I am trying to develop an iOS application that stores and loads data to and from a server. The data needs of the client can be pretty much narrowed down to REST. MY question is, is REST something widely used for data/server driven iOS applications? is there a paradigm proven better or more suitable for iOS apps?
if REST is the way to go, what server environment would you choose? what server side Technology? PHP? Java? something else? We'd set up a test/dev environment at first, but eventually we are going to deploy on services like Amazon cloud or any other hosting/cloud service.
Any insight will be most welcome.
So are you writing the backend too?
Most projects that I've worked with in the past few years use REST. It's made little difference in the implementation of the iOS app (I think...). I'm more concerned about the type of data I'm consuming, which is usually JSON - and ensuring that it is as lean as possible. People writing web services should be concerned about REST.
I've also worked with projects this year that use different technologies on the backend. Java on one, and Ruby on Rails on the other.
I know another guy who uses PHP on one project, and Ruby on another.
If I was to do a backend, I'd probably use Java - solely because I know it. Not the best excuse to pick a technology - but as a full time iOS developer, I don't have time to learn something new that I won't use very often.
If you are going to deploy on a cloud based service, see what technologies they support. Maybe picking the common denominator would be a wise choice to keep your options open. Some languages tend to have more expensive server hosting costs. Java is usually more expensive than PHP to host, I guess due to the complexities of running shared java VM's instead of PHP interpreter.
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I'm planning the basic architecture for a new software that will need to be modular.
I'm trying to define a multitenancy application to have a single instance running for all the users.
What I need is the possibility to scale when and where needed, so I don't like the idea to spawn multiple applications (monolitical architectured) behind a load balancer when it could be a single part of the computation that needs more resources.
So I'm thinking about a Service Oriented Architecture, it would have the rails application as web client and other services, that could be virtually written in any language and accessed via APIs by the rails application.
I'd also like to have this APIs open to users to integrate with their existing software and easily extend these services.
I've some specific question:
would it be a good idea to have this kind of architecture for a new startup (1-5 employees)?
using APIs i don't need to use any RPC since the API request itself is an RPC, am I right on this concept?
what would be a nice standard for the APIs (REST only defines HOW to access resources)?
what could be, pratically, the best (= a good) way to expose those APIs to customers? Via the Web Rails application? Directly via a proxy that makes them all available under the same domain? APIs would be accessible in a RESTful way so via HTTP requests.
with this kind of architecture would it be less expensive to have VPS's, Cloud, or dedicated servers? I like clouds because of their failure-tollerant nature, it would free us from worry about data persistence and backups (including the fact that we want to build an architecture almost 100% available).
Any other suggestion or point of view, and any simply start point to think about this would be very appreciated.
I know very well Python, C/C++, JS, Perl, other pl and I started recently with Ruby/Rails. I'm choosing this last one because it seems to me that this community is strongly oriented in building services and what I mind (before that extreme performances) is the ability to learn asap and have someone to share experience with and to learn from, also with pratical examples (I know it's about an architecture, not PL that implements it, but I think it would be more easy to get it wrong in an immature environment that is still working with web1 or web2.0 style in mind).
P.S. I also need to write the basic architecture design, do you have any template where I can start from? I do need to share it with my team and other very-expert pros, I'd like to have it complete and easy to understand.
Hope to read some good suggestions here guys!
Thanks,
Alex.
Architecture
Here is an example stack that would I think mostly do what you're looking to accomplish:
Cluster
One or more app servers
One or more database servers
Zero or more job servers
Instances
Chef for configuration
Unicorn or Passenger
Nginx
Application
Ruby on Rails
Check out Grape for simple APIs
More Specific Answers
would it be a good idea to have this kind of architecture for a new startup (1-5 employees)?
If done correctly, this approach can be very stable and robust. What you don't want to do it get into a situation where you are spending all your time managing your servers. You want to get it up, be able to deal with problem instances quickly, and work on making your application do stuff. If you do it right, creating instances can be simple and totally automated.
using APIs i don't need to use any RPC since the API request itself is an RPC, am I right on this concept?
Yes.
what would be a nice standard for the APIs (REST only defines HOW to access resources)?
Here we'd need a bit more clarification on how you need to use RESTful design to accomplish specific goals.
what could be, pratically, the best (= a good) way to expose those APIs to customers? Via the Web Rails application? Directly via a proxy that makes them all available under the same domain? APIs would be accessible in a RESTful way so via HTTP requests.
