Development
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.1
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Chapter 9: Application Design and Development
Application Programs and User Interfaces
Web Fundamentals
Servlets and JSP
Application Architectures
Rapid Application Development
Application Performance
Application Security
Encryption and Its Applications
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.2
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Application Programs and User Interfaces
Most database users do not use a query language like SQL
An application program acts as the intermediary between users and
the database
Applications split into
frontend
middle layer
backend
Frontend: user interface
Forms
Graphical user interfaces
Many interfaces are Webbased
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.3
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Application Architecture Evolution
Three distinct era’s of application architecture
mainframe (1960’s and 70’s)
personal computer era (1980’s)
We era (1990’s onwards)
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.4
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Web Interface
Web browsers have become the defacto standard user interface to
databases
Enable large numbers of users to access databases from anywhere
Avoid the need for downloading/installing specialized code, while providing a good graphical user interface
Javascript, Flash and other scripting languages run in browser, but are downloaded transparently
Examples: banks, airline and rental car reservations, university course registration and grading, an so on.
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.5
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
The World Wide Web
The Web is a distributed information system based on hypertext.
Most Web documents are hypertext documents formatted via the
HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
HTML documents contain
text along with font specifications, and other formatting instructions
hypertext links to other documents, which can be associated with regions of the text.
forms, enabling users to enter data which can then be sent back to the Web server
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.6
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Uniform Resources Locators
In the Web, functionality of pointers is provided by Uniform Resource
Locators (URLs).
URL example:
http://www.acm.org/sigmod
The first part indicates how the document is to be accessed
“http” indicates that the document is to be accessed using the
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol.
The second part gives the unique name of a machine on the
Internet.
The rest of the URL identifies the document within the machine.
The local identification can be:
The path name of a file on the machine, or
An identifier (path name) of a program, plus arguments to be passed to the program
– E.g., http://www.google.com/search?q=silberschatz
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.7
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
HTML and HTTP
HTML provides formatting, hypertext link, and image display features
including tables, stylesheets (to alter default formatting), etc.
HTML also provides input features
Select from a set of options
– Popup menus, radio buttons, check lists
Enter values
– Text boxes
Filled in input sent back to the server, to be acted upon by an executable at the server
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) used for communication with the
Web server
Database System Concepts 6th Edition
9.8
©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Sample HTML Source Text
<html>
<body> <table border>
<tr> <th>ID</th> <th>Name</th> <th>Department</th> </tr>
<tr> <td>00128</td> <td>Zhang</td> <td>Comp. Sci.</td> </tr>
….
</table> <form action="PersonQuery" method=get>
Search for: <select name="persontype"> <option value="student" selected>Student </option> <option