Exercises 10: Application Server Platform in E-Commerce

1. IBM has provide an IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite, Version 5.1. It is a complete e-commerce solution for e-business. This product is using DB2 or Oracles as their database, therefore, they are with Oracles as a business partner. IBM Websphere Commerce Suite can offer:(IBM, 2000)
- an online store
- conduct business to business or business(B2B) to consumer transactions(B2C)
- mobile commerce
Comparsion between DB2 and MySQL (IBM, 2006)


Oracle has provide an Oracle iStore for E-commerce solution. This product is using Oracle as a database. It offers the features and benefits: (Oracle, 2009)
- It builds, manage and personalize powerful, global and scalable internet storefronts.
- Istore supports both business to buisness (B2B) and business to customer (B2C) selling models
- Lower the cost of sales and improve services with an online commerical presence.
Compare betweem Oracle and MySQL(Petri, n.d.)

Microsoft provides e-commerce solution by their own products like the e-commerce manager, frontpage and also with their asp. Therefore, users can tailor made their e-commerce solution by the tools from Microsoft, and the database can be chose by their own, for instances, Access Database, SQL, or even though Oracle as well.

Compare between Microsoft SQL and MySQL (Tometa, 2004)

Sybase provides e-commerce solution with their famous application power building. They provide a flexible and easier ways to build up an e-server and online business with sybase datbase. Comparison between Sybase and MySQL in a white paper provided by Sybase Official Website.(Sybase, 2002) <http://www.sybase.com/content/1045499/Sybase_ASE_MySQL-102406-wp.pdf>

2.Perception is "the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information, and the word come from the Latin words perception, percepio, meaning "receiving, collecting, action of taking possession, apprehension with the mind or senses."" (Wilkipedia, 2009)

It is gettting stronger because due to this perceptual concepts could develop so many personal ad portal entertainment digital products like mp3.

Ajax is stand for Asynchronous Javascript and XML and it includes with html, css, dom, xml, xslt,xmlhttprequest and javascript. Ajax provides the role of architecture with user participation, it interfaces are an important component of many Web2.0 applications, for instances, Google Microsoft, Yahoo amd etc.(Arlekar, 2006)

3. Model-view-controller (MVC) is "an architectural pattern used in software engineering".(Wikipedia, 2009) In complex computer applications that present a large amount of data to the user, a developer often wishes to separate data (model) and user interface (view) concerns, so that changes to the user interface will not affect data handling, and that the data can be reorganized without changing the user interface. The model-view-controller solves this problem by decoupling data access and business logic from data presentation and user interaction, by introducing an intermediate component: the controller.

References:

1. IBM, 2000, 'IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite, Version 5.1: The Complete e-commerce Solution for Your Business '

<http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS200-415>

2. IBM, 2006,'Leverage MySQL skills to learn DB2 Express, Part 3: DB2 versus MySQL graphical user interface'

<http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0608tham/>

3. Oracle, 2009, 'Oracle iStore'

<http://www.oracle.com/applications/sales/istore.html>

4. Petri, n.d. ' A comparison of Oracle and MySQl'

<http://www.ioug.org/client_files/members/select_pdf/05q1/003_OracleMySQL.pdf>

5.Tometa, 2004, 'MySQL vs SQL'

<http://www.tometasoftware.com/mysql_vs_sqlserver.asp>

6. Sybase, 2002,'PB-EA Server Solution Reference 1.6'

<http://www.sybase.com/content/1020479/SolutionsReferenceGuideV16.pdf>

7. Arlekar, 2006,'The Role of AJAX in enhancing the user experience on the Web'

<http://www.roseindia.net/ajax/ajax-user-interface.shtml>

8.Wikipedia, 2009,'Perception'

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception>

9.Wikipedia, 2009,'Model-View-Controller'

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_view_controller>

Exercise 9: Web Form Design and Processing: A Basis for E-Commerce Interaction

1. Design the form

2.Javascripts

The javascript is seperate into Four parts

a. Users input the personal particular inside

b. Options to choose the purchasing products : French Perfume

c. Credit card validation

d. Get and Submit

3. Yes, just modify the variables inside the scripts, like the options items, validation function for credit cards, also the input names.