A domain (or subdomain) should be accessible via HTTP and RESTful software design. It might return JSON or something else. It's all up to you.
with this kind of architecture would it be less expensive to have VPS's, Cloud, or dedicated servers? I like clouds because of their failure-tollerant nature, it would free us from worry about data persistence and backups (including the fact that we want to build an architecture almost 100% available).
You get what you pay for. I'd recommend cloud servers. Check out Heroku to get started, or Rackspace if you are prepared to "roll your own." Or Engine Yard.
Any other suggestion or point of view, and any simply start point to think about this would be very appreciated.
I would try creating a test API using something like a free Heroku account.
Up to now I've always used PHP with or without a framework but a month ago I decided to start something new: Ruby and Rails, I found them quite easy and similar to PHP and some PHP frameworks in how they works but using a simpler syntax and many other advantages.
Some days ago I started reading about Node.js, Node.js vs Rails, "why node.js is better"...
I'm a bit confused but my objective is to learn something modern that will not become obsolete in a few months so:
What are the main differences between Rails/Ruby and Node.js and a framework based on it like Express.js (except that one is written in JS and the other in Ruby)?
What are the main advantages/disadvantages of using Node.js and framework based on it instead of a Ruby based solution like Rails?
Thanks!
There aren't enough differences between Node.js and Rails for it to practically matter.
A lot of what Node.js can do can be pulled off in Rails with things like EventMachine and Pusher. So unless you are really familiar with Rails' limitations, and know you'll be pushing the boundaries, you'd be hard pressed to make something a seasoned Rails developer couldn't do.
Having built apps in Node and Express I can say that they alone aren't enough to make a sexy application. They can seem just as old and stale if you don't have an outstanding frontend UI to facilitate the backend possibilities. Instead of comparing backend servers, I think the real future of doing amazing things is in front-end JavaScript frameworks like Backbone.js that use Express/Rails/Node.js on the backend.
I have chosen to go in the direction of Backbone.js with Rails as my backend API server. Because it's so easy to rapidly create a very nice RESTful backend server in Rails. Rails also makes working with CoffeeScript and precompiling/organizing Backbone code a breeze. There are already decent Backbone.js gems out there for Rails.
The Rails core is also able to acknowledge and embrace the fact that frontend JS MVCs are logically a good next step, and they have been working to strengthen the bond between the two. For those same reasons they have also worked to make Rails an even better API server so that it can work with frontend JS easier. Node.js and Express aren't putting as much effort to coordinate with frontend JavaScript MVCs as the Rails community is.
Being good with a JavaScript frontend MVC and Rails as a backend makes you also great for both worlds in terms of getting a job. You will easily be able to hop onto a Node.js project and add value to that team with your superior frontend experience, and you can also roll with the punches on a Ruby on Rails team and add value to them as well.
As official Node.js website explains it:
Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.
On the other hand Ruby on Rails official website says:
Ruby on Rails is an open-source web framework that's optimized for programmer happiness and sustainable productivity. It lets you write beautiful code by favoring convention over configuration.
Given this I guess that it is more appropriate to compare Ruby and Node.js, but even this is not quite right given that Ruby is programming language and Node.js is NOT. You could probably compare JavaScript with Ruby but I guess that is not what you meant to ask with this question :)
So, for me, key point in understanding what Node.js truly tries to accomplish is well described on Node.js about page. Key Node.js idea (for me) is described in this sentences:
Node is similar in design to and influenced by systems like Ruby's Event Machine or Python's Twisted. Node takes the event model a bit further—it presents the event loop as a language construct instead of as a library. In other systems there is always a blocking call to start the event-loop. Typically one defines behavior through callbacks at the beginning of a script and at the end starts a server through a blocking call like EventMachine::run(). In Node there is no such start-the-event-loop call. Node simply enters the event loop after executing the input script. Node exits the event loop when there are no more callbacks to perform. This behavior is like browser javascript—the event loop is hidden from the user.
What this should enable you, is that you should be able to easily write highly concurrent programs without even thinking about concurrency using JavaScript syntax and callback functions as basic concurrent runnable units.
Your fear that either Rails or Node.js will be gone in a week is unfounded. Rails has a large community and will be around for a very long time even though currently (early 2012) it's getting a bit of hate thrown its way. Node.js is just getting started and has so much attention I don't think it will have any problems getting to the Rails level some day.
