What Is Web Application Scaffolding?

Computer software is a complex integration effort that includes physical hardware devices and multiple software components. A web-based application is the computer application that works on the World Wide Web. These applications typically include databases, application servers, and web servers. Web application scaffolding is a framework that provides the minimal setup of these components. This scaffolding enables developers a tool to quickly create a running web-based environment for the Internet.

System architects work on processes that can improve development productivity. Software frameworks and code generators are an attempt to improve efficiency by creating reusable components for developers. These are the standard components that are typically necessary for most web-based software applications.

Most dynamic web-based applications require simple access to external file systems. This access is critical for the retrieval and storage of information on a web page. In computer science, the access of databases is broken into four groupings. These are creating, reading, updating, and deleting (CRUD) functions. Web application scaffolding provides modular stubs to perform typical CRUD implementations.

There are multiple frameworks available for most types of software applications. These frameworks are divided into specific functions of an application. Example frameworks include database access, screen design, and business rules engines. Each framework provides attachable components, which can be added into a software application as modular functionality.

Scaffolding has been used for several years as a streamlined method of creating a skeletal software application. Ruby on Rails is an example of development software that uses the web application scaffolding approach. This software has components that can be used to create skeletal connections to databases and external devices. This modular approach increases developer productivity by saving coding time.

Microsoft® ASP.NET also offers a robust web application scaffolding implementation. This software provides system developers with tools that can quickly enable a web based application access to databases and active content on a web Page. These web pages are considered dynamic because they change based on the data stored within the file system.

The hypertext preprocessor (PHP) is a popular scripting language that is used to build many web applications. There are a few open-source web application scaffolding packages that support the PHP language. These applications provide a robust framework that reduces development time for creating simple interfaces or components.

Symfony is an example of an open-source framework for PHP developers. This software is easy to install and includes all the necessary components to build a robust web application. This framework provides the developer with predefined files that can be used for simple configuration.