Project Proposal
Setting up Online Stores in Minutes
Submitted to: Dr. Spiros Mancoridis
Submitted by: Team 1
Harris Mahedavi
Ryan D. Moyer
Yuan K. Shih
Samir Tamri
Beata
Ebb
Date Submitted: Jan 20, 1999
Introduction:
Today Internet industry is growing at a tremendous rate. A new market has developed which has potential of reaching global consumers. In order to be a leader in respective field one must be able to accept new technologies and change.
|
Trend |
1996 |
2000 |
|
No. Business Connected |
4% |
growing |
|
No. of Households Online |
10 million |
33 million |
|
Revenues |
240 million |
22 billion |
|
Total Net economy |
15 billion |
200 billion |
Source: ZD Net website (Forrester Research)
So given the statistics one can easily notes that there are small to mid size business who have not capitalized on the internet industry because of many reasons, including expertise in this fairly new technology.
The application is to be used for any entity that wishes to move their store onto the Internet market. To create an online store this application would require minimum expertise in installing, creating and maintaining of an online store. To give an example, this application would be similar to using a Cold Fusion application for site creation.
Goal:
The objective of our team is to develop an application, which will be a complete solution package for developing an e-commerce site with considerable ease.
Application Components:
1 Database:
The application would require a backend database to store the product information. All the addition and deletion of products would take place in the database. Hence a customized relational database would be required for this application.
Expertise: Many students in Team 1 have significant experience through their co-ops in creating such database hence would not be a challenge.
2. Warehouse/Shipping Interface (Optional):
This is more of a future enhancement of this application. In order to accomplish true automation of shipping orders, an interface would be needed to design to interact with and warehouse/shipping application.
3. E-Money Interface:
To transfer the receivable payments electronically from the clients to the stores bank account, a third part vendor product such as CyberCash, E-Money etc. would be used. An interface would be required to interface with this application.
4. Shopping Cart:
As then name suggest this component would simulate a shopping cart in a store. Consumers can select and add there products into there own shopping baskets and remove from it as well.
Expertise: This component would require CGI scripting in Perl. Some students in Team 1 have some experience with CGI and Perl.
5. Products Catalogue:
Once again as the name suggest, this component would simulate a products catalogue, where consumers can look at the products and their description. Consumers can search any products in this catalogue as well.
Expertise: This component would be built using Perl,C++ or Java as backend tool and Dhtml, Javascript, CSS, HTML on the front end.
6. Minimum Website Template:
This component would help the client to create their bare minimum web site if not in existence with ease.
Expertise: This component would require the knowhow of Perl, Dhtml, Html, CSS, Javascript.
7. Help Files for Client:
Help files to help user administer, maintain and use this application.
Development Process Model:
This application would require exploration of its requirements and specifications. Many of its components are GUI based and hence constantly would require validations and evaluation. Also the development of this products would be started with bare bones and each different component then added on to it. After careful brainstorming and input Team 1 came to the conclusion that it would use Evolutionary Programming model as our development model because of the reasons described above.
Conclusion:
Though the project seems to be ambitious yet it is attainable because of the following reasons
EZ2-Shop Ver. 3.1
Customers certainly won't confuse an online catalog built with EZ2-Shop with online catalogs created with other software. For the most part, this is a very good thing, as EZ2-Shop brings a unique look and feel to the world of online commerce.
EZ2-Shop creates HTML pages using standard HTML tags and Active Server Pages technology, which are then served by a Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) or Windows 95 Personal Web Server. These pages take product information from an EZ2-Shop database or a Microsoft Access database and create a hierarchy of product listings.
The default EZ2-Shop catalogs interface is a melange of standard Web conventions and a unique hierarchical organization built along the lines of the Windows Explorer interface. When users log onto an EZ2-Shop catalog, they'll see a main window frame paired with a Product Group Outline tree (which is the screen element based on Windows Explorer). This Product Group Outline tree uses folders, subfolders, and individual items to organize catalog listings. For instance, a software vendor may use EZ2-Shop to organize a wide range of product offerings. On the top level would be the different types of software offerings. When a user opens a folder, they're then presented subfolders that reveal more precise product listings (perhaps organized by price, vendor or functionality). Opening the final folder yields a listing of specific products.
Information about the products can be entered directly into an EZ2-Shop database and indexed in an EZ2-Shop search engine, which can be directly accessed by users to perform system searches for specific products. In addition, product information can be accessed from any ODBC-compliant database that supports SQL, including Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access. However, there are no native database drivers (i.e., there's no native Oracle driver).
When folders are opened, the content in the main window frame changes to reflect the current folder or item. When subfolders are opened, users see all the products available from the subfolder, including prices, buttons for adding the product to a shopping cart, descriptions, and more. EZ2-Shop features a number of templates for creating these listings.
