Develop your own Database Software
In this ebook, I will run you through the important steps involved in developing client/server
database application software. Most of the applications we see today, technically speaking, are
client/server application softwares.
Before we go further, let us know more about client/server applications.
Client/Server applications have become predominant in enterprise wide computing. This is because
Client/Server computing provides an open and flexible environment where mix-and-match is the
rule.
A Client/Server network is used to accomplish many business needs. They are:
a. To record accounting transactions like purchases, sales, receipts, payments in a company.
Note that, different users enter these transactions simultaneously using the client computer.
The client computer may be running a windows application or a web application. The
Client/Server application, should support recording of these transactions into a central
Database server confirming to all security and database integrity requirements of an
accounting application.
b. To extract business intelligence reports from the data in the database server.
c. To enable users to share resources like printers and fax machines.
As enterprise wide computing becomes more sophisticated, the CIO of a company has a challenging
job involving maintenance of hardware and networks, upkeep issues like registry clean up, setting up
and updating policies, regular backups, etc., ensuring that the Client/Server business application is
up and running. A complex job like this requires an understanding and a grasp of all the issues like
hardware, networks, network operating systems, protocols and more.
Client / server application development can be broadly categorized as:
Installing and setting up windows operating system for development and production environment
Installing and setting up database server - sql server
Front end design and development
Back end database design and development
Understanding the Client/Server architecture
On the client side of this architecture, we find a fairly simple Front-end application. On the server
side, we find an intelligent engine. The server is designed to accept queries from the front-end
application – usually in the form of calls to stored procedures and return the requested information.
We will see now in detail what are the responsibilities of client and a server.
The client application is responsible for connection management, data capture, data retrieval, data
presentation, and error management.
Connection Management: Client/Server applications establish a connection with the server to
submit queries, retrieve result sets. In this architecture, the client makes a hard connection with the
server over a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) – even if the connection is
