Web Application Architecture: A Detailed Guide

Quick Summary: Architecture design is a crucial step when it comes to developing web applications. It defines the functionality and structure of your web app. This latest guide on web application architecture covers everything about web app architecture, including meaning, types, models, and more. Read this complete guide for an in-depth understanding of web application architecture.

Web applications have become quite popular for businesses today. They offer interactive functionalities and are accessed via the Internet. However, the first step toward web application development is deciding on the perfect architecture. The architecture of your web application will determine the quality of your web app.

The architecture provides a blueprint that describes the different components and flow of data among them to solve a business problem. Prudently designed web app architecture will make your application more secure, flexible, and scalable, which will benefit you in the long term. This is an essential step when it comes to web app development services. But you must be conscious of your choices when developing your web app.

Needless to say, a bad web app architecture can cost a lot of money because you have to invest in rearchitecting your application to meet your future needs. So, you need to make careful choices and invest your time and resources wisely to come up with an architecture that proves beneficial for your business and does not become a roadblock to your growth. This guide will help you make good decisions.

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A Quick Go-Through of Web App and Web App Architecture

Web applications or web apps are software programs with interactive features delivered via the Internet. These are the software applications that are executed on the server and are accessed through web browsers providing complex functionalities and data manipulation. There are many reasons why web apps are different from websites, including more complex features and user interactions.

There are many real-world examples of web applications, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, Twitter, and Dropbox. Users can access these web apps on any device and get functionalities like data storage, word processing, email service, real-time communication, etc.

Competition is getting tougher in the technology space and user experience is key to staying in the game. As per stats, 42% of people leave websites due to poor functionality that web apps can overcome. Web apps are more dynamic and interactive compared to websites making them more engaging.

To build web applications that can stand the test of time, you need a robust web app architecture that is adaptable and time-tested.

Web application architecture defines the interactions between different user interfaces, databases, components, and middleware. It provides the skeletal structure that determines the logical relationships between various endpoints.

It describes the standard flow of data between the client and the server. Web app architecture provides a set of rules for information to be passed from one end to another end.

The architecture lays the foundation for your web application and determines its quality and characteristics. It is crucial to pick the right architecture to develop cutting-edge web apps. Choosing the architecture is one of the crucial steps in building web applications.

A Simple Web Application Architecture Diagram

The web app architecture diagram provides a logical representation of how users will interact with the app and how the internal parts of the app will function. It helps to understand the working of the application. The following image shows the web application architecture design.

Is Web App Architecture Really Important?

Ask yourself, will your web app be adapted to your future requirements if it is built without a proper architectural design? Modifying your web application will be hard for many reasons like rigidly defined structure, complexity, and lack of flexibility.

Your web app will require drastic modifications if the structure it is built with doesn’t allow easy upgradation or integration of new features. This will increase the cost of web app development. Hence, there are many solid reasons why good architecture is crucial for web applications.

The following is the complete list of all the benefits that web app architecture brings to the table.

• A web application architecture defines clear relationships between different components that streamline data flow and prevent errors or disruptions.
• Your business web app will not lag in terms of features and trends if it has a flexible architecture to quickly adapt to the changes.
• Good architecture helps you create an efficient web application because of the optimal alignment of components.
• Your web application should be highly secure to guard against hacking and more cyber threats. This calls for a web application architecture resilient to cyber-attacks.
• Web application architecture that is planned and built with careful consideration can handle heavy loads and is scalable to meet growing business demands that deliver exceptional performance.
• Architecture helps you build a solution that functions smoothly and offers low latency.
• You can determine the functionalities of your web application based on the architecture you choose for it.
• You can map out the functionality of your web application by reviewing different types of web application architectures to pick the most suitable architecture.
• Breaking the application into modules will help you do several development tasks together.

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Web Application Architecture Components and How They Work

Web apps use HTTP services to deliver content over the network to various devices. Every web application is built with some components that interact with each other and provide a consistent flow of data. Web apps work on the client-server architecture. This type of architecture includes two end points – client and server. These components can be divided into UI and structural components.

The following is the anatomy of a web application architecture.

• Client-side interface: This is the user-facing side of a web application which is also referred to as front-end. It is written in web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It provides user interactions and communicates with the server to fetch data and display it to users. It controls the presentation logic and validates user inputs.
• Server-side: Another side of web applications is the server that makes the backend of applications. It is powered by technologies like Python, PHP, Ruby, Java, etc. It processes user requests.
• Database server: It is a server where database software runs to store, retrieve, and modify data. It is also a part of the backend system that manages data and provides it to the client after processing it through business logic.

The client (web browser) communicates with the remote server by sending a request for a resource, and the server provides responses to the client by providing relevant resources. In addition to client server communication, the server also processes the request (it may include execution of a script), fetches data from the database server and generates a response that is sent back to the client. This is how a typical web app works.

What are the Different Layers of Web Application Architecture?

Today, most modern web application architectures are based on different layers that follow the separation of concerns principle. Typically, a 3-tier web application architecture is used that separates the application into UI, Business Logic, and Data Access layers. Let’s take a closer view of these layers.

Presentation Layer

It is the user interface or UI layer of web app architecture. This layer handles the client-side interactions. The presentation layer is responsible for taking user inputs and provides an interface between the UI and the web browser. It is built with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and front-end development frameworks. This layer interacts with the application layer to receive data and renders it on users’ screens.

