E-commerce Architecture

RASEL AHMED FAHMIDA FAMI

CSE-02805633 CSE-02905670

Definition of E-Commerce
Electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct physical contact.

E-commerce is the use of electronic communications and digital information processing technology in business transactions to create, transform, and redefine relationships for value creation between or among organizations, and between organizations and individuals.

Benefits of E-Commerce
24X7 operation: Ecommerce provide the unlimited time of operation. Global reach: The internet being inherently global, reaching global customers is relatively easy. Improved customer service to your clients: It results in higher satisfaction and more sales. Power to provide the best of both the worlds: It enhances traditional along with Internet tools.

Disadvantages of E-Commerce

Shipping Time & Cost: The basic shipping cost rule is simple: the more the weight, the more the cost. Doubts and Fears: Many people afraid to buy something on the web because they doubt if the store is reliable. Inability to Feel the Physical: Online store doesnt provide the opportunity to actually touch, wear or sit on the product. Shopping is Social Experience: People love to shop in the mall because it gives them an opportunity to have fun with friends and family.

Different types of E-Commerce

Business-to-Business (B2B); Business-to-Consumer (B2C); Business-to-Government (B2G); Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C); Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce).

Business-to-Business (B2B)
B2B e-commerce is simply defined as e-commerce between companies. This is the type of e-commerce that deals with relationships between and among businesses. The B2B market has two primary components: E-frastructure and e-markets. E-Frastructure is the architecture of B2B, primarily consisting of the following:
Logistics - transportation, warehousing and distribution. Application service providers - deployment, hosting and management of packaged software from a central facility (e.g., Oracle and Linkshare).

E-markets are simply defined as Web sites where buyers and sellers interact with each other and conduct transactions.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
Business-to-consumer e-commerce, or commerce between companies and consumers. Involves
Customers gathering information Purchasing physical goods Receiving products over an electronic network.

B2C e-commerce reduces transactions costs (particularly search costs) by increasing consumer access to information and allowing consumers to find the most competitive price for a product or service.

Business-to-Government (B2G)
Business-to-government e-commerce or B2G is generally defined as commerce between companies and the public sector. It has two features: the public sector assumes a pilot/leading role in establishing e-commerce it is assumed that the public sector has the greatest need for making its procurement system more effective. Web-based purchasing policies increase the transparency of the procurement process (and reduce the risk of irregularities).

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce or C2C is simply commerce between private individuals or consumers. C2C comes in at least three forms:
Auctions facilitated at a portal, such as eBay Peer-to-peer systems, such as the Napster model and file exchange and later money exchange models. Classified ads at portal sites such as Excite Classifieds and eWanted .

Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce)

M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services through wireless technology-i.e., handheld devices such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Delivery over wireless devices becomes faster, more secure, and scalable Some believe that m-commerce will surpass wireline e-commerce as the method of choice for digital commerce transactions.

E-commerce Architecture

The size and complexity of E-Commerce systems depends on a architecture.

In our paper we have discuss four types of e-commerce architecture Client Server Architecture Two-Tier Architectures Three-Tier Architectures Distributed Enterprise Architecture

Clientserver architecture
The clientserver architecture is a computing model that providers a resource or service, called servers, and service requesters, called clients. Client Server architecture use 3 components
Clients (Clients are Applications): Applications that run on computers and Rely on servers for Files, Devices, Processing power and Make requests. Example: E-mail client an application that enables you to send and receive e-mail. Servers (Servers Manage Resources): Computers or processes that manage network resources, Disk drives (file servers), Store and protect data, Process requests from clients. Example: Database Server. Communication Networks: Networks Connect Clients and Servers.

Client Server Architecture(cont)

E-commerce is based on client/ server architecture
Client processes requesting service from server processes First used in 1980s, the model improves to be e-commerce usability, flexibility, interoperability and scalability.

