Summary

The architecture of a Web application is an important step in the development process. There are many example architectures that can be found on the Web. Some are language-specific, and some are not. However, there are a few key characteristics that you should try to achieve:

• Consistency— By implementing the same overall design in several applications, you will help to improve on your methods, which can help improve both present and past applications. In addition, this approach helps team members stay better organized and allows them to focus on the programming rather than learning a new design for every application.

• Simplicity— Although most example architectures are very detailed and complex, this approach is not always best. Many applications are built with very little thought given to the software architecture, and this is likely due to the fact that many sample architectures are too complex and would slow development. In order to be helpful, an architecture should be easy and intuitive for Web developers to employ, and it should allow a certain amount of flexibility, so that it can be applied to multiple applications. A simple design is better than no design.

The following chapter builds on the ideas mentioned here by introducing several programming practices that can help to improve the reliability, performance, and security of your applications.