References:

Javaworld, 1996, ' Using Javascript and Forms'

<http://www.javaworld.com/jw-06-1996/javascript/javascript.old.html>

Exercise 8: PHP and MYSQL Database Access

1.a. Connect Database Test2

1.b. Create Table Employees

1.c. Insert Data and Display Result

Exercise 7: User Input for Database Access with PHP

1. HTML Page

2. Output Page

Exercise 6: Some Server Practice with PHP

1. Replacement on $Remote_Addr, $Server_Name, $PHP_SELF

I found in the study guide , the php scripts did not work on my windows XP, Appache2,2 with PHP 5.2 version. However, when I searched on net and it suggests, to put the syntax with a $_SERVER[variable] in the scripts then all the above pre-defined variables are working fine.

a. $Remote_Addr

b. $Server_Name



c. $PHP_Self



2. Helloworld.php

Exercise 5: Network and Programming Frameworks

1. A simple chat system allows multiple clients to exchange messages in an interactive ways. Users type the information in lines at one client and then the information would be appeared in the output windows of all the other clients connected to the same chat room. (Bressoud, 2006)

Program Code for multiple users (Wachsmut, 2006)

import java.net.*;

import java.io.*

public class ChatServer implements Runnable

{ private ServerSocket server = null; private Thread thread = null;

privateChatServerThreadclient=null;

public ChatServer(int port)

{ try

{ System.out.println("Binding to port " + port + ", please wait ...");

server = new ServerSocket(port);

System.out.println("Server started: " + server);

start(); }

catch(IOException ioe)

{ System.out.println(ioe);}}

public void run()

{ while (thread != null)

{ try

{ System.out.println("Waiting for a client ...");

addThread(server.accept());}

catch(IOException ie)

{ System.out.println("Acceptance Error: " + ie);} } }

public void addThread(Socket socket)

{ System.out.println("Client accepted: " + socket);

client = new ChatServerThread(this, socket);

try

{ client.open();

client.start(); }

catch(IOException ioe)

{ System.out.println("Error opening thread: " + ioe); } }

- When users initialized a request , a socket will be opened and accepted
- Multiple users can join the chatserver with this recursive approach

2. Comparsion between peer-to-peer and grid (Termizel, 2006)

- Grids address the needs of scientific collabortions and commerce, however, P2P has been used mostly for file sharing. The communites are composed of anonymous individials

- Grid systems integrated resouces that are more powerful , diverse and better connected than P2P resources

- P2P systems deal with intermittent participation and highly variable behaviour compare with grid

- Grid applications are far more data intensive

- P2P communities is not larger than grid

- Grid technologies are standardized

3. Compare and contrast of Java and .Net (Wilipedia, 2009)

- Java platform is established in mid-1990 and .Net is established in year 2000

- Java can run in different operating systems like Unix, Linux , Mac OSX and Windows, however, .Net is mostly run under Windows
- .Net is designed to allow many different programming languages to use its runtime and libraries, however, Java platform is not used for multiple languages unitl now.

- Java is cross-platform and .Net is cross-language

References:

1. Bressoud, 2006, ' Two Client Instant Messaging System'

<http://personal.denison.edu/~bressoud/cs401-f06/Programs/chat.html>

2.Wachsmut, 2006, 'Creating a Simple Chat Client/Server Solution'

<http://pirate.shu.edu/~wachsmut/Teaching/CSAS2214/Virtual/Lectures/chat-client-server.html>

3. Termizel, 2006, 'Peer - 2 - Peer Computing'

<http://www.computing.surrey.ac.uk/courses/csm23/Lectures/Lecture04s.ppt>

4.Wilipedia, 2009, ' Comparison of Java and .Net'

<http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Java_and_.NET>

Exercise 4: Virtual Private Network

1. Internet protocols are the world's most popular open-system protocol which was developed in the mid-1970s by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency(DARPA). They can be used to faciliate the communication between interconnected networks and also for the Local Area Network and Wide Area Network communication. (Cisco, 2009)


Figure1 Internet protocols span the complete range of OSI model layers. (Cisco, 2009)

Doman Name System, (DNS) is a system for converting hostname and domain into ip address on the internet or local network. It helps to translate domain names into meaningful for humans to identify the binary which is associated with networking equipment for the purpose to locate the world-wide addresses.(PCMag, 2009)

2. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is defined as a highly reliable host to host protocol between hosts in packet-switched computer communication networks, and also in the interconnected network systems. (Zapotoczky, 2002)

In the TCP/IP protocol suite, there are two main transport protocols, they are transmission protocol(TCP and user datagram protocol(UDP).

