Basic Application Functionality

I though I would start to throw together fundemental elements of a typical web application.

Basic Application Functionality

Any web application written internally or brought in that will run in our production environment and support by the Web Development Group should meet the below requirements. Not meeting any of these requirements can cause issues to our production environment or will severely increase time estimates for future changes made to the application.

•  Logging: All exceptions should be logged to either a file or a DB.


• Error Handling: All exceptions should be trapped and logged. The application should display a friendly error message for all errors. No default error pages should ever be displayed.


• Database Connectivity: All DB connections should be wrapped in a try…catch…finally. Use the finally to close the connection and dispose of the DB object. This will ensure all open DB connections will be closed even if an exception occurs while it is open. Leaving connections open impacts all applications on that web server.


• Globalization: All of the applications display content should be stored in a parameter or DB location. This allows the application to be translated without making code changes. Very important if you have or moving to web applications that support multi Markets and Languages.


• Application Namespace: We have a recommended Namespace pattern that we follow for both Java and .Net applications. “com.*” for Java and “Antioch.*” for .Net.


• Passes Code Review: Code review guidelines have been produced for all languages we support. To be considered an Enterprise application at Antioch the application must meet all the guidelines.