Website design articles by UZilla.org

Website system design – A framework approach.

When ever software is designed it needs to fit into an overall framework. The framework itself needs to be designed and documented. Frameworks, in this context could be as broad as the component architecture, consisting, of web client, application server and database server or as narrow as the structure of the web client. These frameworks, or structures, need to be designed and put in place before any individual component can be designed.

The web client sever framework, in a website context consists of:-

The web client.

The web server.

The web application server.

The database server.

The web client.

This is usually a web browser and, more likely that not, will probably be some version of Internet Explorer. The web client could be and individual application that communicates with the web server, although this is not as common.

The web server.

This is IIS, Apache or some other web server that responds to http requests.

The web application server.

This could be Microsoft’s .asp or Java jsp or any Common Gateway Interface (CGI) that the web server uses when execution of commands is required on the server. Examples of application server functions, are calculating tax and transfer balance etc.

The database server.

The database is also another component of the web client\server framework and includes the actual data store and access routines (SQL). Examples of database servers include MYSQL, Oracle and DB2 etc.

The value of frameworks.

Having predefined website frameworks gives us the following benefits:-

Consistent approach to development.

Supportability improvements.

Adaptability improvements.

These benefits are not automatically given to any framework and the careful consideration to the framework needs to be given before the above benefits are achieved. Consider the web client structure, by having a CSS file (that specifies fonts and look and feel etc.) we can change the overall presentation of our web clients by altering one file. To achieve maximum flexibility here we need to identify all of the possible variables that could go into a CSS file then have standards and documentation that make sure this happens. Also if we are planning to use jsp (Java script) in our web clients we need to keep a set of libraries for each function (i.e. hover menu etc.) we need to perform in order to limit the number of modules we have to change for adapting the web site to changing demands. As with css we need to identify how to reuse code, with parameters in order to reduce the places (components) that need to be changed.

Conclusion.

All website design needs to be done in the context of frameworks, if we do not give consideration, upfront, to the overall website structure (framework) then the structure itself will contain redundancy and disparate technologies doing the same function. Prior to any website design, we need a blue print or architectural framework down to the component level of each of the major modules, i.e. we need the Web browser component structure defined as well as the application and database servers.

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