Web Application
Architecture
Client Server Model
Server Applications (Software)
• Management and maintenance of Data including
• User login data
• Application data
• Data processing
• Centralized
• Access via Login
Client Applications (Software)
• Provides user interface
• Stores some settings
• Can do some data processing
• Little to no application data storage
• Same view of data no matter where you login
Client-Server Advantages
• Centralized Data Storage
• No data redundancy (no duplication of data)
• Reduces data dependencies
• If data is stored on each user’s system and each system is different than data
depends on how the user system is designed
• Data can not be shared easily if such dependencies exist
Classic Example:
Early Banking Systems
• Network: Local Area Network (LAN) covering local
office branch.
• Server: Mainframe-like server “in the back” running
custom banking system
• Client: Windows PC with client interface for each
bank teller.
• Data is the same no matter what teller you go to.
• Data is NOT the same if you go to another branch
unless servers exchanged some data at night.
Classic Example:
Early Banking Systems
The Obvious Future:
• Change the LAN to a wide area network covering all the branches.
• Get rid of the individual servers at each branch
• Have clients connect to central server where ALL the banking data is
stored.
Classic Example:
Early Banking Systems
The Obvious Problems:
• Large banks could have thousands of tellers connecting to the central
server.
• Combining data from all branches requires severs with lots of storage
capacity.
• Branch data could be stored in different formats.
• Lack of Standardization.
3-Tiered Systems
3-Tiered System
• Database Tier (Database Server)
• Data storage and low level data manipulation
• Server Tier (Application Server)
• Manage client connections and data processing
• Client Tier (Client Software installed locally)
• User interface and some data processing
Advantage of 3-Tier Systems
• Central Database Server accessed by multiple
Application Servers
• In turn, each Application Server could
independently manage thousands of users
• Database Server is specially designed to do its job
• Database Operations: Update, Insert, Remove, etc.
• Lots of disk storage and memory needed
• Application Servers can be added to support more
users or DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS
• Server Operations: Complex application-dependent
computations
• Lots of processor power needed
Internet vs. WWW
Internet is the infrastructure WWW is just one of many
that makes the WWW work. “virtual networks” built on
• Packet Switching the Internet.
• TCP/IP Protocol • Websites: http, https, etc.
• Physical Infrastructure • Email: pop, imap, etc.
• Fiber-optics lines, wires • Other systems: ftp, instant
• Satellites, Cable Modems messaging, etc.
• Routers, Hubs, Network Cards, • Note: Even to this day companies
WiFi systems, etc. have “private virtual networks”
that use the Internet, but are
proprietary, locked-down.
WWW – Ultimate Client-
Server System
• Already Standardized
• Built on the Widest Area Network you could imagine, i.e., The
Internet
• Standardized Clients that are free to use
• IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.
• Lots of Servers already in place
• Apache, Windows Server (IIS), etc.
• Database Servers
• Umm, this was initially missing
First Web Applications
• 1993 – Rob McCool proposed a framework called
• CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
• Data passed from a web browser to the server
• GET - passed via URL variables
• POST - passed via HTML forms
• Web server daemon (httpd) could then make
remote system calls
• Example
• Web server could run a C++ program and write the output
to public HTML folder
• Web server would send response back with location of
the output.
First Web Applications
• Using CGI, web server could run
• C++ programs
• Perl Programs
• Fortran Programs
• C++ has library functions that allow you to connect to a number of
different databases:
• Oracle
• Sybase
• DB2
First Web Applications
Problem:
• To develop web applications you need to know
• Exactly how your server is configured
• HTML forms
• GET and POST conventions
• C++ database libraries
• SQL language
First Major Improvement
• 1995 – JJ Allaire developed “a hack” that allowed a
web servers to communicate with other systems,
namely a database system.
• Key:
• Instead of using “a middle-man” C++, Perl, Java, etc.
• Developer could directly add code to the their web pages
• Using a special Markup Language, this code could be
embedded in any web page.
• Worked seamlessly with HTML forms
• Server process code directly
ColdFusion
• JJ Allaire went on to form a company Allaire which developed his
idea into a product called ColdFusion
• ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML)
• ColdFusion Server (addon to popular Web Servers like Apache, Microsoft’s
IIS).
• Notes:
• Allaire was bought by Macromedia 2001.
• Macromedia was bought by Adobe in 2005.
ColdFusion Example
<cfset droplist = "colorlight,colordark">
<cfoutput>
<form action="#cgi.script_name#" method="get" name="choosecolors"
id="choosecolors">
<fieldset>
<legend>Customize Site</legend>
<label for="colorlight">light color</label>
<input type="text" name="colorlight" id="colorlight" size="10"
value="#url.colorlight#" /><br />
<label for="colordark">dark color</label>
<input type="text" name="colordark" id="colordark" size="10"
value="#url.colordark#" />
#getTokensMinusArg('inputs',droplist)#
<input type="submit" name="changecolors" value="Reload" />
</fieldset>
</form>
</cfoutput>
ColdFusion
• The term Cold Fusion refers to a nuclear reaction
that can occur at room temperature
• In the 1980’s it was believed that Cold Fusion was a
physical possibility.
• If Cold Fusion could be achieved then almost
unlimited power could be generated by a reaction
you could perform in your own kitchen.
• JJ Allaire aptly named his product ColdFusion
because he believed it would be as great as real
“Cold Fusion.”
• He was right, but…
Problems with ColdFusion
• The concept is great, but the implementation sucked.
• CFML is difficult to learn, overly complex
• ColdFusion server was initially very slow
• You have to pay for it
• Initially, it only worked for Microsoft’s server, which you have to pay
for.
• Made JJ Allaire a multimillioniare but…
Alternative’s to ColdFusion
• Microsoft developed it’s own system called Active
Server Pages (ASP), which was more tightly
integrated with their web server.
• Sun Microsystems, developed Java Server Pages
(JSP), which worked better with its server and used
Java as the application language.
• The Apache Community spawned PHP which is as
good as the systems above, but Open Source.
WWW – Ultimate Client-
Server System
• Already Standardized
• Built on the Widest Area Network you could
imagine, i.e., The Internet
• Standardized Clients that are free to use
• IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.
• Lots of Servers already in place
• Apache, Windows Server (IIS), etc.
• Database Servers
• ColdFusion, ASP, JSP, and PHP all have built-in support to
connect to databases.
