UNIT - III

WEB BASED TOOLS FOR ECOMMERCE

TOPICS :
Web server software feature sets Web server Performance evaluation Software and tools Search engines Intelligent agents Cost analysis EC software Web hosting

Web server software feature sets

Some Web server software can run on only one computer operating system, while some can run on several operating systems. In this section, you will learn about the operating system software used on most Web servers, the Web server software itself, and other programs, such as Internet utilities and e-mail software, that companies often run on Web servers or other computers as part of electronic

Operating Systems for Web Servers

Operating system tasks include running programs and allocating computer resources such as memory and disk space to programs. Operating system software also provides input and output services to devices connected to the computer, including the keyboard, monitor, and printers. A computer must have an operating system to run programs. For large systems, the operating system has even more responsibilities, including keeping track of multiple users logged on to the system and ensuring that they do not interfere with one another.

Most Web servers run on computers that use one of the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows NT Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server or Server 2003 products, Linux, or one of several UNIX-based operating systems, such as Solaris or FreeBSD. Many companies believe that Microsoft server products are simpler for their information systems staff to learn and use than UNIX-based systems. Other companies worry about the security weaknesses caused by the tight integration between application software and the operating system in Microsoft products. UNIX- based Web servers are more popular, and many users believe that UNIX is a more secure operating system on which to run a Web server.

Linux is an open-source operating system that is fast, efficient, and easy to install. Open-source software is developed by a community of programmers who make the software available for download at no cost. Other programmers then use the software, work with it, and improve it. Those programmers can submit their improved versions of the software back to the community.

Web Server Software

The most commonly used Web server programs today: Apache HTTP Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), and Sun Java System Web Server (JSWS) (often called by its former names, Sun ONE, iPlanet Enterprise Server, and Netscape Enterprise Server).

Apache HTTP Server

Apache is an ongoing group software development effort. Rob McCool developed Apache while he was working at the University of Illinois at the NCSA in 1994. Several Webmasters from around the world created their own extensions to the server and formed an email group so that they could coordinate their changes (known as patches ) to the System. The system consisted of the original core system with a lot of patchesthus, it became known as a patchy server, or simply, Apache. The Apache Web server is currently available on the Web at no cost as open-source software.

IIS is used on many corporate intranets because many companies have adopted Microsoft products as their standard products. Small sites running personal Web pages use IIS, as do some of the largest electronic commerce sites on the Web. Most current surveys estimate that about 20 to 25 percent of all Web servers run some version of IIS. In recent years, the number of Web sites running IIS has been decreasing. Most industry observers believe this decrease has occurred because IIS has been the victim of several well-publicized security breaches. These security breaches allowed Web servers running IIS to be attacked successfully and defaced.

Web Server Performance Evaluation

Benchmarking Web server hardware and software combinations can help in making informed decisions for a system. Benchmarking, in this context, is testing that is used to compare the performance of hardware and software. Elements affecting overall server performance include hardware, operating system software, server software, connection speed, user capacity, and type of Web pages being delivered.

When evaluating Web server performance, a company should know exactly what factors are being measured and ensure that these are important factors relative to the expected use of the Web server. Another factor that can affect a Web servers performance is the speed of its connection. A server on a T3 connection can deliver Web pages to clients much faster than on a T1 connection.

The number of users the server can handle is also important. This can be difficult to measure because results are affected by the servers line speed, the clients line speeds, and the sizes of the Web pages delivered. Two factors to evaluate when measuring a servers Web page delivery capability are throughput and response time. Throughput is the number of HTTP requests that a particular hardware and software combination can process in a unit of time. Response time is the amount of time a server requires to process one request. These values should be well within the anticipated loads a server can experience, even during peak load times.

