subject: What Web Application Architecture Is All About [print this page] Have you ever tried working on a major project without any idea on which step to do first? If you have, then you would be all too familiar with the frustrating feeling of having to re-do some parts over and over again because you forgot to include an important detail. This is the reason why planning, before doing any actual project, is an important part of any undertaking.
The importance of planning is even more pronounced when one is creating a web application. By putting on a plan, one can see what details need to be worked on first and which ones might need further tweaking.
Web application architecture, or the planning of how a web application should work, has been touted by many developers as a sure way to success. It encompasses a number of points that one must take into consideration including the selection of the elements to be used and how the user interface should be designed, how each element should behave, how each of the elements relate to the overall picture, and the style that would be used in presenting the application.
Since a web application cannot be viewed using one aspect alone, most web application architecture professionals make use of five views in order to determine if there are still some kinks that need ironing out. These views include the design view which is made up of the classes, interfaces, and collaboration of the elements, among others; the process view which concerns itself with the performance and scalability of the application; the implementation view which takes care of the configuration management of the systems releases; the deployment view which, as the name implies, is all about the delivery and installation of the parts that make up the system; and the use case view which specifies the various forces that affect the archit
ecture of the system.
Using canonical web application architecture, web application developers are able to address issues such as where the system should reside in the server or in the client? It also helps answer another challenge that developers face should they use java server pages or just make use of servlets. As with the previous question, both sides have their advantages and disadvantages.
The key to effective web application architecture is to know what should be included in the plan and what might be hard to incorporate due to constant changes. This would determine how the web application should be designed.
