On 23/07/11 12:05, John R Pierce wrote:
On 07/22/11 4:11 PM, Darren Duncan wrote:
Karl Nack wrote:
I've been following a few blogs
(http://database-programmer.blogspot.com/,
http://thehelsinkideclaration.blogspot.com/) that make a very
compelling
argument, in my opinion, to move as much business/transactional
logic as
possible into the database, so that client applications become little
more than moving data into and out of the database using a well-defined
API, most commonly (but not necessarily) through the use of stored
procedures.
I strongly agree with that design philosophy. One principle is that
the buck stops with the database and that regardless of what the
application does, any business logic should be enforced by the
database itself. Another principle is to treat the database like a
code library, where the tables are its internal variables and its
public API is stored procedures. Using stored procedures means you
can interact with the database from your application in the same way
your application interacts with itself, meaning with parameterized
routine calls.
the alternative 'modern' architecture is to implement the business
logic in a webservices engine that sits in front of the database, and
only use stored procedures for things that get significant performance
boost where that is needed to meet your performance goals.. Only this
business logic is allowed to directly query the operational database.
The business logic in this middle tier still relies on the database
server for data integrity and such. The presentation layer is
implemented either in a conventional client application or in a
webserver (not to be confused with the webservices).... so you have
user -> browser -> webserver/presentation layer ->
webservices/business logic -> database
The main rationale for this sort of design pattern is that large
complex business logic implemented in SQL stored procedures can be
rather difficult to develop and maintain
I was thinking similar thoughts, but you not only beat me to it, you
made some good points I had not thought of!
The only thing I can think of adding: is that it would be good to lock
down the database so that only the middleware can access it, everything
else accesses the database via the middleware.
Cheers,
Gavin
