Chapter 3 3 WebBased Tools for Electronic Commerce

Chapter 3 3 Web-Based Tools for Electronic Commerce 1

Objectives u Computers 3 that support Web servers u Hardware requirements of typical Web server software packages u Fundamental duties of a Web server u Other ancillary Web server functions u Specific Web server software u Advanced Web server tools 2

Web Server Hardware and Performance Evaluation u Key 3 question is whether a company should host their own Web site u Find out what management and sales staff want to accomplish with a server Whom do they want to reach? l Will the server run transactions? l How involved will the staff be on a daily basis? l 3

Third-party or Internet Service Provider u Web 3 and e-commerce novices do not need hardware or software to launch a site u Fills the often time-consuming staffing requirements u Company does not need to establish a direct Internet connection 4

Web Hosting Options Figure 3 -1 3 5

Web Platform Choices u Faster 3 servers are better than slower ones u Good choice for the present, and for the future u Intranet and external traffic demands u Operating systems supported u Scalable 6

Building a Scalable Electronic Commerce System Figure 3 -2 3 7

Mindcraft Web Server Performance Reports Figure 3 -3 3 8

Web Server Performance Evaluation u Benchmarking l 3 Used to compare performance of hardware and software u Connection speed u How many users can the server handle l Throughput is the number of HTTP requests processed at one time u Mix and type of Web pages affect performance 9

Web Server Benchmark Software Figure 3 -4 3 10

Web Server Software Feature Sets u Core 3 l Capabilities Process and respond to Web client requests using the HTTP protocol u Security Validation of username and password l Processing certificates and key pairs l u FTP l Transferring of files to or from the server 11

Web Server Software Feature Sets u Searching 3 Searches the existing site or entire Web for documents l Indexing provides full-text indexes for files stored on the server l u Data l Analysis Capture visitor information u Who, how long, date & time, what pages were visited. 12

Using Gopher To Access Microsoft. com Figure 3 -5 3 13

Web Server Log File Report Figure 3 -6 3 14

Site Management u Web 3 management tools Microsoft Front. Page l Allaire Home. Site l u Web site validation programs Linkbot Pro l Big Brother l Siteinspector l 15

Typical Link Report Figure 3 -7 3 16

Site Management u Application 3 Construction Uses Web editors and extensions to produce Web pages l Don’t need to know CGI or API coding l u Dynamic Content Information constructed in response to a Web client’s request l Open Data. Base Connectivity (ODBC) l Active Server Pages (ASP) l 17

Site Development u HTML 3 Web page editors u Software development kits u Web page upload support u Popular software packages include Front. Page, Dreamweaver l Cold Fusion, Page. Mill l Ho. TMeta. L Pro, Netscape Composer l 18

Electronic Commerce u Contain 3 templates that simplify the creation of graphics, product and company information, shopping carts, and credit card processing u Perform sales report generation on demand u Advertisements rotated and replaced automatically 19

Web Server Software and Tools u Apache 3 Http Server u Microsoft Internet Information Server u Netscape Enterprise Server u O’Reilly Web. Site Professional u Others 20

Market Share of Installed Public Web Server Software Figure 3 -8 3 21

Apache HTTP Server u Developed 3 by Rob Mc. Cool at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in 1994 u Dominates the Web in numbers, largely because it’s free u Runs on many operating systems l AIX, BSD/OS, Free. BSD, HP-UX, Irix, Linux, Microsoft NT, QNS, SCO, Solaris 22

Apache HTTP Server u Security 3 is well thought out Password authentication l Digital certificate authentication l Access restrictions l u Application development tools support CGI and several proprietary APIs u Supports Active Server Pages (ASP) and Java servlets 23

Apache’s Home Page Figure 3 -9 3 24

Microsoft Internet Information Server u Bundled 3 (free) with Microsoft Windows NT operating system u Robust and capable, suitable for small sites up to enterprise-class sites u Runs only on Windows NT u Central server management from any server on the network u Tightly integrated security with NT 25

Microsoft Internet Information Server u Includes 3 ASP support, along with its own Internet Services API (ISAPI) u Database support for ODBC and SQL u Most popular server software for intranet web servers, as reported by PC Magazine 26

Microsoft’s Internet Information Server Home Page Figure 3 -10 3 27

Netscape Enterprise Server u $1, 300 3 to $2, 000 licensing fee u Free 60 -day trial u Powerful development environment Link management l Web publishing l Agent services l Upload Web pages to host computer without knowing FTP l 28

Netscape Enterprise Server u Verity 3 l search engine Various indexing formats u Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word and Power. Point u Can convert all to HTML format u Management tools to add, delete, or change user information u Password/challenge user and digital certificate authentication 29

Netscape Enterprise Server u Dynamic 3 application development CGI and Netscape Server API (NSAPI) l Java Servlet API l Live. Wire runtime environment l u Database support, including ODBC Oracle l Sybase l Informix l 30

Netscape Corporation Browser and Server Offerings Figure 3 -11 3 31

O’Reilly’s Web. Site Professional u $799 3 licensing fee u Only supports Windows 95/98 and Windows NT u Various add-on tools u Flexible scripting u Easy installation u Good documentation 32

Web. Site Professional Server Home Page Figure 3 -12 3 33

Other Web Server Tools u Web 3 Portals “Cyber door” on the Web l Serves as a customizable home base l Successful portals include l u Excite u Amazon. com u Yahoo! u Netscape Net. Center u Microsoft Start 34

Yahoo! Custom Portal Page Figure 3 -13 3 35

Search Engines u. A 3 special kind of Web page software that finds other Web pages that match a word or phrase the user enters u Contains three major parts Spider, crawler, or bot – searches the Web l Index – catalogs what is found l Search engine utility – provides search results l 36

A Search Engine Watch Report Figure 3 -14 3 37

Subscribing to a Web Page Figure 3 -15 3 38

Push Technologies u An 3 automated delivery of specific and current information from a Web server to the user’s computer’s hard drive u May be used to provide information on Health benefit updates l Employee awards l Changes in corporate policies l Other relevant information l 39

Intelligent Agents u. A 3 program that performs functions such as information gathering, information filtering, or mediation (running in the background) on behalf of a person or entity u Examples of widely known agents: Auction Bot, Bargain. Finder l Firefly, Kasbah l 40

Using an Excite Jango Agent Figure 3 -16 3 41

Example Uses for Intelligent Agents u Search 3 for the best price and characteristics of various products u Procurement l Deciding what, when, and how much to purchase u Stock l alert Monitors stock and notifies when certain conditions are met (purchase 100 shares if the price is below $61 per share) 42