Sunday, January 27, 2008
Being 10 Years Behind (part 2)
Indeed, it seems like Microsoft took good care of removing most of the material on Windows DNA from its developer-oriented website.
However, here comes the TechNet website to the rescue (well, at least till they realize it :-). As you see, the much touted "Distributed interNet Applications Architecture" was the usual 3 tier blurb. There is no date on that web page, but the "Windows DNA" stuff is about ten years old.
Sure, Windows DNA was all based on COM+ components, most likely implemented in Visual Basic, maybe glued to a presentation logic written in old-style ASP (VBScript all around). But look at that architecture again. Does it look familiar?
Let's take a look at some recent Microsoft-oriented paper on application architecture. For instance, in Microsoft .NET Pet Shop 3.x: Design Patterns and Architecture of the .NET Pet Shop the Microsoft-flavored "Data Access Layer" is introduced, along with a general architecture (see fig. 3) which looks absolutely identical to the old "Windows DNA" stuff.
Dig deeper (fig. 5, 6, 8, 9) and you'll also realize that the DAL structure is a mirror of the DB structure (that is, basically one class for each table). Looks really like the decade-old, fragile architecture I described in my previous post, except this paper is "just" 5 years old. Particularly dreadful is the "business entities" yellow box in fig. 8, spanning the 3 tiers with a set of hard-coded structures (which end up being a mirror of the database tables).
Fast forward to the present (sort of), and you get introductory papers like Creating a Data Access Layer where again the same basic architecture is rehashed under the .NET 2.0 newfangled classes and wizards.
And oh yeah, if you really wanna feel up-to-date, LINQ will take care of the DB, no more SQL, thank you. Except they've just embedded SQL in C#, thereby exposing your code to the same fragility WRT changes in the database schema.
Now, why is Microsoft pushing (through authors and evangelists) old stuff like that? I've partially answered in a comment to a previous post, but I'll add a little more. It's not that they're not smart enough to do better. It's that they think we are not smart enough to do better (Sun doesn't think much differently either).
Indeed, the architecture they're selling is easy to explain, easy to understand, easy to implement piecemeal, without much thinking. It's almost a Marketecture (short for Marketing Architecture, contrast with Technical Architecture).
Here are a few half-baked thoughts for those of you with a little time to spare :-) and a sincere interest about creating modern (or post-modern) architectures:
A) Information Hiding is about hiding likely changes. Likely changes in a database-oriented architecture are:
1) the database engine itself (oracle, sql server, etc). That includes the SQL-dialect of the database, so don't rely entirely on odbc, ado and the like.
2) the data access technology (remember odbc, rdo, dao, ado, ado.net, ado.net 2.0, linq, all have been sold as the ultimate technology, yet every 2 years or so we get a new one).
3) the database schema itself.
The old-style architecture may do something about 1 and 2, but precious nothing for 3 (which is going to consume most of your time anyway).
Now, the database schema may change for several reasons. Over time, you will:
- normalize
- denormalize
- add/drop fields
- add/drop tables
- re-route relationships
- change cardinality in relationships
You need to understand the most likely changes, as these are shaping your context (and therefore influence the best form)
B) The interface between a (well-designed) Data Layer and the Business Layer must be loose. It shouldn't break when the database schema changes because you added a field. Therefore, if the interface is based on strongly typed entities which mirror the database schema, you're doomed.
C) The interface between a (well-designed) Business Layer and the UI Layer or Service Layer must be loose. See above.
D) Don't lock the architecture on the worst case. We all know that a lot of code behind the UI is not that smart.
In many cases, given a robust validation layer, which can be designed to be very flexible and dynamic, the business layer won't do much except routing data to / from the data layer.
Don't make the business layer a necessary burden. Make it an important, yet optional component that kicks in only when important business logic is needed.
E) Reflection is the key to flexible DB applications.
F) You can only get so far with language-based reflection at the Data Layer level, because SQL is too old/primitive. Sooner or later, you'll need to attach more semantics to each field than your DB wants you to (especially if you don't want to tie yourself to a single DB vendor). Be creative :-), as this would take too much space for a single post.
G) Static typing is great inside each layer. It's also great at the interface level when the structure we're talking about is stable. It's truly bad when you want to expose a flexible or changing structure.
Remember why we conceived XML in the first place? Data are fluid!
Ok, there would be more to say about semistructured data, service-oriented architectures and the like, but that will have to wait.
I'll just repeat my caveat: be wary about buying an architecture from your vendor. Apply a good dose of critical thinking and look for the real value in your specific context.
