TAME – Key Features – Schema and Entities

In the previous post we discussed the features that we would like to have in a modern day MVC framework. In this post let us discuss some of the key problems in designing such a framework and how we have approached it in TAME.

Data is stored in storage devices as bits. However humans don’t quite understand this, so have come up with mechanisms to store and retrieve data from a storage device using a high level interface. This high level interface is the notion of files and on top of files, we have built the notion of databases.

A database makes this storage and retrieval more user friendly rather than working with raw files. Databases are stores of “entities”. Entities may be related to other entities. Interaction with the database involves performing CRUD operations on the entities.

Entities contain fields. Fields have data types. Data types can be broadly categorized as “primitive data types” and “composite data types“. When considering relational databases, we normalize data into primitive data types. Composite data types are handled using primary and foreign key relationships across multiple tables. However, in a NoSQL store, we may store composite data as a sub-record within a single record itself and save an additional join.

So we start our discussion by asking, what are the minimum set of primitive and composite data types we need? If we do a comparative analysis of different programming languages and database technologies, we will soon realize that almost all languages have some way of representing strings, numbers and booleans. There are many other primitive types, but these are the minimum. The reasoning behind why this is so, is beyond the scope of this post.

Composites are ways of grouping data together. Composites are made up of primitives and other composites. At a minimum, we need one composite data type that has sequential properties (list like) and at least one that can be used to store non-sequential (key/value) form of data (map like).

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Rethinking MVC Frameworks

In the previous post I explained the need for an application framework that allows us to evolve the functionality as our startup processes evolve. In this post, we will go into the technical details of what we expect from such a framework.

Almost all server side MVC frameworks provide a standard set of functionalities:

  • A way to receive a HTTP Request from the client, examine the Request and determine what the user wants to do. A URL mapper transfers control to a Controller which then does the request processing.
  • The controller fetches data from backend services (eg: databases).
  • Along the way, data transforms from relational form to object form with the help of an Object Relational Mapper (we call this a model).
  • The model data is then transformed into a view with the help of templates.
  • Several other functionalities are provided by mature MVC frameworks – sessions, caching, REST endpoints etc.

In the last decade there have been some trends that are changing the way we work with MVC frameworks. For one, clients are becoming more intelligent and thicker (logic moving from server to client where possible). This has resulted in the emergence of client side MVC frameworks.

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Scaling processes for a growing startup

Jnaapti completed 6 years this May. What started as a 1 person company in 2011, is now a growing business with more than a dozen people working on different aspects of the business. We have conducted training in over 35 organizations in over 30 technologies in the last 6 years.

Like many other tech startups, I started off writing the entire code for our main product, The Virtual Coach, single handedly. The first version of the product took me 2.5 months to build from concept to deployment.

We are now a team of 8-10 engineers working on different aspects of engineering. We now have multiple products in the education space and are targeting multiple customer segments.

When it was just one or two people, we didn’t need a formal project management process. It doesn’t mean a process didn’t exist; rather, the process was in the heads of the individuals who were part of the development team.

If 2 of us are programming, we can easily share tasks, arrive on deadlines and decide our commitments without requiring any elaborate processes as long as we trust each others’ commitments. We may resort to using simple tools like Spreadsheets or may even use pen and paper or a whiteboard.

However, as the organization grows, the number of cross-communication in the team increases. If every person communicates with every other, there is chaos and this soon starts reflecting in the overall efficiency of the organization. This is not a new problem and has been elaborately discussed in some excellent literature.

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