Instant Guide On Web Application Architecture

Accessing a web app in today’s time is super convenient. You may wonder how? Well, interestingly, most of us happen to use web apps on a daily basis, yet we fail to register that. Let that sink in. Take Google applications, for instance- whether it is Drive, Photos, Gmail, etc., these apps can be accessed through their website and they have their own application that can be downloaded. Plus, with this surge in web apps, the popularity of native apps isn’t spoken about much.

There is a good reason why companies prefer to invest in web apps other than native apps. Take an example of Ola- a name we’re all familiar with. When they put their money in for a web application, they ended up with an increment of around 30% in their bookings- that too, in top-tier cities. Plus, the size of their app is a mere 200 KB.

What Is Web Application Architecture?

Before we get into the intricacies of a modern web application architecture, let us begin with understanding what exactly is a web application. Once we’ve done that, we can then correlate the terms and understand the full-fledged concept.

A web app- in basic terms- is a software program. It runs essentially on a web server. They differ from computer-based software programs in a way that is kept locally on the device’s Operating System.

Web applications are client-server applications that comprise

• Middleware systems
• User interfaces
• Databases

A web application has both client-side and server-side scripts. The server-side scripts handle data storage, while the client-side scripts display the data to the consumer.

Now, when we integrate this framework and the interactions taking place between applications, we get clarity on the architecture. The web app architecture includes components, sub-components and external applications. Essentially, software developers created an application’s architecture to logically identify application components.

Software Design and Architecture: Is There a Difference?

If you are new to the process of developing web applications- you may get the terms software architecture and software design mixed up. Therefore, let’s go through the basic difference between them.

The architecture of your website is the outcome of product development. The documents that explain such an architecture go into depth about your system’s high-level components as well as the links between them. While, digital architecture works within the scope of various web app development services- including defining a relevant pattern and other critical aspects of the system components.

Once the web application design patterns are established, the topic of software design is highlighted in the latter stages of product development (the code level). Software design includes writing straight codes for web app architectural components as well as creating software modules and classes, simultaneously.

When working on the software design of a new online product, programmers may discover that they may borrow some elements of the code from open sources and therefore optimize their labor. At the same time, an existing web infrastructure for one product is typically difficult to convert to a new offering.

Diagram of Web App Architecture

A basic graphic can show the architecture of a web application that you supply at the early stage. In summary, each Internet transaction between a server and a user looks like this

• A browser is used to input a request (URL) or a command sent via a web page interface.
• The browser converts the user’s request into digital language before determining the path to the site that the user requires and requests access to it.
• When the server is discovered- it receives the browser request, processes and eventually provides the requested data in response.
• This data is processed by the user’s browser, which then shows the outcome on the user’s screen: a new or updated web page.

The ideas outlined in the above-mentioned bullets form the foundation of modern web architecture. While this user-server interaction scheme appears to be basic and clear, there are several techniques and architectural patterns that are appropriate for various sorts of web applications.

Layers of Web App Architecture

The web architectural components are concerned with the overall setup of the system, without identifying its tiers. Layers of web app architecture are concerned with the future system’s vertical structure. It is the layer diagram that illustrates how many you need and how they are connected, as well as gives you an estimate of the complexity of your product.

Understanding the logic of layers also allows you to more exactly estimate the cost of developing a web application. Here are the four main types of web app architecture layers you should be familiar with

• Presentation Layer (PL)

This layer is in charge of accepting input data, processing it, and finally presenting the results supplied by the server in the client browser.

• Business Logic Layer (BLL)

Your web app development ideas should have certain characteristics. To make them available to the user, you must include them as functions in your system’s business logic layer. These capabilities include- logging in, ordering online, chatting and other types of interaction with the page’s content.

• Data Access Layer (DAL)

This layer is also included in a standard web architecture design. It is a gateway to the data stored in your server’s memory. This layer allows you to access and manipulate your data- including tasks such as generating, reading, updating and removing stored data.

• Data Service Layer (DSL)

This layer protects your database as well as the information you save after interacting with customers. The data stored on your server is delivered to the system’s presentation layer via the data service layer. As a result, you have the option of adding extra data security.

Types of Web App Servers

There are various prominent web application architectural patterns, which are explained below

• Microservices (service-oriented)

The paradigm is built on the premise that a distinct micro-server is in continual communication with other micro-servers and is responsible for each function in your system (or a collection of functions).

• Client-server

This is the fundamental paradigm upon which any web application operates. According to it, the client submits a request to the server, and the server responds with a data packet.

• Progressive Web Apps

Progressive web apps may operate in the background, deliver push notifications to users and communicate with the APIs on your device.

• Serverless

Simply put, the serverless model is one of the online application design patterns that may help you save money by outsourcing some processes to cloud-based services.

• Single-page Application

Many instances of single-page application technologies may be found within web application architectural best practices. So, what exactly is a single-page app? Instead of entirely refreshing a web page in response to a user request, just a portion of the page is refreshed, saving resources for each web app layer.

Conclusion

So far, we have understood that creating a web app architecture is an important step in the creation of your digital product. Mistakes at this stage, for any mobile app development company– are quite costly: they can result in a large delay in the release date of the web app as well as budget losses due to the need to redesign your system components.
Therefore, in this article, we put great emphasis on various aspects like- the viability of web architectural design while also discussing the many types of such architecture, including its diagram and distinction with software.