Role of TCP and UDP in TCP/IP refernce model ( Leung, 2005)

The relationship between the TCP and IP is IP takes care lower level transmissions from one computer to another as a message send across the internet, however, TCP works in a higher level concerned only with the two end systems.

3. Intranet is a private network to use the security internet technologies approach for sharing the information among the employees in an organisation. Extranet is almost the same like intranet approach, however it uses public telecommunication system to serve for the organisation's supplier, vendors, partners and customers. Business to Business and Business to Consumer is the same "state of mind" to provide other companies and consumers for the information sharing. (Wikipedia, 2009)
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a network that links between nodes and carried by open connection to for a larger network, authentication and encryptions are applied to the VPN to secure the network connection. (Wikipedia. 2009)

There are some basic rules on building up e-business applications as an intranet, extranet, web portal, b2b, b2c and vpn. - A Web server connected directly or indirectly to your computer network. The e-business application will stay on this server.
- A high speedy, company wide computer network so all employees can access the intranet.
- Applications developed with Hypertext Markup Language, the software authoring language of the World Wide Web.
- Remote access so off-site employees can access the intranet and suppliers and partners can access the extranet.
- Security functions so only authorized users can access the e-business application. Examples: Business to Business (b2b) site : http://www.easytrade.com/, Business to Customer (b2c) site : http://www.b2csite.com/,

4. VPN allows companies to connect their partners to consume web services sercurely and easily. VPN automatically create a virtual service tunnels between partners, allow b2b applications to utilize partner services without worrying about the complication and cost of setting up a security application (SOA, 2009)

References:

1. SOA, 2009, 'New B2B Services Security Solution for .Net Drives Partners Communication Using .Net Web Services' <http://www.soa.com/index.php/news/press_detail/digital_evolution_introduces_industrys_first_xml_vpn_for_net/> 2. Cisco, 2009, ' Internet Protocol' http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/internetworking/technology/handbook/Internet-Protocols.html
3. PCMag, 2009,' DNS Definition' <http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=domain+name+server&i=41620,00.asp>
4. Zapotoczky, 2002, ' TCP Header' <http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/~comp2650/lecture/notes/Chapter3.pdf>
5. Wikipedia, 2009, 'Intranet' <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet>
6. Wikipedia, 2009, 'Extranet' <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extranet>
7. Wikipedia, 2009 ' Virtual Private Network' <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPN'>

Exercise3: Finding Some Common Ground

Rapid Evolutionary Prototyping Aproach is an approach to system development where an initial prototype is developed and refined through a number of stages to the final system. (Sommerville, 2000)

Evolutionary Prototying can be developed into different steps
1. Develop abstract specification
2. Build a prototype system
3. Use prototype system
4. Validate system adequate
5. Deliver System

As developing the web application, the rapid evolutionary prototyping specification, design and implementation are inter-twined, the system is developed as a series of increments.

Agile deveopment is using the similar principles of rapid evolutionary prototying approach. It allows a rapid delivery with a high quality implentation. It also involved in a series of incremental stages for the development. (Wikipedia, 2009)

References:

1. Wikipedia, 2009, ' Agile Software Development' >

2. Sommerville,I.,(2000), Software Engineering, 6th edition, Chapter8

Good Student

I found myself is a good student, i was doing my exercise progressively, however, when i looked into others blog, wow, i found, most of my classmates were already working on the ROR ..

