The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software elements, the externally visible properties of those elements, and the relationships among them. Architecture is concerned with the public side of interfaces; private details of elements—details having to do solely with internal implementation—are not architectural. -- Software Architecture in Practice (2nd edition), Bass, Clements, and Kazman
The software architecture shows the overall organization of the system and can be viewed as a very high-level design. It usually consists of a set of interacting components that fit together to achieve the required functionality. It should be a simple and technically viable structure that is well-understood and agreed-upon by everyone in the development team, and it forms the basis for the implementation.
A possible architecture for a Minesweeper game
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Main components:
GUI: Graphical user interfaceTextUi: Textual user interfaceATD: An automated test driver used for testing the game logicLogic: computation and logic of the gameStore: storage and retrieval of game data (high scores etc.)
The architecture is typically designed by the software architect, who provides the technical vision of the system and makes high-level (i.e. architecture-level) technical decisions about the project.
Choose the correct statement
- a. The architecture of a system should be simple enough for all team members to understand it.
- b. The architecture is primarily a high-level design of the system.
- c. The architecture is usually decided by the project manager.
- d. The architecture can contain details private to a component.
(a)(b)
(c) Reason: Architecture is usually designed by the Architect
(d) Reason:
... private details of elements—details having to do solely with internal implementation—are not architectural.
Architecture diagrams are free-form diagrams. There is no universally adopted standard notation for architecture diagrams. Any symbol that reasonably describes the architecture may be used.
Some example architecture diagrams:
source: https://commons.wikimedia.org
source: https://commons.wikimedia.org
source: https://commons.wikimedia.org
While architecture diagrams have no standard notation, try to follow these basic guidelines when drawing them.
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Minimize the variety of symbols. If the symbols you choose do not have widely-understood meanings e.g. A drum symbol is widely-understood as representing a database, explain their meaning.
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Avoid the indiscriminate use of double-headed arrows to show interactions between components.
Consider the two architecture diagrams of the same software given below. Because Diagram 2 uses double headed arrows, the important fact that GUI has a bi-directional dependency with the Logic component is no longer captured.
Software architectures follow various high-level styles (aka architectural patterns), just like
n-tier style, client-server style, event-driven style, transaction processing style, service-oriented style, pipes-and-filters style, message-driven style, broker style, ...
source: https://inspectapedia.com
In the n-tier style, higher layers make use of services provided by lower layers. Lower layers are independent of higher layers. Other names: multi-layered, layered.
Operating systems and network communication software often use n-tier style.
The client-server style has at least one component playing the role of a server and at least one client component accessing the services of the server. This is an architectural style used often in distributed applications.
The online game and the Web application below uses the client-server style.
The transaction processing style divides the workload of the system down to a number of transactions which are then given to a dispatcher that controls the execution of each transaction. Task queuing, ordering, undo etc. are handled by the dispatcher.
In this example from a Banking system, transactions are generated by the terminals used by
The service-oriented architecture (SOA) style builds applications by combining functionalities packaged as programmatically accessible services. SOA aims to achieve interoperability between distributed services, which may not even be implemented using the same programming language. A common way to implement SOA is through the use of XML web services where the web is used as the medium for the services to interact, and XML is used as the language of communication between service providers and service users.
Suppose that Amazon.com provides a web service for customers to browse and buy merchandise, while HSBC provides a web service for merchants to charge HSBC credit cards. Using these web services, an ‘eBookShop’ web application can be developed that allows HSBC customers to buy merchandise from Amazon and pay for them using HSBC credit cards. Because both Amazon and HSBC services follow the SOA architecture, their web services can be reused by the web application, even if all three systems use different programming platforms.
Event-driven style controls the flow of the application by detecting
When the ‘button clicked’ event occurs in a GUI, that event can be transmitted to components that are interested in reacting to that event. Similarly, events detected at a Printer port can be transmitted to components related to operating the Printer. The same event can be sent to multiple consumers too.
Other well-known architectural styles include the pipes-and-filters architectures, the broker architectures, the peer-to-peer architectures, and the message-oriented architectures.
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Pipes and Filters pattern -- an article from Microsoft about the pipes and filters architectural style
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Broker pattern -- Wikipedia article on the broker architectural style
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Peer-to-peer pattern -- Wikipedia article on the P2P architectural style
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Message-driven processing -- a post by Margaret Rouse
Most applications use a mix of these architectural styles.
An application can use a client-server architecture where the server component comprises several layers, i.e. it uses the n-Tier architecture.
Assume you are designing a multiplayer version of the Minesweeper game where any number of players can play the same Minefield. Players use their own PCs to play the game. A player scores by deducing a cell correctly before any of the other players do. Once a cell is correctly deduced, it appears as either marked or cleared for all players.
Comment on how each of the following architectural styles could be potentially useful when designing the architecture for this game.
- Client-server
- Transaction-processing
- SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)
- multi-layer (n-tier)
- Client-server – Clients can be the game UI running on player PCs. The server can be the game logic running on one machine.
- Transaction-processing – Each player action can be packaged as transactions (by the client component running on the player PC) and sent to the server. Server processes them in the order they are received.
- SOA – The game can access a remote web services for things such as getting new puzzles, validating puzzles, charging players subscription fees, etc.
- Multi-layer – The server component can have two layers: logic layer and the storage layer.