One way to choose Web server hardware configurations is to run tests on various combinations, remembering to consider the systems scalability. Of course, you need to have the hardware and software set up to do this, so it is difficult to evaluate potential configurations that you have not yet purchased. Independent testing labs such as Mindcraft test software, hardware systems, and network products for users. Its site contains reports and statistics comparing combinations of application server platforms, operating systems, and Web server software

Anyone contemplating purchasing a server that will handle heavy traffic should compare standard benchmarks for a variety of hardware and software configurations. Customized benchmarks can give Web managers guidelines for modifying file sizes, cache sizes, and other parameters. Web managers should run benchmarks regularly. Benchmarks are not as meaningful for small Web sites with much smaller numbers of daily visitors. In the latter case, a focus on Web design and site navigation can maximize clients satisfaction.

Search Engines and Web Directories

A search engine is a Web site that helps people finds things on the Web. Search engines contain three major parts. The first part, called a spider, a crawler, or a robot (or simply bot), is a program that automatically searches the Web to find Web pages that might be interesting to people. When the spider finds Web pages that mightinterest search engine site visitors, it collects the URL of the page and information contained on the page. This information might include the pages title, key words included in the pages text, and information about other pages on that Web site. In addition to words that appear on the Web page, Web site designers can specify additional key words in the page that are hidden from the view of Web site visitors, but that are visible to spiders. These key words are enclosed in an HTML tag set called meta tags.

The word meta is used for this tag set to indicate that the key words describe the content of a Web page and are not themselves part of the content. The spider returns this information to the second part of the search engine to be stored. The storage element of a search engine is called its index or database. The index checks to see if information about the Web page is already stored. If it is, it compares the stored information to the new information and determines whether to update the page information. The index is designed to allow fast searches of its very large amount of stor ed information. The third part of the search engine is the search utility. Visitors to the search engine site provide search terms, and the search utility takes those terms and finds entries for Web pages in its index that match those search terms.

The search utility is a program that creates a Web page that is a list of links to URLs that the search engine has found in its index that match the site visitors search terms. The visitor can then click the links to visit those sites. The web sites are technically called Web directories, most people refer to them as search engines. The most popular of these sites, such as Yahoo!, The search engine and Web directory sites AltaVista, AOL, Excite, Google, Lycos, MSN, and Yahoo! Regularly appear on these lists.

Intelligent Software Agents

Some companies provide Web sites that help users find products and services for sale on the Web. These sites use intelligent software agents (also called software robots, or bots), which are programs that search the Web and find items for sale that meet a buyers specifications. Some software agents are focused on a particular category of product, such as Best Book Buys, which searches more than 20 online bookstores for the best prices on books. In addition to obtaining price information, researchers are developing other software agents that track ratings of buyer and seller reputations

MIT Media Lab Software Agents Group and the Carnegie Mellon Intelligent Software Agents Lab have been leaders in the development of intelligent software agents. The BotSpot Web site is a good source of information about softwar e agents and includes links to downloadable bot programs. Simon is one of the best shopping agents currently available. In addition to finding product item matches, software agents such
as Simon can find the owest price for an item.

You can find Simon at the mySimon Web site

Basic functions of electronic commerce software

The type of electronic commerce software an organization needs depends on several factors. One of the most important factors is the expected size of the enterprise and its projected traffic and sales. A high-traffic electronic commerce site with thousands of catalog inquiries each minute requires different software than a small online shop selling a dozen items. Another determining factor is budget.

Creating an online store can be much less expensive than building a chain of retail stores. The start-up cost of an electronic commerce operation can be much lower than the cost of creating a brick-and-mortar sales and distribution channel that includes warehouses and multiple retail outlets. A traditional store requires a physical location with leases, employees, utility payments, and maintenance. The cost of creating the infrastructure for an online business can be much lower. Companies that have an existing information technology (IT) staff of programmers, Web designers, and network engineers are more likely to choose an in-house hosting approach. If a company does not have or cannot easily hire people with the skills required setting up and maintaining an electronic commerce site, it can outsource all or part of the job to a service provider.

