Application architectures

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 1

Objectives


To explain the organisation of two fundamental models of business systems - batch processing and transaction processing systems To describe the abstract architecture of resource management systems To explain how generic editors are event processing systems To describe the structure of language processing systems

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 2

Topics covered
   

Data processing systems Transaction processing systems Event processing systems Language processing systems

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 3

Generic application architectures



Application systems are designed to meet an organisational need. As businesses have much in common, their application systems also tend to have a common architecture that reflects the application requirements. A generic architecture is configured and adapted to create a system that meets specific requirements.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 4

Use of application architectures

  

As a starting point for architectural design. As a design checklist. As a way of organising the work of the development team. As a means of assessing components for reuse. As a vocabulary for talking about application types.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 5

Application types


Data processing applications

Data driven applications that process data in batches without explicit user intervention during the processing. Data-centred applications that process user requests and update information in a system database. Applications where system actions depend on interpreting events from the systems environment. Applications where the users intentions are specified in a formal language that is processed and interpreted by the system.
Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 6

Transaction processing applications

Event processing systems

Language processing systems

Ian Sommerville 2004

Application type examples



Data processing systems

Billing systems; Payroll systems. E-commerce systems; Reservation systems. Word processors; Real-time systems. Compilers; Command interpreters.
Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 7

Transaction processing systems

Event processing systems

Language processing systems

Ian Sommerville 2004

Data processing systems



Systems that are data-centred where the databases used are usually orders of magnitude larger than the software itself. Data is input and output in batches
Input: A set of customer numbers and associated readings of an electricity meter; Output: A corresponding set of bills, one for each customer number.

Data processing systems usually have an input-process-output structure.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 8

Input-process-output model

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 9

Input-process-output


The input component reads data from a file or database, checks its validity and queues the valid data for processing. The process component takes a transaction from the queue (input), performs computations and creates a new record with the results of the computation. The output component reads these records, formats them accordingly and writes them to the database or sends them to a printer.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 10

Data-flow diagrams


Show how data is processed as it moves through a system. Transformations are represented as roundedged rectangles, data-flows as arrows between them and files/data stores as rectangles.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 11

Salary payment DFD

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 12

Transaction processing systems



Process user requests for information from a database or requests to update the database. From a user perspective a transaction is:
Any coherent sequence of operations that satisfies a goal; For example - find the times of flights from London to Paris.

Users make asynchronous requests for service which are then processed by a transaction manager.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 13

Transaction processing

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 14

ATM system organisation

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 15

Transaction processing middleware



Transaction management middleware or teleprocessing monitors handle communications with different terminal types (e.g. ATMs and counter terminals), serialises data and sends it for processing. Query processing takes place in the system database and results are sent back through the transaction manager to the users terminal.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 16

Transaction management

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 17

Information systems architecture



Information systems have a generic architecture that can be organised as a layered architecture. Layers include:
The user interface User communications Information retrieval System database

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 18

Information system structure

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 19

LIBSYS architecture


The library system LIBSYS is an example of an information system. User communications layer:
LIBSYS login component; Form and query manager; Print manager; Distributed search; Document retrieval; Rights manager; Accounting.

Information retrieval layer

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 20

LIBSYS organisation

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 21

Resource allocation systems



Systems that manage a fixed amount of some resource (football game tickets, books in a bookshop, etc.) and allocate this to users. Examples of resource allocation systems:
Timetabling systems where the resource being allocated is a time period; Library systems where the resource being managed is books and other items for loan; Air traffic control systems where the resource being managed is the airspace.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 22

Resource allocation architecture



Resource allocation systems are also layered systems that include:

A resource database; A rule set describing how resources are allocated; A resource manager; A resource allocator; User authentication; Query management; Resource delivery component; User interface.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 23

Layered resource allocation

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 24

Layered system implementation



Each layer can be implemented as a large scale component running on a separate server. This is the most commonly used architectural model for web-based systems. On a single machine, the middle layers are implemented as a separate program that communicates with the database through its API. Fine-grain components within layers can be implemented as web services.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 25

E-commerce system architecture



E-commerce systems are Internet-based resource management systems that accept electronic orders for goods or services. They are usually organised using a multi-tier architecture with application layers associated with each tier.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 26

Event processing systems



These systems respond to events in the systems environment. Their key characteristic is that event timing is unpredictable so the architecture has to be organised to handle this. Many common systems such as word processors, games, etc. are event processing systems.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 27

Editing systems


Real-time systems (Chapter 15) and editing systems are the most common types of event processing system. Editing system characteristics:
Single user systems; Must provide rapid feedback to user actions; Organised around long transactions so may include recovery facilities.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 28

Editing system components



Editing systems are naturally object-oriented:

Screen - monitors screen memory and detects events; Event - recognises events and passes them for processing; Command - executes a user command; Editor data - manages the editor data structure; Ancillary data - manages other data such as styles and preferences; File system - manages file I/O; Display - updates the screen display.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 29

Editing system architecture

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 30

Language processing systems



Accept a natural or artificial language as input and generate some other representation of that language. May include an interpreter to act on the instructions in the language that is being processed. Used in situations where the easiest way to solve a problem is to describe an algorithm or describe the system data
Meta-case tools process tool descriptions, method rules, etc and generate tools.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 31

A language processing system

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 32

Language processing components

     

Lexical analyser Symbol table Syntax analyser Syntax tree Semantic analyser Code generator

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 33

Data-flow model of a compiler

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 34

Repository model of a compiler

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 35

Key points


Generic models of application architectures help us understand and compare applications. Important classes of application are data processing systems, transaction processing systems, event processing systems and language processing system. Data processing systems operate in batch mode and have an input-process-output structure.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 36

Key points


Transaction processing systems allow information in a database to be remotely accessed and modified by multiple users. Event processing systems include editors and real-time systems. In an editor, user interface events are detected and an in-store data structure is modified. Language processing systems translate texts from one language to another and may interpret the specified instructions.

Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13

Slide 37