Astro-Online Architecture

Before downloading our software, please have a look at our architecture. The architecture of Astro-Online allows you to download and install only those parts of the software that you will need to customize for your own usage. Once you’ll understand the architecture of the software you’ll know which components to download or you might find out that you do not need to download and install any software at all and instead use Astro-Online from the cloud.

Front End

Website visitors connect to the astrology program through Astro-Online RIA (Rich Internet Application), which can best be regarded as the front end of Astro-Online. In the middle of Astro-Online RIA you can see the Yahoo User Interface (YUI). The YUI library is used to add controls and dynamic features to the Astro-Online user interface. If you like to make changes to the user interface, some knowledge of YUI might be helpful or even needed.

Back End

The front end communicates with the back end through AJAX technology. The back end consists of two components: (1) Astro-Online DS (Data Service) offers horoscope interpretations in XML or JSON format and (2) Astro-Online WS (Web Service) is responsible for astrological calculations. Data returned from Astro-Online WS is also either given in XML or JSON format.

When a user fills out an entry form Astro-Online RIA sends a request to Astro-Online WS. Astro-Online WS returns a response in JSON format that includes the results of the astrological calculation. Astro-Online RIA uses these results to (1) paint a chart (Flash application – ActionScript3) and (2) send a request to Astro-Online DS for horoscope interpretations. Astro-Online DS returns a response in JSON format including the requested horoscope interpretations, which is processed by Astro-Online RIA and shown to the user.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing describes computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. The key characteristic of cloud computing is that the computing is "in the cloud" i.e. the processing (and the related data) is not in a specified, known or static place(s). This is in contrast to a model in which the processing takes place in one or more specific servers that are known. Cloud architecture, the systems architecture of the software systems involved in the delivery of cloud computing, typically involves multiple cloud components communicating with each other over application programming interfaces, usually web services and 3-tier architecture. The two most significant components of cloud computing architecture are known as the front end and the back end. (Source: Wikipedia)

In the picture above we can see how the four Astro-Online components interact with each other while all components can either reside in one or in different locations. The different locations where components reside may be unknown to a visitor.

Below you’ll find a table which shows a number of possibilities to locate the different components. The values in the different cells indicate the server on which a component might reside (e.g. Google means the Google libraries server).

      Astro-Online RIA     YUI Library     Astro-Online DS     Astro-Online WS
100% from cloud   Astro Share   Google   Astro Share   Astro Share
Your server 1   Astro Share   Google   Your server   Astro Share
Your server 2   Your server   Google   Your server   Astro Share
Your server 3   Your server   Your server   Your server   Astro Share
Astrologer 1   Astro Share   Google   Astrologer’s server   Astro Share
Astrologer 2   Astrologer’s server   Google   Astrologer’s server   Astro Share
Astrologer 3   Your server   Google   Astrologer’s server   Astro Share

As you can see there are many combinations possible. Basically you just need to call some Astro-Online RIA installation, which in turn needs to know where to find the other components. For your visitors it makes no difference where the components are located.