In e-commerce the client is defined as the requestor of a service and a server is the provider of the service
Browser is the client and the customer, the computer that sends the HTML files is the server The server can also be a computer program that provides services to other computer programs

A web server is the computer program that serves requested HTML pages or files.
Uses client/server model and http(hypertext transfer protocol) Every computer on the internet that contains a web site must have a web server program.

Client Server Architecture(cont)

Typically the e-commerce customer is the client and the business is the server. In the client/ server model single machine can be both client and the server The client/ server model utilises a database server in which RDBMS user queries can be answered directly by the server. In client/ server architectures client and server typically communicate through statements made in structured query language (SQL).

Client/Server with File Servers

In the client/server architecture, a file server is a computer responsible for the central storage and management of data files so that other computers on the same network can access the files. Any computer can be configured to be a host and act as a file server.

Client/Server with Database Servers

A database server is a computer program that provides database services to other computer programs or computers, as defined by the clientserver model. Server is accessed either through a "front end" running on the users computer which displays requested data or the "back end" which runs on the server and handles tasks such as data analysis and storage.

Advantages of Client Server Architecture

Proper Management: All the files are stored at the same place. In this way, management of files becomes easy. Also it becomes easier to find files. Back-up and Recovery possible: As all the data is stored on server its easy to make a back-up of it. Up gradation and Scalability in Client-server set-up: A client server system allows the network to easily adapt to upgrades and new technologies. Security: Rules defining security and access rights can be defined at the time of set-up of server. Accessibility: From various platforms in the network, server can be accessed remotely. Accessible client server system can be set up with a remote access.

Disadvantages of Client Server Architecture

Congestion in Network: Too many requests from the clients may lead to congestion. Client-Server architecture is not as robust as a P2P and if the server fails, the whole network goes down. Also, if you are downloading a file from server and it gets abandoned due to some error, download stops altogether. Dependence: The client-server network model relies on a functioning and available centralized server. Maintenance Client-server networks often requires a staff with at least a single network administrator to manage and maintain the equipment and the network. Complexity: A client/server network is naturally more complex

Two-Tier Architectures
The user system interface is usually located in the users desktop environment and the DBM services are usually in a server that is a more powerful machine that services many clients. Two-tier architectures have 2 essential components
A Client PC and A Database Server

Client User Interface (Business Rules)

Server (Business Rules) Data Access

Two-Tier Architectures(cont)
It runs the client processes separately from the server processes, usually on a different computer:
The client processes provide an interface for the customer, and gather and present data usually on the customers computer. This part of the application is the presentation layer The server processes provide an interface with the data store of the business. This part of the application is the data layer The business logic that validates data, monitors security and permissions, and performs other business rules can be housed on either the client or the server, or split between the two.
Fundamental units of work required to complete the business process Business rules can be automated by an application program.

Two-Tier Architectures(cont)
Typically used in e-commerce Internet retrieval, desicion support Used in distributed computing when there are fewer than 100 people simultaneously interacting on a LAN. Implementation of processing management services using vendor proprietary db procedures restricts flexibility and choice of RDBMS for applications. Also lacks flexibility in moving program functionality from one server to another.

Advantages of the two tier architecture

Development Issues: Fast application development time, Easy to setup and maintain available tools are robust and lend themselves to fast prototyping to insure user needs a met accurately and completely. Performance: Adequate performance for low to medium volume environments Business logic and database are physically close, which provides higher performance.

Disadvantages of the two tier architecture

Poor Logic Sharing: Traditional two-tier architectures keep business logic on the client. When logic is in the client, it is usually more difficult to re-use logic between applications and amongst tools. Application Distribution: Application changes have to be distributed to each client. When there are a large number of users, this entails considerable administrative overhead. Remote Usage: Remote users (e.g. customers), probably do not want to install your application on their clients-they would prefer "thin" clients where minimal (or no) client software installation is required. Database Structure: other applications that access your database will become dependent on the existing database structure. This means that it is more difficult to redesign the database since other applications are intimate with the actual database structure

Three-Tier Architecture(Multitier architecture)

Multi-tier architecture (often referred to as n-tier architecture) is a clientserver architecture in which the presentation, the application processing, and the data management are logically separate processes. There are 3 layers
Presentation tier Or Presentation Layer (UI): This is the topmost level of the application. The presentation tier displays information related to such services as browsing merchandise, purchasing, and shopping cart contents. Application tier (business logic, logic tier, data access tier, or middle tier): The logic tier is pulled out from the presentation tier and, as its own layer; it controls an applications functionality by performing detailed processing. Data Access Layer (DAL) Or Data tier: This tier consists of database servers. Here information is stored and retrieved. This tier keeps data neutral and independent from application servers or business logic.

