# Best practises

In this section you can find helpful tips to follow when defining your application.

An application is composed of a database and metadata defined through the configuration process, using the App Designer.

The next sections describe these two tasks:

* how to **design and maintain a database**
* how to **design the most common functionalities**

The design and maintenance of a database passes through a set of rules to follow, in order to create an effective database, including rules about the naming of database fields and the supported database types.

The design of common functionalities using the App Designer are split up in two sections:

* [Use cases for Web Applications](best-practises/2-3-creating-a-web-app-common-use-cases)
* [Use cases for Mobile Applications](best-practises/2-4-creating-a-mobile-app-common-use-cases)
