Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition.

Chapter 13 Slide 1
Application architectures
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 2
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 3
Topics covered
Data processing systems
Transaction processing systems
Event processing systems
Language processing systems
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 4
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 5
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 6
Application types
Data processing applications
Data driven applications that process data in batches
without explicit user intervention during the processing.
Transaction processing applications
Data-centred applications that process user requests
and update information in a system database.
Event processing systems
Applications where system actions depend on
interpreting events from the systems environment.
Language processing systems
Applications where the users intentions are specified in
a formal language that is processed and interpreted by
the system.
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 7
Application type examples
Data processing systems
Billing systems;
Payroll systems.
Transaction processing systems
E-commerce systems;
Reservation systems.
Event processing systems
Word processors;
Real-time systems.
Language processing systems
Compilers;
Command interpreters.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 8
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 9
Input-process-output model
Syst em
Input Process Output
Pri nt er
Database
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 10
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 11
Data-flow diagrams
Show how data is processed as it moves
through a system.
Transformations are represented as round-
edged rectangles, data-flows as arrows
between them and files/data stores as
rectangles.
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 12
Salary payment DFD
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 13
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 14
Transaction processing
I/O
processing
Application
logi c
Transaction
manager
Database
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 15
ATM system organisation
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 16
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 17
Transaction management
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 18
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 19
Information system structure
User inter face
Information retrieval and modification
Database
Transaction management
User communications
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 20
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;
Information retrieval layer
Distributed search;
Document retrieval;
Rights manager;
Accounting.
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 21
LIBSYS organisation
Web browser inter face
Distributed
search
Accounting
LIBSYS
login
Forms and
query manager
Library index
Document
retrieval
DB1 DB2 DB3 DB4 DBn
Rights
manager
Print
manager
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 22
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 23
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 24
Layered resource allocation
User inter face
Resource
management
Resource policy
control
Resource
allocation
User
authentication
Query
management
Resource database
Resource
delivery
Transaction management
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 25
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 26
Web
browser
Web server
Application
server
Database
server
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 27
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 28
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 29
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 30
Editing system architecture
File System
Save
Open
Editor data
Editing
commands
Ancillary data
Ancillary
commands
Command
Interpret
Screen
Refresh
Display
Update
Event
Process
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 31
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 32
A language processing system
Translator
Check syntax
Check semantics
Generate
Interpreter
Fetch
Execute
Abstract m/c
instructions
Data
Results
Instructions
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 33
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 34
Data-flow model of a compiler
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 35
Repository model of a compiler
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 36
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.
Key points
Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 13 Slide 37
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.