Web assets as a software update:
Contents
Introduction:
Any application with a web interface requires the usage of resources in the form of markup, stylesheets and scripts. Although they may represent code for the interaction with the end user, they don’t necessarily have to be maintained on the server side and treated the same way as server-side code. This document argues for using an update service for any code that is not maintained on the server side. The update service automatically downloads and installs the latest update to the code on a device or a relay server by a pull mechanism rather than the conventional pipeline-based push mechanism. Furthermore, the source for the update service may be an object storage and preferably via distributors like Artifactory or Content Distribution Network.
Description:
Content Distribution Network are widely popular to make web application assets available to a web page regardless of whether it is hosted on the mobile, desktop or software as a service. They serve many purposes but primarily function as a set of proxy servers distributed over geographical locations such that the web page may readily find them and download them at high speed regardless of when, where and how the web page is displayed. Update service on the other hand is generally a feature of any software platform such that tenants can download the latest update from their publisher. The server has been a yet another model where there is a single source code from a single point of origin and usually gated over a pipeline and every consuming device or application points to this server via web redirects. These three software publishing conventions make no restrictions over the size or granularity of individual releases and generally they are determined based on what can be achieved within a timeline. Since the most recent update is guaranteed to work compatible with previous versions of host or device ecosystem and updates are mostly forward progressive, there is very little testing or requirement to ensure that new releases mix and match on a particular host works well. Moreover, a number of request responses are already being made to load a web page. Therefore, there is no necessity to make these downloads or responses to be a minimum size. This brings us to a point where we view assets not as a bundle but as something discrete that can be versioned and made available over the web. The rules for publishing assets to a set of proxy servers are similar to the rules for releasing code to a virtual server. This works very well for asset that is viewed as files or objects. However, even archives are candidate for being versioned and uploaded via multi-part upload. Typically, proxy servers have local storage while object storage unifies the storage and exposes a single endpoint for the object. This would mean replicating the object over multiple geographical zones from the same object storage. Regardless of the topology of the storage where the assets are made available, the update service can rotate through one or more providers for downloading it to the device. Typically a gateway service takes care of accessing the object storage in this case.
Conclusion:
Software may be viewed both in terms of server-side logic and client updated assets. The granularity of releases for both can be fine grained and independently verified. The distribution may be finely balanced so that the physical representation of what makes an application, is much more modular and automatic for every consumer.
Contents
Introduction:
Any application with a web interface requires the usage of resources in the form of markup, stylesheets and scripts. Although they may represent code for the interaction with the end user, they don’t necessarily have to be maintained on the server side and treated the same way as server-side code. This document argues for using an update service for any code that is not maintained on the server side. The update service automatically downloads and installs the latest update to the code on a device or a relay server by a pull mechanism rather than the conventional pipeline-based push mechanism. Furthermore, the source for the update service may be an object storage and preferably via distributors like Artifactory or Content Distribution Network.
Description:
Content Distribution Network are widely popular to make web application assets available to a web page regardless of whether it is hosted on the mobile, desktop or software as a service. They serve many purposes but primarily function as a set of proxy servers distributed over geographical locations such that the web page may readily find them and download them at high speed regardless of when, where and how the web page is displayed. Update service on the other hand is generally a feature of any software platform such that tenants can download the latest update from their publisher. The server has been a yet another model where there is a single source code from a single point of origin and usually gated over a pipeline and every consuming device or application points to this server via web redirects. These three software publishing conventions make no restrictions over the size or granularity of individual releases and generally they are determined based on what can be achieved within a timeline. Since the most recent update is guaranteed to work compatible with previous versions of host or device ecosystem and updates are mostly forward progressive, there is very little testing or requirement to ensure that new releases mix and match on a particular host works well. Moreover, a number of request responses are already being made to load a web page. Therefore, there is no necessity to make these downloads or responses to be a minimum size. This brings us to a point where we view assets not as a bundle but as something discrete that can be versioned and made available over the web. The rules for publishing assets to a set of proxy servers are similar to the rules for releasing code to a virtual server. This works very well for asset that is viewed as files or objects. However, even archives are candidate for being versioned and uploaded via multi-part upload. Typically, proxy servers have local storage while object storage unifies the storage and exposes a single endpoint for the object. This would mean replicating the object over multiple geographical zones from the same object storage. Regardless of the topology of the storage where the assets are made available, the update service can rotate through one or more providers for downloading it to the device. Typically a gateway service takes care of accessing the object storage in this case.
Conclusion:
Software may be viewed both in terms of server-side logic and client updated assets. The granularity of releases for both can be fine grained and independently verified. The distribution may be finely balanced so that the physical representation of what makes an application, is much more modular and automatic for every consumer.
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