Architecting ASP.NET Applications

About me

Name: Gunnar Peipman

Origin: Tallinn, Estonia

Work: Architect, developer

Microsoft: ASP.NET/IIS MVP

Community: Blogger, speaker

Blog: http://gunnarpeipman.com

Hobbies: travelling, technology, brewing

Agenda

Introduction

Server-side architecture

Client-side architecture

Performance

Get ready for changes

Server-side architecture

Understanding the application

• What are expectations on UI?

• What functionalities will be there?

• How big load we should expect?

• Are there any external services?

• How fast is system growth?

Architectural patterns

• Transaction Script

• Table Module

• Domain Model

• Service Layer

„Patterns of Enterprise Applications Architecture“

(Martin Fowler)

Transaction Script

„Organizes business logic by procedures where each

procedure handles a single request from the

presentation“

int GetNetProfitForMonth(DateTime month)

int InsertPayment(int customerId, decimal sum)

• Usually simple code using ADO.NET

• Some classes with operations + base class

Table Module

„A single instance that handles the business logic for all

rows in a database table or view.“

class Product {

Product GetById(int id)

int SaveProduct(Product product)

}

• Class per type

• All classes handle all operations related to type

Domain Model

„An object model of the domain that incorporates both

behavior and data.“

• „Living“ classes that communicate with each other

• Classes perform operations

• We can use Entity Framework or Nhibernate as ORM

Service Layer

„Defines an application's boundary with a layer of

services that establishes a set of available operations

and coordinates the application's response in each

operation.“

• Additional layer between PL and BL

• Serves UI, provides DTO-s with no relations to DB

• Easier for UI guys than Domain Model

• Better layering and separation of concerns

Our architecture now

Web application

Service Layer

Domain Model

Data Layer

Data store

• RDBMS – some relational database + ORM

• NoSQL – MongoDB, ElasticDB, DocumentDB

• Web Services – Web API, WCF, SOAP

• Files – local files, cloud storage

Our architecture now

Web application

Service Layer

Domain Model

Data Layer

MSSQL MongoDBWeb

Services

Storage

Server disk Cloud

UI architecture

UI styles

• Classic server-side code

• Some AJAX

• Single Page Application (SPA)

• Component-based (rare)

Most often your application is mix of first three.

Dynamic UI

• More complex JavaScript

• Requests for HTML and JSON

• Data provided by Web API

Web Application

Controller Model Result

JavaScript

Data Binder Model Adapter

Our achitecture now

Service Layer

Domain Model

Data Layer

MSSQL MongoDB Web Services

Storage

Server disk Cloud

JavaScript Application

Web Application Web API

Performance

Performance

• User interface

• Web application

• Data access

User interface

• Go for very well performing JavaScript and CSS

• We have no control over users machines

• Dumb user has usually way lighter computer than the

rockets we use

• Avoid chatty data layer in UI

Work together with UI guys to make sure all these

issues get addressed

Web application

Go for smaller resource consumption

• Prefer thin controllers over fat ones

• Make sure models carry data and provide

functionalities that support UI

• View must present only what model provides

• Use bundling and minification

• Use CDN-s

• Use output cache

Data access

Main focus is on data consistency and data store

performance

• Work close with DBA to make sure database

performs well

• Usually heavy optimization on ORM level is needed

• Transactions! Transactions! Transactions!

Get ready for changes

Selecting correct architecture

• Estimate size of codebase and its growth

• Have a plan for rapid growth for codebase

• Have a plan for supporting big userbase

• Some parts of application may be services in future

• Be ready to use cloud services to scale

If you application has fast growth then also architecture

changes. Stay two steps ahead of changes!

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