ISYS 546 Client/Server Database Application Development

Database Application Database application is a program that interacts with the database at some point in its execution. It consists of an organized set of menus, forms, reports, business rules, and the database it operates on.

Evolution of Multi-User Database Application Architectures Teleprocessing: –One computer with a single CPU and a number of dumb terminals. –Add burden on the central computer, which not only had to run the application programs and DBMS, but also had to carry out a significant amount of work on behalf of the terminals (such as formatting data for display) File-Server: –Applications run on workstations that contain a full copy of the DBMS. File-server acts as a shared hard disk drive. The DBMS on each workstation sends requests to the file-server for data, but none of the processing is done by the server. –Generate a significant amount of network traffic. Client-Server: –Computer network development –Balanced distributed processing

Client Database Server SQL queries Results Database Server: A high processing power computer with advanced DBMS. Client: A PC that runs database applications. SQL interface.

Client Functions Manages the user interface. Accepts and checks syntax of user input. Implements business rules. Generates database requests and transmits to server. Passes response back to user.

Database Server Functions Checks authorization. Accepts and processes database requests from clients. Ensures integrity constraints not violated. Performs query/update processing and transmits response to client. Provides concurrent database access, transaction management, and recovery control.

Advantages of Client-Server Architecture Enables wider access to databases. Increased performance: Different CPUs can be processing applications in parallel. Hardware costs may be reduced: Only server requires higher storage and processing power to manage the database. Network traffic is reduced: Only database requests and results are sent. Increased database integrity.

The three components in a database application 1. Presentation – user interface Menus, forms, reports, etc 2. Processing logic Business rules 3. Database

Categories of Database Applications One-Tier –Legacy online transaction processing –PC database application Two-Tier client/server –Client-based presentation. –Processing logic is buried either inside the user interface on the client or within the database on the server, or both. Three-Tier, N- tier –Processing logic is separated from the interface and database.

Two-tier Simplicity Provides a basic separation of tasks. The client is primarily responsible for the presentation of data to user, and the server is primarily responsible for supplying data services to the client. Fat client: –More functions are placed on the client Fat server: –More functions are placed on the server.

Three-Tier 1. User interface, 2. Business logic and data processing layer, 3. Database server. Advantage: –Implementing business rules as components. Objects that provide services to other client applications. –Application maintenance is centralized. –Separation of the business logic from the database functions. –Fit naturally to the Internet environment.

Benefits of Building Applications from Components Reusability –Many applications can share the services provided by the same component. Manageability –By dividing a program into components, a project can be divided into smaller, more manageable tasks, and each individual programmers can build components for which their skills are best suited. Maintenance –Each component can be maintained as an individual unit.

Progression of the Internet Hypertext web –Publishing static web pages Simple response web – Dynamic database pages –Stateless –Cookies –Maintain session with server side scripts, ASP, JSP Object web –Provides object- to –object interactions between client object and server object. –Require web server to mediate between objects running on the client and objects running on the server.

The Web as a Database Application Platform Three-tier architecture –Browser, web server, database server, processing logic Advantages: –Cross-platform support –Graphical user interface

The Web as a Database Application Platform Disadvantages –Reliability: Internet is unreliable and slow. –Security –Costs: hardware and software 20%, marketing 24%, content development 56%. –Potentially enormous peak load.

Approaches to Integrating the Web and DBMSs Common Gateway Interface (CGI) –Lack of transaction support due to the statelessness of HTTP. The database server must perform the same logon and logout for every query submitted by the same user. JAVA 2 Platform Microsoft Platform Others

Java 2 Platform Presentation Tier: –JavaScript, Java applet Server site scripting: –Java Server Pages Business tier: –Enterprise Java Beans (EJB): A standard for building server-site components in Java. Database access: –JDBC –SQLJ: Static embeded SQL in Java.

Old Microsoft Platform Presentation Tier: –VBScript, JScript Web server and Server site scripting: –Internet Information Server, Active Server Pages Business tier: –COM ActiveX components Component Object Model consists of a specification that defines the interface between objects and an implementation packaged as a Dynamic Link Library (DLL). Database access: –ODBC: An interface to access relational databases.

.Net Architecture Common Language Runtime Base Class Library Data and XML ASP.Net Windows Forms Common Language Specification VB.NetC#C++

Microsoft’s.Net Language must compliance with Common Language Specification, CLS. Compile the language into Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) code. The MSIL code is then executed in the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which conceptually is same as the JVM, where it is translated into machine code by a compiler.

Common Language Runtime: –Manages execution of compiled.NET program. –Provides.Net basic services, such as memory management, garbage collection, etc. Base Class library: define all the basic data types such as system.object, numeric, date, etc. Data and XML: Classes work with database (ADO.NET) and XML document. ASP.Net and Forms: Classes that generate user interface. CLS: CLS dictates the minimum group of features that a.Net language must have.

.Net Advantages It is independence from a specific language. Developers can create a.Net application in any.Net compatible language. –.Net moves most of the functionality from the language to the.Net Framework. All.Net languages can use these classes. It can exist on multiple platforms, further extending the portability of.Net programs. Facilitate internet application development: –ASP.Net: Web Forms and XML Web services. Universal data access: Data can be accessed by any Internet-connected device.

Programming in the.Net Framework Programming in the.Net Framework means making use of the classes, objects, and members exposed by the Framework, building your own classes on top of these and manipulating the resulting objects using a.Net language.

Techniques Covered in ISYS546 Prerequisites: Programming, Database, SQL.Net Framework Visual Basic.NET –Interface and event-driven programming –Class and component programming Database programming –ADO.NET programming model Web Techniques: –Server side scripting: ASP.NET –Web services: Introduction to XML