I think, I must do something tonight, to build up ROR :-)

Exercise 2: Technology and the Evolution of Business Options

1. Online Shopping Sites:
- Yahoo Shopping <http://shopping.yahoo.com/>
- ShopinHK <http://www.shopinhk.com/>
- Singapore Buy Online <http://www.sgbuyonline.com/>
- Bigshop.com.au <http://www.bigshop.com.au/>
- Amazon <http://www.amazon.com/>

2. Electronic Payments Sites:
- PayPal <https://www.paypal.com/>
- Authorized.Net <http://www.authorize.net/>
- Sage Payment <http://www.sagepayments.com/>
- Encore Payment System <http://www.encoreps.com/>
- Worldpay <http://www.worldpay.com/>

3. Database Access Sites:
- Cook Book Online Database Access <http://www.cook-books.com/>
- EBSCOHost <http://search.ebscohost.com/>
- Grolier Online Scholastic <http://auth.grolier.com/>
- IEEE Xplore <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/>
- International Bibliography of Social Sciences <http://www.lse.ac.uk/>

4. Wap Sites
- Hong Kong Observatory WAP <http://www.hko.gov.hk/hkowap.htm>
- Yahoo! Frontpage <http://hk.m.yahoo.com/?tsrc=rawfront>
- Geocaching <http://wap.geocaching.com/>
- Heroes Wiki <http://heroeswiki.com/WAP_sites>
- Bravo <http://wap.bravotv.com/inf/infomo?site=bravo>

Exercise1: Analysis of the Online Communities Paradigm

1a. Online Community is a computer network approach, which involved a group of peopleby using the email, phone call, newsletter, and message interactively. (wilkipedia, 2009)
1b.i. After visiting three auctions sites , yes, they have the same common thread and local community sense in action, since among three, they have the common layout with the common links show different locations eg. United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Hong Kong .. etc
1b.ii. Ebay accepts PayPal, Credit cards( Mastercard, Visa, Amex), debit cards and bankelectronic payments, they are globally acceptable.Also offline payment methods likepersonal chequest, bankers drafts and postal orders are accepted but they are not have the same level of protection as online payments
1b.iii. Benefits for Buyer, Seller and E-bay Owner
- Buyer can do shopping 24 hours x 7 days , anytime and anywhere they wanted,provided that they are on-line. The price is comparatively since so many sellers are on-line. Payment is easy and flexible with the electronic payment system.Also, no geographical limitation.
- Seller did not need a real physical shop with employees take care of the customers, cost save on that. Market freedom. no geographical limitation, virtual shop can open 24 hours x 7 days to serve different geographical customers.
- E-bay owner earns lots of commissions through the sales transactions.
1c. Thee others examples of an online business using an online community approach.They are ShopinHK-http://www.shopinhk.com,Yahoo!Shopping-http://shopping.yahoo.com,Amazon-http://www.amazon.com

2a. Amazon is a successful online business store because it provides 24 hours x 7 days services. Also, it provides so many different items for custmomers to choose, convenience and safe payment system and user friendly layout. Steps on purchase a book:

- Search the book title

- Click on the buy a new book link

- Add to a shopping cart

- Sign in a Secure server

- Create a new or sign in an account

- Fill in the shipping address and choose the methods for delivery

- Choose the payment

- Submit the order.

2b.Yes, there is a secure transactions not involving money, SSL is the common security method use on internet.

2c. List of items can be bought under Amazon

3. Price comparison sites can offer a online price information for the customers , rather than in earlier time, customers had to visit different shops phyically to compare the price. It serves the convenience for customers. Nowadays, manufacturers, merchants, retailers has to provide a competition price or discount for their products, in order to "get" a customer because price comparison sites give information on the rise and fall of the prices also with the various of cheap deals (FA Lifestyle, 2008).

Reference:

1. Wilipedia, 2009, 'Virtual Community'

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community>

2. Amazon, 2009, 'Amazon.com'

<http://www.amazon.com/>

3. FA Lifestyle, 2008, ' Price Comparison Compare to Find Cheap and Best'

<http://www.floweradvisor.com.hk/lifestyle/business/sales/58013/price_comparison_compare_to_find_cheap_and_best/>

Introduction

Hi Everyone,

I am Ken Yau from Hong Kong. This is my 2nd year working on the MIT program.Currently, I am working for a German Bank as an IT Manager. My main responsibility is on project management. Also, this year, I would take care of the network infrastructure for the bank as well; therefore, it is another challenge assignment for me.

I built up this blog for the course module of ITC 594, E-systems Infrastructure Development, however, I still would like to make use of it as my " Chit-Chat" blog with my friends :-)

Best regards

Ken Yau