Recently, I had the opportunity to engage in a thought-provoking discussion with my team manager about the fundamental building blocks of a robust backend application. Our discussion highlighted the backend's crucial role in shaping a software's overall architecture. So, we outlined some of the following elements that should be considered before initiating the development process for the backend.
Database
Database design is a crucial aspect as it lays the foundation for storing and managing data efficiently. It includes the choice of database (RDBMS, NoSQL or GraphQL), definition of entities and their relationships. Also, it's important to consider factors such as data normalization, indexing, and query optimization. This helps prevent data inconsistencies, improves query performance, and reduces the overall complexity of the database.
Data Modeling
The process of data modeling relates to implementation of the database entities & their relationships in the actual code. To ensure data transfer integrity between backend & database, proper data types and their validations are required. Object-Relational Mappers (ORMs) are highly recommended due to their abstraction, portability, reduced SQL injection risks, and automated CRUD operations.
Data Transfer Objects (DTOs)
Data Transfer Objects (DTOs) play a crucial role in transforming API request data into the actual data models used within the backend system. DTOs serve as intermediaries between the API layer and the business logic, ensuring that data is correctly validated and structured before any business operations are performed. This separation of concerns helps to filter out errors in the request data, improving the reliability and robustness of the system.
Migrations
Database migrations are essential for managing changes to the database schema over time, ensuring data consistency and integrity across different environments. Ensure that migrations are idempotent, meaning they can be applied multiple times without causing issues. This helps in scenarios where migrations are reapplied due to errors or rollbacks.
Seeders
Seeding initial data ensures that there's foundational data available for the application to function correctly from the outset. This practice is particularly useful during development and testing phases, where dummy data helps developers understand how the API interacts with the database and behaves under various conditions. Seeders are scripts designed to populate databases with initial data, and they should be tailored to the specific needs of different environments, such as development, staging, and production.
Authentication/Authorization
Auth process is a crucial step for any backend application as it allows only verified and permitted users to access specific resources or perform certain actions. Implementing robust authentication and authorization mechanisms is necessary for maintaining data security and integrity. Best practices include using industry-standard protocols such as OAuth 2.0 and JWT (JSON Web Tokens) for secure and efficient user management.
Users & Roles
Defining users and their roles is essential for managing access and permissions within a backend system, even if it may not be a priority in the early phases of development. By clearly outlining different user types and their associated roles, you can ensure that each user has the appropriate level of access necessary for their responsibilities. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is a widely adopted approach that simplifies permission management by assigning predefined roles to users, which in turn define their access rights.
Error Handling
A centrally managed error handling mechanism provides a structured way to handle exceptional situations, preventing system crashes and improving the user experience. It involves implementing consistent validation checks throughout the system to catch and manage errors early. Using standardized HTTP status codes helps in clearly communicating the nature of errors to clients, while custom error messages and pages can guide users on how to proceed.
Conclusion
So far, we have seen that planning the above essentials can save us a lot of development efforts and can help increase the robustness of our system. Though there are some other aspects of a backend application, such as API design, monitoring, caching etc, but they need extensive discussion & specialized knowledge for implementation. I will cover those in a separate series of articles & blogs. Till then, happy coding, happy engineering!
Top comments (0)