Architecture in .NET

Last week's .NET developer tip discussed the definitions of patterns and architecture. This week, we continue the discussion with a deeper look into architecture. This tip, excerpted from InformIT, talks about the kinds of decisions that you have to make before you build an application, and the answers serve to define the architecture of that application. These decisions are common concerns in service-oriented architecture (SOA) and in Web services development.

The architecture of an application results from the process of building a system from a variety of disparate components (some of which may themselves encompass design patterns) and making sure that those components come together in a flexible, maintainable, scalable, secure, and efficient way. In framework applications, architecture typically comes together through answering questions such as the following:

The answers to these questions and many more like them aren't always obvious, and the nature of the questions implies that there are multiple possible solutions and no "best way" in all cases.

Just as with design patterns discussed previously, these decisions (and parallel

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decisions made on non–.NET platforms) are ones that have been made many times over. As a result, you can benefit from the work of others who have collected architectural patterns and best practices that encapsulate many of these decisions. Two primary resources for framework developers include Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, by Martin Fowler (Addison Wesley Professional, 2002), and Application Architecture for .NET: Designing Applications and Services, posted on the MSDN Web site. In addition, Microsoft has collected a variety of architectural resources, including reusable code, Webcasts, and articles on its .NET Architecture Center Web site. I highly recommend that you obtain these resources if you're designing framework applications.

The Fowler book, in particular, is very helpful in fostering a common design vocabulary; it includes code examples in a variety of languages, including C#. In all, Fowler documents 51 patterns and, like the GoF, collects them in 10 higher-level groups:

To read the entire article from which this tip comes, click over to InformIT. You have to register there, but the registration is free.