That said I've been evaluating Node.js and Rails as options for a project and the reasons I choose Node.js over Rails are:
"The Rails Way" - In my (admittedly limited) experience with Rails it really seems like you either do it the Rails way or you are going to be in for a world of pain. A big part of the Rails way is to use the ActiveRecord model. The advantage of this is that there are a lot of gems that work with your code happily because they know you'll be using ActiveRecord. The disadvantage is you are mixing your data access & model. I am not a fan of this idea so the Rails way for me still seems a bit.. off.
JavaScript is a key part of client side web development and the idea of using it on the client and server is interesting. I'm not super strong at JavaScript and I can't imagine a better way to get better then to have to use it everywhere.
My project has real time communication needs which while I'm sure can be done in Rails there seems to be quite a bit of positive mention on Nodes ability to handle this with socket.io being the front runner option.
At the end of the day no matter which you choose you will have a great time & learn a ton of new stuff that will change how you write code. If you're not on a big time crunch I'd recommend building a small project management tool in both and see which you prefer.
Either way.. Good Luck!
2 things - performance & productivity.
Performance (more details here)
(source: jslang.info)
Productivity (how fast you can build that app)
Ruby on Rails is specialized and highly productive tool for creating so called Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 applications (99% of internet sites are such apps). In my subjective judgement and experience in this area Rails about 2-4 times more productive than node.js or express.js.
For Web 3.0 apps (realtime things, client-side MVC, etc.) this isn't true, RoR doesn't keep its advantage there.
So choice depends on use case and priorities.
I know a lot more about Node.js than I do about Ruby. That being said, Ruby is much more widely adopted. It is currently a very hot skill to have in the work place. Some may argue with me on this but I think that Node.js is still "under development" and will be for a little bit longer. It has a lot of promise but just hasn't been adopted by many companies and projects yet.
I want to know what is the difference between these two implementations of neo4j. Of-course names of both techniques is self-explanatory,but still what are the main differences?
What factors should be considered in deciding which technique to use in the project?
Pros and cons.
P.S. Sorry if it is a repeat question but I searched and was not able to find any ques which answers my question.
Because the standalone server is built on the embedded server, the general rule of thumb is that the embedded server is more capable and has (obviously) lower latency. Either can operate in High-Availability mode, allow monitoring, and even accept connections from the neo4j-shell. With the server though, you get more functionality out-of-the-box, like remoting, basic visualization, monitoring interface, etc.
The differences are otherwise the practical ones you'd imagine. Choosing a deployment approach is influenced by two things:
Language - embedded mode requires that you're implementing your application with a JVM compatible language. The server supports any language/framework that can send HTTP requests.
Hardware - sharing physical resources between your application and Neo4j can be demanding. Scaling may argue for a dedicated machine to split out the persistence layer. The server obviously has a remote API to support segmenting your application.
It's otherwise difficult to give guidance without a specific usage scenario. Deploying into an existing Service Oriented Architecture? Probably server. Running on an copier machine? Go embedded. From scratch web application? What's the rest of your stack?
How can i write a cloud-aware application? e.g. an application that takes benefit of being deployed on cloud. Is it same as an application that runs or a vps/dedicated server? if not then what are the differences? are there any design changes? What are the procedures that i need to take if i am to migrate an application to cloud-aware?
Also i am about to implement a web application idea which would need features like security, performance, caching, and more importantly free. I have been comparing some frameworks and found that django has least RAM/CPU usage and works great in prefork+threaded mode, but i have also read that django based sites stop to respond with huge load of connections. Other frameworks that i have seen/know are Zend, CakePHP, Lithium/Cake3, CodeIgnitor, Symfony, Ruby on Rails....
So i would leave this to your opinion as well, suggest me a good free framework based on my needs.
Finally thanks for reading the essay ;)
I feel a matrix moment coming on... "what is the cloud? The cloud is all around us, a prison for your program..." (what? the FAQ said bring your sense of humour...)
Ok so seriously, what is the cloud? It depends on the implementation but usual features include scalable computing resource and a charge per cpu-hour, storage area etc. So yes, it is a bit like developing on your VPS/a normal server.
As I understand it, Google App Engine allows you to consume as much as you want. The back-end resource management is done by Google and billed to you and you pay for what you use. I believe there's even a free threshold.