Application Layer

This layer is like the engine of a web application that takes input, processes it and generates output which is forwarded to the presentation layer. The application layer handles the core logic of web applications, and it is also referred to as Business Logic Layer or Domain Logic Layer. This layer interacts with both the client (presentation) and data access layers. The data access layer provides data to this layer that it processes along with user inputs.

Data Access Layer

It is a persistence layer that helps communicate between the database and the application layer. This layer responds to all data transaction calls and provides access to persistent data. Database management system software provides communication with applications, database infrastructure, and UI to parse and retrieve data. In the application layer, the data is retrieved from the data access layer, and it is processed to be used for presentation. It also consists of third-party integrations such as payment gateways.

Apart from these web application architecture layers, there can be more layers depending on the complexity of a web application. However, these three layers are common to most web applications as they provide the basic foundation for client-server interactions.

Which Model of Web Applications to Choose?

A robust backend is crucial for the smooth and continuous functioning of web applications. There are different web application models with different backend setups that offer different levels of performance and security. You need to select the best model as per your business needs to build a high-performance web app.

Single Server, Single Database

Under this web application model, there is only one web server and one database that takes care of all backend operations. This model is not reliable today because it doesn’t have the capacity to handle a large amount of traffic. If the server is down, your application will also be down in this case. This could be a good option for businesses with limited budgets and for testing purposes.

Multiple Servers, Single Database

It is safer than the previous model because of the lower risk of data loss. There is a backup server to continue the operation of a web application in case one server crashes or faces downtime. However, the use of a single database makes it vulnerable to failure because, in case of an increased user load, there can be issues with the database. If anything goes wrong with the database, it will affect your application.

Multiple Servers, Multiple Databases

This web application model reduces the risk of application failure a lot by providing more options for data storage and server capacity. You can distribute data to different servers or store it in all servers to ensure constant access in case of downtime. The application performance remains unaffected and offers a pleasing user experience.

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Popular Web Application Architectural Types

There are different types of web application architectures to build a robust application. You must choose the best architecture for web applications considering various factors and your requirements. A perfect architecture can make your web application more effective and will provide maximum ROI.

Let’s check the most popular web application architectures today.

Single-Page Applications

A technical definition of SPA is – it's a kind of web implementation that fetches a single web document from the server, and only the body content of that document is updated thereafter through JavaScript APIs like Fetch and XMLHttpRequest.

In simple words, a single-page application doesn’t reload web pages for every user interaction. So, whenever a user interacts with a web app and some elements need to be updated, it happens without reloading the page. In other words, we can say the content is dynamically updated instead of reloading the whole web page.

Benefits of Single Page Application Architecture

• Fast-performance and app-like experience
• Responsive and cross-platform compatible
• Enhanced experience due to no page reloading
• Fast development time

Well-known examples of SPAs (Single Page Applications) are Gmail, Slack, and Facebook.

Serverless Architecture

This type of web application is executed in the cloud. You need not manage the server as the computing resources are readily available from the cloud provider on demand. So, your application runs on the cloud, and the end users access it via the Internet. With serverless architecture, you can deliver multi-page applications and there is no intervention with the server, which is provided by a third-party vendor.

Serverless architecture is a growing trend, and it provides many benefits over traditional architectural models, such as lower costs. You can choose cloud services like AWS or Azure to build an application based on a serverless architecture.

Benefits of Serverless Architecture

• More flexibility
• Greater scalability
• Fast time to market
• Easy deployment
• Lower costs
• Low latency

Microservices Architecture

Microservices have emerged as a popular architectural pattern for different types of software solutions. It is built with stand-alone loosely coupled services. These services can be independently built, tested, deployed, and maintained. They offer a better alternative to monolithic architecture in which app components are tightly coupled.

These services can be managed separately and are able to interact with external systems through APIs. Microservices solve many problems that developers experience with monolithic architectures, like difficulty in deployment because of tightly coupled components. So, microservices provide the flexibility to build more complex applications.

Benefits of Microservices Architecture

• Easy fault identification
• More resilient applications
• Choice of tech stacks
• Faster time to market
• Improved scalability
• Data security and compliance

Best Practices to Follow for Web Application Architecture

A good web app architecture is not an accident; it is a well-thought-out plan that enables you to build a custom web application that meets the expectations of all stakeholders. Follow the web application architecture best practices mentioned below to design the exemplary architecture for your web application.

• Choose an architecture that secures your future needs with sufficient scalability.
• Always build a web application that’s flexible and efficient in nature.
• Make sure that architecture ensures the reliability and stability of your web app.
• Security should be an important consideration for architectural design.
• The architecture should be testable.
• Follow principles for application development, e.g. Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY).
• Well-structured application structure with code reusability.

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The Final LinesYour web application’s success heavily depends on its architecture. The choice of architecture will affect the performance metrics of your application, like user satisfaction, loading speed, peak response time, and more. Before you finalize your web application architecture design, you must go through different architecture patterns and consider their pros and cons to find out which fits your needs best.Make Radixweb your web development partner to build a web application with a flexible and resilient architecture. With decades of industry experience and knowledge, we can help you create a cutting-edge web app with different architectural patterns like serverless, single-page applications, and microservices.We, at Radixweb help clients at every step of their technological transformation and help them build innovative and sustainable software solutions. Contact us to let us help you and create an exceptional solution for your business.