Front end (client) agnostic backend

cotton31 · 15 Oct 2014 at 19:39

Hi,

I'm looking for a bit of info about what the above is called, so that I can do more research.

My idea is that there's some sort of backend that serves up data, that doesn't care what sort of client is connecting to it (web app, desktop app, mobile app etc.)

My google skills are failing me!

john_s · 15 Oct 2014 at 20:10

Service oriented architecture?

Three-tier / n-tier architecture?

cotton31 · 16 Oct 2014 at 14:29

Exactly that! Thanks very much!

cotton31 · 17 Oct 2014 at 15:19

OK I understand this a bit better now - my particular requirements are for a web app and iOS app frontend.

The Database is MS SQL Server. Would I be best creating a .NET web service that handled the Business Logic and Data Access? Then both the web app and iOS app would connect to that?

Thanks,

Cromulent · 19 Oct 2014 at 20:41

cotton31 said:
OK I understand this a bit better now - my particular requirements are for a web app and iOS app frontend.

The Database is MS SQL Server. Would I be best creating a .NET web service that handled the Business Logic and Data Access? Then both the web app and iOS app would connect to that?

Thanks,

Yeah that would be one way of doing it and should work well assuming you implement the data access layer correctly. Basically just make sure you keep any business logic out of the web app and the iOS app and keep it in the data access layer so you have an easier time when it comes to maintaining the whole thing.

cotton31 · 20 Oct 2014 at 12:46

That's what I'm thinking, essentially the Web app and iOS app would just act as views for whatever data the Web Service passed to them.

What other ways are there, out of interest?

Cromulent · 20 Oct 2014 at 18:12

cotton31 said:
What other ways are there, out of interest?

They are all variations of the same theme. If you wanted to save money on licensing (Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server) you could write the web app API in a language such as Python and then use PostgreSQL as the database running on Linux and you wouldn't need to pay anyone a penny for licensing costs which would save you quite a lot of money in the long run.

As long as your web app API returns some easy to consume data in JSON or XML format your clients (the website and iOS app) won't care about the back-end at all.