allow users' inputs such as form submissions to affect how their data is stored and displayed on the screen at any given time. This allows for continuous updates without waiting until new software versions can be released periodically (which would require additional updates).
» Types of Web Application Architecture
Web applications are built on top of a set of technologies that let them communicate with each other as well as the outside world. The basic building blocks for these systems include:
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- HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol sends data between the web server and the client. Browsers also use it to display web pages, and programmers access resources such as databases or files through URLs.
- HTML5 - Hypertext Markup Language 5 specifies how information should be formatted to be readable by humans but also gives you access through JavaScript APIs into the DOM (Document Object Model). You can use this knowledge and CSS3 stylesheets to create attractive websites without any programming experience!
› Single Page Architecture
Single-page architecture is a way of building websites that focuses on loading only the necessary data for each page at a time. This means there's no need for a full page refresh when you click on another link. Instead, all you have to do is update the content of an element without reloading the whole page.
The benefits of this approach include faster load times and less data usage, as well as making it easier to build responsive websites. You might be wondering how this is done, and the answer is by using AJAX. AJAX stands for Asynchronous Javascript and XML, allowing you to send and receive data without reloading a web page. This means that you can send information from your server without having to refresh the page every time.
› Three-tier Architecture
The three-tier architecture is the most common web application architecture. It consists of a presentation tier, business logic tier, and data access layer. The presentation tier is responsible for displaying information to users through user interfaces (e.g., HTML/CSS). In this example, the application's front end is the browser.
The business logic layer handles activities such as data validation and retrieval from databases while being backed by some databases (e.g., relational tables). This can be done by using a framework like Laravel PHP or CodeIgniter PHP.
› Elastic Load Balancing in a Three-Tier Architecture
In the three-tier architecture, you will have multiple servers for each request. Each server is responsible for handling a specific function or task. For example, if you had a database server and an application server in your deployment, the server would handle all database requests. In contrast, the application server would handle all other requests (like Ajax calls). To keep track of which requests are being handled by which servers and how much load each type of request puts on them, elastic load balancing uses pools of servers that can be deployed quickly on demand based on their availability (i.e., when needed).
One typical implementation is using virtual machines as workers each VM gets assigned its dedicated hardware resources, so it doesn't require too much RAM or CPU power at any given time. This allows us to scale up/down based on our needs without impacting performance since virtual machines don't require dedicated hardware as physical ones do!
› N-tier Architecture
N-tier architecture is a way of structuring a web application. It's used as part of the three-tier architecture, which divides an application into separate modules that can be scaled independently. The first layer in an n-tier architecture is the presentation layer, where your users interact with your site via forms or other types of user input. The second layer is called business logic (or data access) because it deals with processing data from both internal sources (such as databases) and external sources (such as APIs). Finally, there's another tier called business intelligence.
This tier provides tools for analyzing data from business logic and presentation layers to make better decisions about improving your products or services based on what customers tell you about themselves or their needs when using them regularly.
› Serverless Architecture
Serverless architecture is a relatively new approach to building applications that you can use to reduce the infrastructure burden of running your software. It allows developers to build applications without worrying about managing servers or deploying code because it's all done automatically by the cloud provider that hosts your application.
Serverless architecture is suitable for many applications with heavy usage spikes, such as web apps, mobile apps, and IoT devices. Because the cloud provider handles all of the infrastructure management and scaling, developers can focus on writing code without worrying about provisioning servers or managing load balancing and other server-related tasks.
› Microservice Architecture
Microservices are small, independent modules that can be written in any language. They're built to be deployed independently and decoupled by design so that they can be updated separately. Microservices are loosely coupled by nature—they don't depend on each other for their functionality or data access layer (DAL). This makes it easier to scale as your business grows; you can add more microservices without worrying about how they'll interact with each other or what changes will cause problems when they're added or removed from the system.
› Unconventional Web Application Architectures
You may have heard that there are three types of web application architectures: MVC, MVP, and MVVM. But what does that mean? And why should you choose one over another? MVC stands for Model-View-Controller (a popular design pattern). A controller handles the interaction between your app and its users, while models represent data structures like objects and lists. Views display information to users in a way they can understand easily.
They usually include text boxes with buttons to submit forms or change settings on certain parts of your site. The best part about this framework is that it gives you plenty of flexibility in how you structure your code base by allowing you to decide which parts should be handled by which module to achieve optimal performance without sacrificing flexibility when necessary. For instance, if a particular action needs more processing power than others).
» It's Critical to Design Your Web Application with the Right Technology and Architecture
Web application architecture is important because it can significantly impact your project. Understanding the requirements, designing for them, and choosing the right technology and architecture is critical if you want to build a practical web application. A common misconception is that web applications are just like desktop applications they're not! They're fundamentally different from traditional software development because they need to be available 24/7 to function correctly.
An excellent example is Google Chrome; when you open your browser, it will always be ready for use, even if there isn't anyone around who can access it at that moment (or ever). This means that developers must design their applications with failover options built into them so they won't break after being offline for an extended period; this is known as "zero downtime.
Apart from the visual aspects such as website logo, colors, and font, another critical aspect of designing a good web presence involves understanding how users interact with each other online before creating an application with multiple users accessing data through one single page or window/tabbed window.
» Conclusion
With so many things to consider while developing a web application, it's easy to get overwhelmed. However, there are some basic principles that you can use as a starting point when designing your applications and systems. The three-tier architecture is a significant first step because it allows you to scale up quickly while maintaining a centralized location for data access and processing. The microservices approach allows multiple apps or services within one application, giving developers much more flexibility when building new features into their products!
Author Bio: Margareta Anthemis
Margareta Anthem is a freelance writer and web designer for hire with a specialization in digital marketing, branding, and general marketing tips. She works closely with B2B and B2C companies providing useful and engaging content that converts viewers into customers. Contact Margareta by visiting her website at Need a Design Maam for more information on her services.
