Fundamentals of Web Application Architecture: Components, Types, and Working Process

As the internet is undeviatingly driving towards the active user engagement and extensive functionality that offered by the web applications development software. When the user gets to view the particular page on the browser their happens a series of an interplay between various elements of web applications, user interface, middleware systems, database, server and browser. These relationships and interaction together maintained by a framework together are named as Web application architecture. In simple words, typical process flow includes the user browsing for an URL where the browser triggers the search.

In order to have the app quite simple, the web application architecture will add multiple components and external applications. To have a progressively better and excellent application which ended with transformed frontend and backend method abilities. As now most of the people are using mobile for their searches and the need for the web app development along with an architecture that cloud meet the requirements across all platforms. The apps are replacing the websites, the developers are now concentrated in developing web apps that are more and more attractive. So that the visitors will prefer to use web apps. As applications are becoming more complex to use. The developers are willing to develop the apps that are completely veering towards full stack development architecture. But before the start let’s know what is the Web application?

Definition of Web Application

It is a client-server computer program where the user runs on the browser that includes the user interface and client-side logic. This web application has normal webmail, online retail and online auction.

What is Web application Architecture?

It is the intercommunication between the applications, middleware system and database to ensure multiple applications all work together. For instance, when the user enters the URL and taps GO, then the browser will found all the internet facing elements and requests the particular page. The server responds by sending files to the browser. Once the action completes, the browser executes the files sent to display the requested page. All these actions occur within seconds, rendering the time inconsequential.

Components of Web Application Architecture

Web Application Architecture comprises several components divided into two types:

• User Interface App Components
• Structural Components

1. UX/UI Web App Components: It is completely related to the user interface/experience rather than the web application development software that deals with the view of dashboards, configuration settings, logs, and many more.
2. Structural Components: The structural components of a web application usually relates to the functionality of the web application with that user associate, the control and the database storage. With the structural aspects of the web application architecture, there was a lot more to do. The contains:

• • Client
  • Web App Server
  • Database Server

The client allows the user to communicate with the web app functions that are developed using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

The Web App Server which handles the main hub which supports the basic logic and multi-layer applications that are created by using Python, PHP, Java, .Net and Node.js.

Database Server which provides the business logic and appropriate information stored that is managed by the web app server.

Models of  Web application Components

The model of the web app will be depended on the total number of the servers and databases used for web application design. There are 3 models of web application components:

• One web server, one database: This is the simplest and also least reliable web app component model which uses a single server and a single database. If your server goes down then the web app will also go down thus resulting in unreliability in this model. This model is not preferable for real web applications. People use this to run test projects and to learn and understand the fundamentals of web applications.
• Multiple web servers, one database:  In this model, the web server does not store any data. When the client enters data to the web server, it processes it and then writes it to a database maintained outside of the server. This architecture is also known as stateless. Two web servers play a major role in this web application component model to avoid failures. If one web server goes down, another immediately takes over. All requests automatically redirect to the new server, ensuring the web app continues execution. Hence, reliability surpasses that of a single database model. A database running on a separate machine receives thorough protection and vetting. However, if the database crashes, the web app will also crash.
• Multiple Web servers, Multiple Databases: It’s the most efficient web application component model neither the database nor the web server has the single point failure. Here in this model, there are two options: one is to store the identical data in all the employed databases or distribute evenly among them. For the former case there needed not more than 2 databases. In the case of the database crash, the data may be unavailable. DBMS normalization is used in both cases. For the large scale organizations use more than 5 web servers and databases. It is best and advisable if you install load balancers.

Types of Web Application Architecture

The distribution of the application’s business logic between the client and server sides determines the types of web application architecture. In general, there are 3 types of web application Architecture.

1. 1. Single-page Applications(SPAs) –In this instead of loading whole new pages from the server for every user action, this single page web application will permit for the dynamic interaction and provides the updated content related to that particular page requested by the user. AJAX is the main foundation for allowing page interactions thereby making the SPAs a very real. SPAs are designed to request the most essential content and data elements. They provide great interactive and more dynamic user experience.
   2. Microservices –The working of a single or specific functionality through microservices Architecture framework allows the developers to roll out the applications faster and with greater efficiency. These are small and lightweight services and has many benefits to the developers in a way to enhance productivity and also speed up the entire deployment process. The components in the microservices architecture do not directly depend on each other because developers build them using different programming languages. The major advantage of using this architecture are the developers can pick any technology of their choice. So that the development of web application is simpler and quicker.
   3. Serverless Architecture –In this the developer consults a third party cloud infrastructure service provider for outsourcing server as well as infrastructure management. It allows the applications to execute the code logic without correlated to the infrastructure related tasks. The serverless architecture is the best to opt when the web app development company is free of managing the server as well as the hardware for the web application that is developed.

How Does Web Application Architecture work?

A secure web application architecture has two sets of programs that run separately simultaneously for delivering the solutions. The different codes are:

• Client-side Code: The code in the browser which responds to user input.
• Server-side code: The code in the server which responds to the HTTP requests.

A web developer will decide what code to be on the server will do with respect to the code in the browser. Programming languages used for server-side code: C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP. Code that can respond to the HTTP requests has the ability to run on a server. The server-side code creates the page, handles user requests, and stores various data types, including user profiles and inputs, which the end user never views. The web browser parses the client-side code, typically written in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. Except for the server-side code, the user can see and modify the client-side code as it responds to their inputs.The client-side code interacts only through HTTP requests and will not read the files directly off the server.

Web Application Architecture Trends

Technology is evolving continuously, so does web application architecture. One best trend of web application architecture is the use of and creation of a service-oriented architecture where the entire application code exists as services. In addition to this each on eas its own HTTP API. at the end the result, one side of the code can request to another part of the code that is running on the different server.
The next trending application is Single page application where the web UI is done using the JavaScript application. Then it stays in the user’s browser for a variety of interactions. It uses AJAX for performing synchronous or asynchronous requests to the web server without loading page.

These trends now make web apps much better suited for viewing on multiple platforms and devices. Even when the code for apps remains the same, they can still display clearly and easily on smaller screens.

Tips for a great Web Application Development

No web app can claim to be the best unless its performance is truly exceptional. In order to ensure the web application is able to give out maximum performance here are certain points to consider while web development process. The web app must:

• No single point failure
• Error Logs
• Query solution in a consistent and uniform manner
• Support the latest standards and technologies
• Dodge regular crashes
• Capable to scale up or down easily
• Easy use
• Quick response time
• Automation deployments
• High-security measures to lessen the chance of malicious intrusions

Conclusion

The web application fundamentals are evolving continuously like the internet. The first web application architecture was web 1.0. The modern web application architecture was web 2.0 and 3.0 which gained a lot. The model and type of web application development architecture determine the robustness, responsiveness, security and many more factors.The factors for getting started with the development of web application architecture will be determined by the chosen web application. So before launching the development project take a closer look at your business needs and evaluate all the possible options.

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Wish you the best luck with your upcoming web app development project!