When discussing a general and abstract project idea I often use the terms frontend and backend for GUI and well.. backend.
Often however, some people misunderstand frontend as the part of GUI used by ‘customers’ and backend as a seperat GUI for administrative personell etc.
I think I get where they come from (CMS or DMS probably use backend in that sense) but I am struggling with making a point when halve the people don’t understand what I’m saying.
Is this a more common problem in German speaking countries? Is it my fault? Does anyone else have these problems?
Are there any synonyms for backend that mean the real backend (data access layer, non-gui functionalities etc.) and not the CMS/DMS backend which I could use?
9
The term “backend” is not offcially defined, so there is no “real” backend. For example, in my current working context, I would call the database a backend component (even if it does run on the same machine, maybe embedded in the program’s process), but not a “data access layer”.
So my suggestion is
-
whenever you use the word backend, give a clear definition of what you mean in the specific context
-
or, name the backend component you are talking of more specifically (the database, the web service, a non-gui library, a background monitor, a network service, and so on )
This is because “backend” can mean a lot of things. Without context it has no meaning.
For instance:
In a CMS it is not uncommon to actually call the administrative interface “the backend”. Try a search for “Wordpres backend.” and you’ll see what I mean.
Wikipedia list of front and back ends
In the current state-of-the-art english, “backend” is not defined on the context of systems engineering, therefore, no synonyms or antonyms.
In the current state-of-the-art systems engineering “backend” is generally understood as everything that a user does not directly interact with. In another words, it’s all that infrastructure only reached by servers. So a web server is front end because a user might write a HTTP request in Fiddler (although highly unlike) and a database server might also be front-end because a user might sniff the network and catch a “SELECT * FROM myTable” going to 192.168.0.4, somewhere he can call a pipe or something else.
In other scenarios “backend” is also a gigantic stack composed of many layers such as caching, security, OR mapping and etc… not only a “business-layer” and “database-layer”…
But if you put a gun in my head and you know… i would use the “Hidden-Stack” or maybe “Server-Side”… they are not perfect… but theres a gun in my head…