Everything You Need To Know About Web Application Architecture

Kristi Ray
Webtips
Published in
8 min readDec 20, 2021

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Web application development is an ever-green business investment, as websites are the first point of communication among businesses and customers in the contemporary digital world. However, the user experience of the website is the key to success for every business.

It’s not every day that an application has the ability to provide such a seamless user experience. This is why data and information flow have become more important than ever in today’s business world. Therefore, web architecture needs are efficient too!

Decoding The Need For Web Application Architecture

Web App Architecture is critical for handling the changing market trends and evolving user expectations. Without it, your business will be diving in a big ball of mud because you’ll have no foundation on which to build any future success.

A well-thought-out web app architecture can adapt quickly as requirements change without too much disruption or delay — delivering an excellent experience that further improves performance both now and into the foreseeable future.

Well, thought-out features with intuitive interfaces ensure successful outcomes for all parties involved. Businesses are solved faster while their employees don’t have any downtime issues because crashes can happen at any time without warning on poorly designed sites.

An excellent example of how technology should work together seamlessly, so everyone gets what they need from one another.

What Is Web development Architecture?

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Web Application Architecture (WA) is a blueprint for how to design your application so that it can scale and be maintained. It involves all components, databases, middleware systems user interfaces with servers in an app — both on the front end as well back-end aspects like deployment strategies or Error Logging Systems which will help keep you up2date about any problems occurring within live environments where users may face downtime if they’re not fixed quickly enough.

The Web Application Architecture can be broken down into three main components: the user interface, the data layer, and the business logic. Let’s understand what each component does.

- The User Interface is where users interact with your Web Application to do various tasks such as creating new content or editing existing content.

- The Data Layer is responsible for storing information about your Web Application’s information so that it can be accessed later on by other parts of the Web App (i.e., when you are looking up an item in order to display it).

- Finally, the Business Logic deals with controlling how data interacts within the Web App (i.e., if I search for ‘red,’ then. ‘red’ should be displayed).

Web Application Architecture can seem daunting at first, but once you get a hold of it and comprehend the different components that make up your Web App, then everything will become much clearer.

If you want to create a solution that has a robust architecture with seamless navigation & security, a web application development company with comprehensive experience in software development can help you,

Five Major Types Of Web Application Architecture

There are five critical types of web application architecture to consider when designing your own Web App: MVC, SPA, MVVM, PAC, and PIPES. This article will explain each in much more detail.

MVC (Model-View-Controller) is one of the most popular and well-known architectures for Web Applications. The idea behind MVC is that you have three separate components which work together to create a cohesive Web App: Models, Views, and Controllers.

Models are responsible for representing the data within your Web App, Views are responsible for displaying the data to users, and Controllers are responsible for handling user input and telling the Models what to do with that input. This separation of concerns helps keep your Web App organized and manageable.

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SPA (Single Page Applications) takes the MVC idea a step further by completely separating the View from both the Controller and the Model. This means that when a user interacts with your Web App, the View is loaded into the browser and all subsequent interactions between the user and the Web App take place within that one View.

This can be helpful for Web Apps that require a lot of data manipulation as it keeps the Controller and Models from having to constantly reload data.

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MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) is a popular architecture for Web Applications that use frameworks such as AngularJS or ReactJS. It is very similar to MVC in that you have three separate components, but the key difference is that in MVVM, the ViewModel replaces the Controller.

This means that instead of having Controllers which handle user input and tell the Models what to do, you have ViewModels which simply contain the data needed by the Views.

This can be helpful for Web Applications that are data-heavy as it removes the need to pass data back and forth between different components.

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PAC (Prototype-based AJAX Container) is a newer type of Web Application Architecture that was created by Microsoft. The idea behind PAC is that it’s a Web Application design framework rather than a Web App architecture in and of itself.

Instead of having to use specific components or follow a set process when creating your Web App, you simply have to implement the four Prototype-based AJAX patterns into any web app.

This can be helpful for Web Applications that are data-heavy or need to handle a lot of user input.

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PIPES (Pluggable Interface Processes Execution) is the latest type of Web Application Architecture and was created by Google. The idea behind Pipes is that it’s an execution model for Web Apps rather than a Web Application architecture in and of itself.

Instead of having to use specific components or follow a set process when creating your Web App, you simply have to implement Pipes into any Web App, which requires asynchronous execution between multiple components.

This can be helpful for custom web applications that are data-heavy or need to handle a lot of user input as it allows tasks to be broken down into smaller, more manageable parts.

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How does Web App Architecture Work?

Web app architecture is the way that a web application’s functionality and data are organized. Web applications can be designed in many different ways, but they all have one thing in common: they store information on a server.

Web apps are accessed through browsers, where users typically interact with them by clicking links or filling out forms to create new information or change existing information. Web architecture has evolved over time as technology advances have changed what people expect from their internet experience.

A web application’s architecture is determined by its purpose and the way that it will be used. There are three main types of web applications: static, dynamic, and interactive. Static websites don’t change very often; they usually contain information that is displayed in a fixed format.

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Dynamic websites are those that are updated frequently, such as news sites or blogs. Interactive websites allow users to interact with the content, such as online stores or social networking sites.

Web applications are typically built using one of two architectures: client-server or peer-to-peer. Client-server systems use a central server that manages all of the data and functionality for the web application. This type of system is best for applications that need to manage a lot of data or require extensive security measures.

Peer-to-peer systems use a distributed network of servers to manage the application’s functionality and data. This type of system is better for applications that need to be quickly and easily updated or that have high traffic volumes.

Now that you have comprehended in-depth understanding into different types of Web Application Architecture and how it works, it’s time to start thinking about which one is right for your own Web App. Each has its own perks and disadvantages, so it’s important to choose the one that will work best for your solution.

Creating a solution with a seamless user interface & navigation can be possible via robust architecture. Therefore, custom web application development companies always recommend the best solution as per business needs.

Which Web App Architecture Is Best?

Web applications are built using different architectures for many reasons. Client-server systems allow users to access all of the data and functionality from any browser, but they require expensive servers with high processing power to deal with large amounts of traffic or complex security measures.

Peer-to-peer systems distribute their workload across multiple computers so that no individual computer needs to be powerful or expensive, but they can be difficult to update and may not be as secure. The best web app architecture for your application depends on its specific needs.

The next step in creating a web application is choosing the right technology stack. A technology stack is a collection of software tools that are used to create and run a website. Web developers have a wide range of tools to choose from, but the most popular stacks include Apache Web Server, LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP), WAP (Windows IIS +ASP.NET), and MEAN (MongoDB +Express+AngularJS).

Wrapping Up

Web application development is an ever-changing process that requires developers to keep up with new tools and best practices. Web technologies are constantly upgrading, so it is crucial for web developers to stay on top of trends in the industry by staying active in online communities or attending local developer events.

Web application architecture decides how an enterprise web application will function and what tools will be used to build it; the technology stack decides what language the website will be written in. Web developers need to know both of these things in order to create a web application. Hence, having an in-depth understanding of web application architecture is critical before beginning development.

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