Overview

Web application architecture is a blueprint of simultaneous interactions between components, databases, middleware systems, user interfaces, and servers in an application. It can also be described as the layout that logically defines the connection between the server and client-side for a better web experience.

Market trends keep changing, user expectations keep evolving, and the growth of a business is never-ending. A web app needs an architecture to lay a strong foundation, and without it, your business app will be diving in the big ball of mud architecture anti-pattern.

A well-thought web app architecture can handle the various loads and adapt to the changing business requirement skillfully to deliver a fast user experience that further improves the app performance. You can also take on several development tasks at the same time by dividing the structure into several small modules, eventually reducing the development time as well. Furthermore, it becomes easier to integrate new functionalities without affecting the overall structure.

• Client-side (front-end) where the code is written in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and stored within the browser. It’s where user interaction takes place.
• Server-side (back-end) responds to HTTP requests. The code is written in Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, Nodejs, etc.
• Database which sends the requested data to the server-side.

It is always a good practice to select the most appropriate architecture considering various factors in mind, such as app logic, features, functionalities, business requirements, etc. The right architecture defines the purpose of your product as a whole.

Web applications are broadly divided into four types :

SPA (Single Page Applications) has been introduced to overcome the traditional limitations to achieve smooth app performance, intuitive, and interactive user experience.

Instead of loading a new page, SPAs load a single web page and reload the requested data on the same page with dynamically updated content. The rest of the web page remains untouched. They are developed on the client-side using JavaScript frameworks as the entire logic is always shifted to the frontend.

Microservice architecture has become the best alternative to Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and monolithic architecture. The services are loosely coupled to be developed, tested, maintained, and deployed independently. Such services can also communicate with other services through APIs to solve complex business problems.

Deployment of web apps using monolithic architecture is a cumbersome task because of its tightly coupled components. Microservices has resolved this issue by separating the application into multiple individual service components. It further simplifies the connectivity between service components and eliminates the need for service orchestration.

It is an architecture where the whole execution of code is taken care of by cloud service providers– no need to deploy them manually on your server. Serverless architecture is a design pattern where applications are built and run without any manual intervention on the servers that are managed by third-party cloud service providers like Amazon and Microsoft.

It lets you focus more on the quality of the product and complexity to make them highly scalable and reliable. Broadly, it is categorized into two types – Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Function-as-a-Service (FaaS).

BaaS lets developers focus on the front-end development tasks, eliminating the operations performed on the back-end.

FaaS is an event-driven model that allows developers to break the applications into small functions to focus on the code and event triggers. The rest will be handled by the FaaS service providers such as AWS Lambda.

Google introduced Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) in 2015 to develop apps that offer rich and native functionality with enhanced capabilities, reliability, and easy installation.

PWAs are compatible apps with any browser and can run on any device. You can easily adjust an app’s function to a tablet and a desktop as well. These apps can easily be discovered and shared through URL instead of the app store. Installation of these apps is also effortless and can be quickly added to a device’s home screen. These apps work efficiently on poor internet connectivity and in offline mode as well.

Designing an architecture is just the first step, but the success of your web application depends a lot on the architectural patterns you choose. Replicating strategies of popular web apps can do more damage than good. To avoid such issues, you need to understand every aspect of the application and confront them to properly selected criterias that match the projects constraints such as :

• System flexibility and efficiency
• Component reusability
• Adapted structure of code
• High Scalability
• Stability and reliability