Comment by Mev-Rael on "Storing data for cross platform use?"

Data layer is the latest one and has nothing to do with "cross-platformity". MySQL is a full featured DB which will handle this for you, you just use MySQL libraries in your language/platform to access MySQL server and retrieve your data from there.

IIS on the image above just means a Web server (Apache, Nginx, Microsoft IIS, whatever or just a simple Node.JS running HTTP service).

Application's code is only MVC

The main code of your application is Model, View and Controller. It's called a MVC architecture pattern. This is part of code you write and at the end you just "talk" to DB server, you don't write DB server and SQL language itself.

Files

You can store files in DB as well, in blob format, for example, however, usually typical hard drive is used, for example in youwebsite/files directory. Usually it is called a file storage layer and is similar with DB layer, you just "talk" to it to get or store files, for example, you can use Amazon File Storage for that and access this service from application code.

Tutorials

I am not using Node.js but PHP, so I will give you a simple starting point on how to get modern web app up and running using Laravel PHP framework and MySQL database.

Just go to mysql.com, download MySQL Community server and follow installation guide. You may Google many articles or just set up DigitalOcean.com server out of the box or follow their guide How to Install MySQL on Ubuntu 16.04

Same for PHP. Download it from php.net and that's it. You don't need even a web server like in Node.js anymore. You can launch built-in web server.

Also download and install PHP package manager from getcomposer.org

Finally, just go to Laravel.com and follow documentation. Laravel is very simple and great full framework to get started, it will help you with database and file storage as well.

The only thing which is better than just reading docwalls is this amazing course

laracasts.com/series/laravel-from-scratch-2017

Basically, for Node.js process will be the same. You can find over 9000 frameworks starting from Express.

Thanks so much Mev-Rael that helps a lot.

So if I am understanding you correctly:

Databases are the root content holders- that simply hold information but do not send communications from a coding standpoint.
To access information on the database I must first go through a web server using nodeJS- then use Express to reach into the database and retrieve the information?
1. Does this mean when I create an IOS/android app the same will apply? i'll just use a different front end toolset to retrieve the database information?

So, on a side note- where are user "posts" actually stored? For example, with this website, Hashnode. Are our posts stored on the database? or are they just floating code?

thanks again!

I would debate that file paths are way better than blobs, since databases are meant for structured data. You can find 1928391283 arguments about this, though. 1928391280 of which will probably be posted underneath "false solutions" on Stack Overflow.

Mike G for iOS/Android you will need either a DB server opened to the outside world or an API web server, same as typical web app, but only to process basic HTTP requests and talk to DB.

Yes, the main point of DB is to store and process data and yes, "posts" and anything else are stored in DB. DB is just a catalogue of rows (single, specific records with unique ID, e.g. user #42, post #123) and tables (collections of those records, e.g. users, posts and other tables).

To build on Mev-Rael's fine reply, I would also suggest using a database abstraction layer that maintains a stable API boundary between the application layer and the database. If you develop your application such that it is tightly coupled with your database solution, you build technical debt, associated with any future changes in database and/or scaling. Using a database abstraction layer gives you freedom and stability. Fortune.js is a good option for a database abstraction layer.

fortune.js.org

Search Hashnode

Application's code is only MVC

Files

Tutorials