Companies that are located outside of major metropolitan areas and want to host sites themselves must also consider whether their Internet connections are sufficient

The specific duties that electronic commerce software performs range from a few fundamental operations to a complete solutionfrom catalog display to fulfillment notification. All electronic commerce solutions must at least provide: A catalog display Shopping cart capabilities Transaction processing

Larger and more complex electronic commerce sites also use software that adds other features and capabilities to the basic set of commerce tools. These additional software components can include:
Middleware that integrates the electronic commerce system with existing company information systems that handle inventory control, order processing, and accounting Enterprise application integration

Web services Integration with enterprise resour ce planning (ERP) software Supply chain management (SCM) software Customer relationship management (CRM) software

Content management software

Knowledge management software

Transaction Processing

Transaction processing occurs when the shopper proceeds to the virtual checkout counter by clicking a checkout button. Then the electronic commerce software performs any necessary calculations, such as volume discounts, sales tax, and shipping costs. At checkout, the customers Web browser software and the sellersWeb server software both switch into a secure state of communication. Transaction processing can be the most complex part of the online sale. Computing taxes and shipping costs are important parts of this process, and site administrators must continually check tax rates and shipping tables to make sure they are current.

Some software enables the Web server to obtain updatedshipping rates by connecting directly to shipping companies to retrieve information. Other calculation complications include provisions for coupons, special promotions, and time-sensitive offers; for example, purchase a round-trip ticket before the end of the month and receive a 50 percent discount.

Some shopping cart software designed for small and midsize companies provides connections to accounting software so that Web sales can be entered simultaneously in the companys accounting system. In larger companies, the integration of the Web site s transaction processing into the accounting and operation control systems of the company can be very complex.

A cost analysis: Estimated Operating Expenses for a Small Web Business

The following table shows an estimate of the firstyear expenses that a small businessowner might incur to put a store on the Web. The estimate assumes that the Web sitewill offer fewer than 50 different items for sale. The total omits payment processing charges, which might average 50 cents per transaction and 2 percent of each sales total. The costs shown are aver ages. Depending on which hosting service and electronic commerce software options are chosen, the actual costs could be somewhat lower or considerably higher.

Web hosting
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

Types of hosting
Free web hosting service Shared web hosting service Reseller web hosting Virtual Dedicated Server: Dedicated hosting service

A reasonable guideline for payment processing fees that would be charged to a new merchant opening a business on the Web is about 3 percent of gross sales. Thus, if a sites annual gross sales are $50,000, then the payment processing fees should be approximately $1500. That estimate would include both the per transaction fixed costs and the percentage of total sales costs charged by most merchant credit card processing agencies.

Setup and Web site maintenance costs include equipment, communications, physical location, and staff. Equipmenta server and networking gear has a one- time cost ranging from $3000 to $20,000. A T1 connection or fraction thereof costs from $1200 to $12,000 per year. A server must be housed in a room that is both secure and convenient to communications access. The cost to secure a room, properly air-condition it, and install a chemical fire extinguishing system would run

A selfhosted system requires a staff of experts well versed in a variety of Web programming and scripting languages, electronic commerce packages, and database management systems

Technicians will likely be required to monitor and maintain equipment. Minimum staff costs range from $50,000 to $100,000 annually. In total, annual operating costs for self hosting approach $60,000 to $100,000 or more the first year. Costs for subsequent years will be about the same. Companies should carefully compare selfhost cost estimates with the fees charged by various hosting services.

Large businesses typically spend between $1 million and $50 million to launch an electronic commerce site and then spend another 50 percent of the launch cost every year to operate, maintain, and improve the site.

Tools offered
Merchant account services Web promotion secure socket layer Database support Secure transactions Shopping carts Advertising packages etc.

 Complete

safety of the sensitive information of the customer always remains an important issue for our organization. Although, there are numerous ecommerce hosting providers, but it's better to choose the one, which can understand your needs in a better way and serve you with the cutting-edge technical expertise

We provide 24 X 7 customer and technical support for beneficial ecommerce hosting Backed with Secure Locket Layer (SSL) compatible host servers for the execution of credit transactions We host server with fast data centre Our company has made proper arrangements for monthly file and database back up We provide singleton IP address We have maximum server uptime We offer sufficient number of POP's, three e-mail addresses, aliases and free forwarding as well Equipped with e-mail auto responders Our servers provide full FTP access round the year Flawless data support like MySQL or postgresql.