Merchant Builder 3.0
Merchant Builder 3.0 is an easy-to-configure e-commerce tool that shines both for system administrations that must deploy it and for Webmasters who must design catalogs with it. The product includes a strong set of tools for creating a catalog and lots of goodies that help it run smoothly under the hood.
Installation
Sold directly to ISPs, Merchant Builder runs under Windows NT 4.0 on either an Intel or Alpha platform, in conjunction with Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0 or Peer Web Services. Merchant Builder's documentation points out that it can also run under Windows NT 3.51 or Windows 95, but those platforms are not officially supported. (We tested Merchant Builder 3.0 under Windows NT.) Merchant Builder also requires a Web browser (Netscape Navigator 3.0 or better or Internet Explorer) for administration purposes.
In addition, Merchant Builder requires SQL Server 6.5 or Oracle 7.0 (or later) installed, with ODBC drivers for connecting to the database. (Unfortunately, there are no native SQL or Oracle drivers supported or supplied with the software.) Also recommended is the installation of the latest Microsoft Data Access Components (version 1.5), which include ODBC support. (The documentation states that Microsoft Access can be used for evaluation, but is not supported for deployment.) Full source code for Merchant Builder is provided for those buying three-store licenses.
Although by default Merchant Builder won't run directly with Netscape servers via Netscape Server API (NSAPI), it will run via the Java version running as a Netscape Java servlet. Full NSAPI is available by request from The Internet Factory. In addition, Merchant Builder comes with its own Web server that's optimized for e-commerce transactions.
We tested Merchant Builder 3.0 after downloading an evaluation version from the Internet Factory Web site. Although this download isn't available to the public, an older version of Merchant Builder 2.2 is available. However, most users won't be installing Merchant Builder 3.0 on their own servers -- most will be using Merchant Builder from their ISP's site to set up a hosted online catalog.
It is in the creation of online catalogs where Merchant Builder 3.0 really shines.
Setting Up Shop
A store is built using Site Magic eXtensions which are embedded into HTML pages. These pages are generated by the Site Magic engine, in real time, as they are requested by a user, resulting in dynamic Web content. Therefore, when you build a store, you're actually creating a series of links. This would include all aspects of a catalog, including departments and specific items.
Merchant Builder can be used to host a mall with many stores on one server, or to link a network of stores on several servers There are relatively few limits to the type and scale of electronic storefronts created with Merchant Builder. For example, the product comes with a Mall Interface that makes it easy to create and manage multiple stores on a single server. You could use one site to host multiple stores with different IP addresses, or you could create one huge store with an unlimited number of products. This power is multiplied when products can be cross-listed in different departments.
Users can be assigned customer names and IDs, making it easy to track their purchases and customize future offerings based on consumer behavior and past purchases.
Administration
You administer Merchant Builder from the Mall Administration, which is accessed from a Web browser. All aspects of Merchant Builder can be administered from a remote browser: you could check orders, change prices and generate reports from any computer located anywhere. In addition, other Merchant Builder departments (such as accounting, fulfillment, customer service, and more) can be managed simultaneously from different locations.
These other departments can generate a wide variety of reports, including sales reports, shipping status for specific products (information that can also be accessed by users), sales-tax information (on the state, county and city levels), and more.
Creating a mall is as simple as using the Mall Administration's Mall Setup Wizard via the Web browser. The wizard configures all the basics: your mall's administrative password, e-mail access for mailing mall notifications, and the mall's database for a single store. You can use the same utility to create additional stores as the need arises.
Electronic Payment Support
Merchant Builder 3.0 supports IC Verify 2.x (32-bit version), First Virtual, and CyberCash payment schemes, as well as offline processing with an existing merchant account and Verisign/RSA SSL encryption.
With its ability to generate dynamic content and an easy-to-use catalog-building interface, Merchant Builder should be a strong contender for your e-commerce dollars as you shop for an electronic-storefront solution.
Pros: Easy to create electronic storefronts; works with larger stores and an unlimited number of products, can be integrated into existing Windows NT server sites, open source code for ISPs.
Cons: Lack of native database drivers.
By
Scott Clark[January 13, 1999]
PaymentNet this week announced the release of a new Java-based interface for its e-commerce payment processing service. The new transaction processing client is available free from the PaymentNet Web site for Solaris and Windows NT platforms.The transaction processing client features enhanced payment performance, security and stability. This enables businesseses that are currently developing Java-based applications to link their back-office processing systems to Internet store fronts.
The new implementation is especially suited for enterprise-class applications where Java is used to interface between an Internet storefront and back-office functions. The Java-based client was written in C++ using a Java Native Interface (JNI).
The PaymentNet service provides the first system which enables full-function, real-time processing of consumer checks without requiring the generation of a paper draft to be submitted to a merchant bank. By using TeleCheck, the service delivers real-time processing, along with fraud screening, authorization and merchant guarantee service.