You wouldn't buy the architectural blueprint of your house from a bricks or pipes vendor, no matter the quality of those bricks and pipes. You normally shouldn't buy your application architecture from your language, tools, or operating system vendor either.
Labels: architecture, article reference
Monday, January 14, 2008
Being 10 Years Behind (part 1)
In the last two years I've been working quite closely with a company, designing the fourth generation of a successful product. Indeed, a few of my posts have been inspired by the work I did on that project.
What we have now is a small, flexible, fast web application where we definitely pushed the envelope using AOP-like techniques pervasively, although in .NET/C#.
Compared with the previous generation, our application has more features, is much easier to customize (a must), is much easier to use thanks to the task-oriented design of the HCI (the previous generation was more slanted toward the useless computer approach) and also about 10 times faster (thanks to better database design and a smarter business layer).
Guess what, the source code size is just about 1/30 of what we had before (yeap, 30 times less), excluding generated code to read/write some XML files. The previous application was written in a mixture of C++, VB6, Perl, Python, C#.
Now, the company is considering a strict partnership with an Asian corporation. They have a similar product, in ASP.NET / C# as well. It took them something like 30 times our man-months to write it, so the general feeling was that it should have been "more powerful". Time to look at the features, but hey, features are basically the same, although their product is not task-oriented. If anything, they lack a lot of our customization interface.
Time to look at the code, as the code never lies.
The code is probably 50 times bigger, with no flexibility whatsoever. If you need to attach one more field to a business concept, just to track some custom information, you probably have to change the database, 5-8 classes between the database and the GUI, and the GUI itself.
In most cases, in our application we just need to open the administration console, add the field, specify validation rules, and that's it.
If you have special needs, you write a custom class, decorate the class with attributes, and we take care of all the plumbing to instantiate / call your class in the critical moments (that's one of the several places where the AOP-like stuff kick in).
What struck me when I looked at that code was the (depressing :-) similarity with a lot of old-style Java code I've been seeing over the years, especially in banking environments.
There is an EntityDAO (data access object) package with basically one class for each business entity. That class is quite stupid, basically dealing with persistence (CRUD) and exposing properties. Those classes are used "at the bottom" of the system, that is, near to the database.
Then there is an Entity package where (again!) there is basically one class for each (business) entity. The class is completely stupid, offering only get/set methods. Those classes are used "at the top" of the system, that is, near to the GUI or external services.
There is a BusinessLogic package where Entities gets passed to various classes as parameters, and EntityDAO objects are used to carry out persistency-related tasks.
Actually, inside the BusinessLogic lies a lot of database-related code, sometimes with explicit manipulation of DataRow classes. The alternative would have been to create much more EntityDAO classes.
Here and there, the coupling between the BusinessLogic and the database must have seemed too strong, so an EntityReader package has been created, where more sophisticated (yet still stupid) entities (or collections) are built using EntityDAO classes.
Finally, you just need :-) something to call from your service or GUI layer. The ubiquitous BusinessFacade package is therefore introduced, implementing a very large, use-case driven interface (put in yet another package), taking Entity instances as parameters and using the BusinessLogic.
At that point, people invariably realize that services need much more logic than what is provided by the BusinessLogic package, and so go ahead and create a (very sad) BusinessHelper package, where they complement all the missing parts in the BusinessLogic, most often by direct database access.
Then we have other subsystems (cache, SQL, and so on) all built around XXXManager classes, which we can ignore.
Of course, in the end everything is so coupled with the database schema that just adding a field results in a nightmare. And you get a lot of code to maintain as well. Good luck. Meanwhile, the Ruby On Rails guys are creating (simple) applications faster than the other guys can spell BusinessHelper. Say good-bye to productivity.
We can blame it on static typing, but reality is much simpler. That architecture is wrong. Is at least 10 years behind from the state of practice, which means is probably 15 to 20 years behind from the state of the art.
The problem is, that ancient architecture was popularized years ago mostly by language and tools vendors, or by people who thinks Architects don't have to understand code or the real problem being solved, just to replicate a trivial-yet-humonguous structure everywhere. It's basically a decontextualized architecture (more on this next time).
Indeed, if you look at the Java literature, you can find good books dating back to the early decade (like "EJB Design Patterns" by Floyd Marinescu, year 2002), where the pros and cons of several choices adopted in that overblown yet fragile architectural model are discussed. When a Patterns book appears, a few years of practice are gone by. That was 2002; now, ten years are gone, and yet developers still fall into the same trap.
It gets worse. While even the most outdated Java applications are gradually moving away from that model (see Untangling Enterprise Java by Chris Richardson for a few ideas), Microsoft evangelists are so excited about it. They happily go around (re)selling an architecture that is remarkably similar to the 10-years-behind behemoth above.
