Comprehensive List of Web Framework Responsibilities
Modern web frameworks handle a vast array of responsibilities, from basic request handling to complex scaling solutions. This comprehensive reference organizes these responsibilities into logical categories, providing a clear overview of what today's frameworks manage behind the scenes.
A typical modern web application architecture with containerized components
- URL Routing: Mapping URLs to controller/handler functions
- Middleware Pipeline: Processing requests through transformation layers
- Parameter Parsing: Extracting and validating inputs from various sources
- Content Negotiation: Handling different content types and formats
- HTTP Method Handling: Managing GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.
- Header Processing: Parsing and generating HTTP headers
- Request Filtering: Validating and sanitizing incoming requests
Learn more about the evolution of request routing & handling
- Session Creation/Storage: Maintaining user state across requests
- Cookie Management: Setting and reading browser cookies
- Session Security: Protecting against session hijacking
- State Persistence: Various storage backends (memory, file, database)
- Flash Messages: Temporary data for the next request
- Session Expiration: Timeout handling and renewal
Learn more about the evolution of session & state management
- Template Rendering: Generating dynamic HTML from templates
- View Helpers: Utilities for presentation logic
- Content Formatting: JSON, XML, HTML generation
- Asset Management: Handling CSS, JavaScript, images
- Response Compression: Reducing response size
- ETags & Caching Headers: Browser cache control
- Streaming Responses: Handling large content efficiently
- Database Access Layer/ORM: Database interaction abstraction
- Model Definition: Data structure and validation rules
- Migration Systems: Database schema evolution
- Query Building: SQL generation and preparation
- Transaction Management: Atomic operations
- Connection Pooling: Efficient database connection handling
- Data Validation: Input verification and sanitization
Learn more about the evolution of data management in web applications
- View/Fragment Caching: Storing rendered output
- Data Caching: Storing query results
- Distributed Cache Support: Redis, Memcached integration
- Cache Invalidation: Smart refreshing of stale data
- HTTP Caching: Browser and proxy cache control
- Cache Strategies: Time-based, dependency-based refreshing
Learn more about the evolution of caching in web applications
- Authentication: User identity verification
- Authorization: Access control to resources
- CSRF Protection: Cross-site request forgery prevention
- XSS Prevention: Cross-site scripting mitigation
- SQL Injection Protection: Database query sanitization
- Content Security Policy: Restricting resource origins
- Rate Limiting: Preventing abuse
- Password Management: Secure hashing and verification
Learn more about the evolution of security in web frameworks
- Form Generation: Creating HTML forms
- Validation: Client and server-side form checking
- Error Handling: Displaying validation failures
- File Upload Processing: Handling multipart form data
- CSRF Tokens: Form security
- Field Binding: Mapping form inputs to data models
Learn more about the evolution of form processing in web applications
- Translation Management: Multi-language text support
- Date/Time Formatting: Region-specific display
- Number/Currency Formatting: Locale-appropriate presentations
- Right-to-Left Support: Bi-directional text handling
- Message Catalogs: Organized translation storage
- Language Detection: Auto-selecting appropriate language
Learn more about the evolution of internationalization & localization in web frameworks
- Unit Testing Framework: Testing isolated components
- Integration Testing: Testing component interactions
- Controller/Request Testing: Simulating HTTP requests
- View Testing: Validating output renders correctly
- Fixture Support: Test data management
- Mocking/Stubbing: Replacing dependencies
- Browser Automation: End-to-end testing
- Test Runners: Executing test suites
Learn more about the evolution of testing & monitoring in web frameworks
- Exception Handling: Capturing and processing errors
- Custom Error Pages: User-friendly error displays
- Development/Production Modes: Appropriate error detail levels
- Error Reporting: Integration with monitoring services
- Structured Logging: Standardized log formats
- Log Routing: Directing logs to appropriate destinations
- Request Tracing: Following requests through components
- Debugging Tools: Development assistance features
Learn more about the evolution of testing & monitoring in web frameworks
- WebSocket Support: Real-time bi-directional communication
- Server-Sent Events: One-way real-time updates
- Background Job Processing: Asynchronous task handling
- Queue Integration: Connecting to message brokers
- Pub/Sub Patterns: Event publication and subscription
- Long-polling Support: Alternative to WebSockets
Learn more about the evolution of real-time capabilities in web frameworks
- Horizontal Scaling: Support for multiple instances
- Vertical Scaling: Efficient resource usage
- Load Balancing Integration: Distribution of traffic
- Session Externalization: Shared session storage
- Distributed Caching: Cache synchronization
- Data Partitioning/Sharding: Distributing database load
- Multi-tenancy: Isolating customer data
- Service Discovery: Finding system components
Learn more about the evolution of scaling & high availability
- REST API Facilities: RESTful endpoint creation
- GraphQL Support: Schema definition and resolution
- API Versioning: Managing API evolution
- Documentation Generation: API docs from code
- Authentication Schemes: OAuth, JWT, API keys
- Rate Limiting: Controlling API usage
- CORS Handling: Cross-origin resource sharing
Learn more about the evolution of API support in web development
- Environment Management: Dev/staging/production settings
- Configuration Systems: Application settings
- Service Discovery: Finding external services
- Dependency Injection: Managing component relationships
- Plugin/Extension Systems: Framework customization
- Feature Flagging: Enabling/disabling functionality
Learn more about the evolution of configuration & environment management
- Responsive Design Tools: Mobile-friendly layouts
- Progressive Enhancement: Adapting to capabilities
- Cross-Browser Compatibility: Consistent experiences
- Polyfill Management: Supporting older browsers
- Asset Bundling/Minification: Performance optimization
- Mobile Optimization: Touch and small screen support
Learn more about the evolution of browser and client support in web development
- Container Support: Docker/Kubernetes integration
- Asset Pipeline: Processing static resources
- Build Tools Integration: Webpack, Gulp connections
- Health Checks: Monitoring readiness
- Zero-downtime Deployment: Continuous operation
- Environment Variable Handling: Configuration injection
- Serverless Deployment: Function-as-a-service support
As seen in the architecture diagram at the top of this article, modern containerized applications often involve multiple specialized services working together (Redis for caching, PostgreSQL for data storage, MinIO for object storage, etc.), all orchestrated through container technologies like Docker.
Learn more about the evolution of deployment and DevOps integration
This comprehensive list covers the major responsibilities handled by modern web frameworks, though specific frameworks may emphasize certain areas more than others based on their design philosophy and target use cases.