AJAX-based: A Middle-of-the-Road Approach

By: Adelmar Esplana

“In the past, browser applications have always been about filling out and submitting forms and getting a whole new page back.  There is a lot of boilerplate on each page that gets retransmitted over and over again,” said Herdener in Seattle, a spokesperson from Amazon.com (Taft D., 2005). Standard information such as header, footer and navigational menus are some of the common content that is coming back and forth every time each page is requested from the server.  Before we dig in a little further, let us discuss first what is a desktop-based versus a Net-based application.

Desktop Application (Desktop-based)

Desktop application performs its operations on the client computer, and may access a centrally located database.  However, it does not require a web browser or web server, and does not generate HTML pages.

Common reasons for selecting the desktop application include:

• Support for a more sophisticated or rich application user interface
• Improve performance
• Lower application development cost

Web Application (Net-based)

Web application runs on an Internet web server and generates HTML web pages that are displayed to the user through a web browser.  All user interaction takes place through a web browser.

Common reasons for selecting a web-based implementation include:

• Cross platform compatibility
• Lower installation and maintenance costs
• Ease of use for the novice computer user (and shorter learning curve)
• Ability to access the application or database from any internet-connected computer

Web Applications Performance Issues

According to Schmelzer, senior analyst of ZapThink,  “Users today increasingly demand more from their online user experience.” 

If you're running serious business applications online, a slow website equals lost dollars. This is true either directly--by missed sales if you're running an e-commerce store--or indirectly--through lost customer trust if you're providing a web-based solution to clients. The more important a website becomes to your operation, the less you can afford to have slow performance or downtime. Snap decisions in crises, however, can lead to greater expenses and more problems down the road (entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,327448,00.html).

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Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the underlying importance of a system-level analyst and system architect roles in the design and development of an Architecture-driven approach in Software Development in accordance with the sub-system roles such as software engineers, programmers and developers.  

Architecture-driven approach in Software Development

Architecture-driven  software development is now becoming the most effective  approach in building systems. The IEEE defines architecture as:  “The architecture of a software system (at a given point in time) is its organization or structure of significant components interacting through interfaces, those components being composed of successively smaller components and interfaces”.

 Software architecture is a subset of the overall system architecture. System architecture includes all design and implementation aspects, including hardware and technology selection. Software architecture is distinguished from programming in several ways. One characterization is that the difference between an architect and a programmer is that the architect cares about the cost impacts of their decisions. Complexity is viewed by many in the architecture, management, and metrics fields as the key architecture design force. Software complexity is related to software cost. At a minimum, the architect is responsible for managing complexity.

Software architecture focuses on three aspects of software design:

• Partitioning - The functional partitioning of software modules.
• Interfaces – The software interfaces between modules.
• Connections – The selection and characteristics of the technology used to implement the interface connections between software modules.

Architecture decisions are usually implemented by a much larger group of developers and maintainers. In order to manage these elements effectively, there are significant challenges for architects in managing the people and relationships. Some examples include: communicating the design to developers, achieving buy-in from managers and developers, and managing the implementation and extension of the design.

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