Which brings me to "Being 10 Years Behind (part 2)". Stay tuned :-).
What we have now is a small, flexible, fast web application where we definitely pushed the envelope using AOP-like techniques pervasively, although in .NET/C#.
Compared with the previous generation, our application has more features, is much easier to customize (a must), is much easier to use thanks to the task-oriented design of the HCI (the previous generation was more slanted toward the useless computer approach) and also about 10 times faster (thanks to better database design and a smarter business layer).
Guess what, the source code size is just about 1/30 of what we had before (yeap, 30 times less), excluding generated code to read/write some XML files. The previous application was written in a mixture of C++, VB6, Perl, Python, C#.
Now, the company is considering a strict partnership with an Asian corporation. They have a similar product, in ASP.NET / C# as well. It took them something like 30 times our man-months to write it, so the general feeling was that it should have been "more powerful". Time to look at the features, but hey, features are basically the same, although their product is not task-oriented. If anything, they lack a lot of our customization interface.
Time to look at the code, as the code never lies.
The code is probably 50 times bigger, with no flexibility whatsoever. If you need to attach one more field to a business concept, just to track some custom information, you probably have to change the database, 5-8 classes between the database and the GUI, and the GUI itself.
In most cases, in our application we just need to open the administration console, add the field, specify validation rules, and that's it.
If you have special needs, you write a custom class, decorate the class with attributes, and we take care of all the plumbing to instantiate / call your class in the critical moments (that's one of the several places where the AOP-like stuff kick in).
What struck me when I looked at that code was the (depressing :-) similarity with a lot of old-style Java code I've been seeing over the years, especially in banking environments.
There is an EntityDAO (data access object) package with basically one class for each business entity. That class is quite stupid, basically dealing with persistence (CRUD) and exposing properties. Those classes are used "at the bottom" of the system, that is, near to the database.
Then there is an Entity package where (again!) there is basically one class for each (business) entity. The class is completely stupid, offering only get/set methods. Those classes are used "at the top" of the system, that is, near to the GUI or external services.
There is a BusinessLogic package where Entities gets passed to various classes as parameters, and EntityDAO objects are used to carry out persistency-related tasks.
Actually, inside the BusinessLogic lies a lot of database-related code, sometimes with explicit manipulation of DataRow classes. The alternative would have been to create much more EntityDAO classes.
Here and there, the coupling between the BusinessLogic and the database must have seemed too strong, so an EntityReader package has been created, where more sophisticated (yet still stupid) entities (or collections) are built using EntityDAO classes.
Finally, you just need :-) something to call from your service or GUI layer. The ubiquitous BusinessFacade package is therefore introduced, implementing a very large, use-case driven interface (put in yet another package), taking Entity instances as parameters and using the BusinessLogic.
At that point, people invariably realize that services need much more logic than what is provided by the BusinessLogic package, and so go ahead and create a (very sad) BusinessHelper package, where they complement all the missing parts in the BusinessLogic, most often by direct database access.
Then we have other subsystems (cache, SQL, and so on) all built around XXXManager classes, which we can ignore.
Of course, in the end everything is so coupled with the database schema that just adding a field results in a nightmare. And you get a lot of code to maintain as well. Good luck. Meanwhile, the Ruby On Rails guys are creating (simple) applications faster than the other guys can spell BusinessHelper. Say good-bye to productivity.
We can blame it on static typing, but reality is much simpler. That architecture is wrong. Is at least 10 years behind from the state of practice, which means is probably 15 to 20 years behind from the state of the art.
The problem is, that ancient architecture was popularized years ago mostly by language and tools vendors, or by people who thinks Architects don't have to understand code or the real problem being solved, just to replicate a trivial-yet-humonguous structure everywhere. It's basically a decontextualized architecture (more on this next time).
Indeed, if you look at the Java literature, you can find good books dating back to the early decade (like "EJB Design Patterns" by Floyd Marinescu, year 2002), where the pros and cons of several choices adopted in that overblown yet fragile architectural model are discussed. When a Patterns book appears, a few years of practice are gone by. That was 2002; now, ten years are gone, and yet developers still fall into the same trap.
It gets worse. While even the most outdated Java applications are gradually moving away from that model (see Untangling Enterprise Java by Chris Richardson for a few ideas), Microsoft evangelists are so excited about it. They happily go around (re)selling an architecture that is remarkably similar to the 10-years-behind behemoth above.
Which brings me to "Being 10 Years Behind (part 2)". Stay tuned :-).
Labels: architecture, article reference, ASP.NET, book reference
