Generic Architecture

Plesk Sitebuilder is a web application with a web server. The server exchanges data with user agents (Web Clients) via HTTP protocol, and with Web Services Clients via SOAP over HTTP. The latter type of communication is performed through the Service Facade component which provides the remote API capabilities.

Sitebuilder utilizes the common Model-View Controller design pattern, which separates it into the following architectural pieces:

• Model. Represents Sitebuilder domain model, the data on which the application operates. Manages the behavior and data of Sitebuilder, responds to requests for information about its state, and responds to instructions to change its state.
  The Model encapsulates the data access layer which provides communications with the database that stores the Sitebuilder data.
• View. Represents the Sitebuilder user interface. It is updated by the Controller's requests which use information provided by the Model.
  The component provides Localization and Skinning capabilities, which allow creating multiple customizations of the Sitebuilder user interface.
• Controller. Interprets data sent by clients, and makes the appropriate requests to the Model and View so that they can be updated appropriately.

The following diagram depicts generic Sitebuilder architecture.

Hence, Plesk Sitebuilder is designed to provide third-party developers with the following integration and UI customization capabilities:

1. Integrating Sitebuilder with third-party components via remote API using web services.

   This guide is devoted to this very issue.

2. Customizing the ways the Sitebuilder user interface looks and speaks to a user, which implies, correspondingly, skinning and localizing Sitebuilder.
   • Skinning is customizing the Sitebuilder UI using skins (themes, in other terms) -- custom interface appearance styles.
   • Localization is customizing the Sitebuilder UI language using language packs.

   Skinning and localizing Sitebuilder are considered in the corresponding guides within the current Sitebuilder SDK.