Managing & Using MySQL, 2nd Edition

Architecture

Architecture describes how the different components of a complex application relate to one another. A simple web application using Perl to generate dynamic content has the architecture shown in Figure 8-1. This architecture describes four components: the web browser, the web server, the Perl CGI engine, and the MySQL database.

Figure 8-1. The architecture of a simple web application

Architecture is the starting point for the design of any application. It helps identify at a high level all of the relevant technologies and the standards those technologies will use to integrate. In the web architecture, for example, the web browser talks to the server using HTTP.

As we will cover in the later chapters of this section, MySQL exposes itself through a variety of APIs tailored to specific programming languages. Java applications access MySQL through JDBC, Python applications through the Python DB-API, etc.

There are numerous architectures used in database applications. In this chapter, we will cover the three most common architectures: client/server, distributed, and web. Though one could argue that they are all variations on a theme, they do represent three very different philosophical approaches to building database applications.