Amazon EC2 exposes an API that actually allows you to add virtual machine instances (someone correct me please if I'm wrong) having pre-configured them, deploy another instance of your web app, talk between private IP ranges if you wish (slicehost definitely allow this). As such, EC2 can allow you to act like a giant load balancer on the front-end passing work off to a whole number of VMs on the back end, or expose all that publicly, take your pick. I'm not sure on the exact detail because I didn't build the system but that's how I understand it.
I have a feeling (but I know least about Azure) that on Azure, resource management is done automatically, for you, by Microsoft, based on what your app uses.
So, in summary, the cloud is different things depending on which particular cloud you choose. EC2 seems to expose an API for managing resource, GAE and Azure appear to be environments which grow and shrink in the background based on your use.
Note: I am aware there are certain constraints developing in GAE, particularly with Java. In a minute, I'll edit in another thread where someone made an excellent comment on one of my posts to this effect.
Edit as promised, see this thread: Cloud Agnostic Architecture?
As for a choice of framework, it really doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned. If you are planning on deploying to one of these platforms you might want to check framework/language availability. I personally have just started Django and love it, having learnt python a while ago, so, in my totally unbiased opinion, use Django. Other developers will probably recommend other things, based on their preferences. What do you know? What are you most comfortable with? What do you like the most? I'd go with that. I chose Django purely because I'm not such a big fan of PHP, I like Python and I was comfortable with the framework when I initially played around with it.
Edit: So how do you write cloud-aware code? You design your software in such a way it fits on one of these architectures. Again, see the cloud-agnostic thread for some really good discussion on ways of doing this. For example, you might talk to some services on GAE which scale. That they are on GAE (example) doesn't really matter, you use loose coupling ideas. In essence, this is just a step up from the web service idea.
Also, another feature of the cloud I forgot to mention is the idea of CDN's being provided for you - some cloud implementations might move your data around the globe to make it more efficient to serve, or just because that's where they've got space. If that's an issue, don't use the cloud.
I cannot answer your question - I'm not experienced in such projects - but I can tell you one thing... both CakePHP and CodeIgniter are designed for PHP4 - in other words: for really old technology. And it seems nothing is going to change in their case. Symfony (especially 2.0 version which is still in heavy beta) is worth considering, but as I said on the very beginning - I can not support this with my own experience.
For designing applications for deployment for the cloud, the main thing to consider if recoverability. If your server is terminated, you may lose all of your data. If you're deploying on Amazon, I'd recommend putting all data that you need persisted onto an Elastic Block Storage (EBS) device. This would be data like user generated content/files, the database files and logs. I also use the EBS snapshot on a 5 day rotation so that's backed up itself. That said, I've had a cloud server up on AWS for over a year without any issues.
As for frameworks, I'm giving Grails a try at the minute and I'm quite enjoying it. Built to be syntactically similar to Rails but runs on the JVM. It means you can take advantage of all the Java goodness, like threading, concurrency and all the great libraries out there to build your web application.
I am a newbie to Erlang and am trying to make a switch to Erlang for our latest project. Since this is going to be a real-time chat (long polled) system for file sharing on the fly, I realized after a bit of digging around that Erlang would be the most appropriate choice, because of high concurrency, plus people also suggested to use Yaws since it can handle upto 50k parallel connections.
Although, it sounds awesome, but since I am a newbie (both to erlang and comet applications), I am unable to understand the right technology stack / architecture of how this would work. Also, because of relatively less documentation, I am unable to figure out how the individual pieces would fit together (web server, application layer, DB, message queue) for such an application. The application is going to run off a desktop client only (no web presence required), and so we need to build a REST api for the functionalities.
It would be great, if someone could point me in the right direction to proceed.
Thanks
Nitrogen has a very slick Comet feature built-in. It will work with the three most popular Erlang web servers, including the one you're already considering, YAWS.
Nitrogen doesn't do anything in particular about data storage. It's not one of those web frameworks that insists on managing the DB for you. You're free to use Mnesia or whatever else you like. If this bothers you, you might consider Erlyweb instead. It doesn't do Comet for you like Nitrogen does, but it's more of the manage-everything-for-me sort of web framework.
You could use:
ejabberd as the XMPP server
mnesia as the database
YAWS as the WEB server
Message Queue : you can implement that in Erlang or use an enterprise solution such as RabbitMQ
The all new Zotonic application may inspire you. It's a webapp running off mochiweb for HTTP service with webmachine for the REST API. And it's using good ol' PostgreSQL as database.
It has comet support implemented.