Three-Tier Architectures
A middle tier is added between the client environment and the DBM server environment Three Tier architectures have 3 essential components Variety of ways to implement:
Transaction processing (TP) monitors Message servers Application servers

Web client

Web server

Database server

Three-Tier Architectures with TP Monitor

The most basic type
Type of message queuing, transaction scheduling, prioritisation service

Client connects to TP instead of the DB server The transaction is accepted by the monitor which queues it and takes responsibility to complete it by freeing up the client When a third part provides this service it is called TP heavy When it is embeded in the DBMS, it can be considered 2-tier and is referred to as TP lite

Three-Tier Architectures with TP Monitor

TP monitor provides:
The ability to update multiple DBMSs in a single transaction Connctivity to a variety of data sources (flat files & nonRDBMSs) The ability to attach priorities to transactions Robust security

More scalable than a 2-tier architecture Most suitable for e-commerce with many thousands of users

Three-Tier Architectures with Message Server

Messages are prioritised and processed asynchronously
Headers contain priority info, the address, the id no

Message server connects to the RDBMS and other data sources The message server focuses on intelligent messages, whereas the TP environment has the intelligence in the monitor and treats transactions as dumb data packets They are sound business solutions for the wireless infrastructures of m-commerce.

Three-Tier Architectures with an Application Server

Allocates the main body of an application to run on a shared host rather than in the user system interface client environment The application server does not drive GUIs rather it shares business logic, computations, and a data retrieval engine. With less sw on the client
There is less concern with security, Applications are more scalable Support and installation costs are less on a single server than maintaining each on a desktop client.

Three-Tier Architectures with an Object Request Broker Standard

Need for improving interoperability and object request broker (ORB) standards in the client/ server model. ORB support in a network of clients and servers on different computers means
A client program (object) can request services from a server program Object without having to understand where the server is in a distributed network or what the interface to the server program looks like

ORB is the programming that acts as the mediary or as a broker between a client request for a service from a distributed object or component and server completion of that request.

Three-Tier Architectures with an Object Request Broker Standard(cont)

There are two prominent distributed object technologies:
Common Object Request Broker (CORBA) Component Object Model (COM) Architecture

The industry is working on operability between CORBA and COM

Advantages of 3 tier architecture

The contents of any of the tiers/layers can be replaced without making any resultant changes in any of the others.
A change from one DBMS to other will only involve a change to the part in the data access layer.

The benefit of writing the presentation and business layered architecture in different languages is that it is an advantage of the presentation and business layers is that it is feasible to use different developer teams to work on each. Wait balancing system because the entire work load is divided. Scalability: The key 3-tier benefit is improved scalability since the application servers can be deployed on many machines. Hidden Database Structure: The actual structure of the database is hidden from the caller, it is possible that many database changes can be made transparently.

Disadvantages of 3 tier architecture

Increased Complexity/Effort: In general, it is more difficult to build a 3-tier application compared to a 2-tier application. The points of communication are doubled and many handy productivity enhancements provided by client tools. Performance: More complex structure more difficult to setup and maintain the physical separation of application servers containing business logic functions and database servers containing databases may moderately affect performance

Distributed Enterprise Architecture

The Distributed Enterprise Architecture has been designed to support distribution of key components. For instance, the Data Adapters can be and in fact were distributed to other machines to support the Distributed Enterprise Architecture effort on IL03. Based on ORB technology Uses shared, reusable business models on a business enterprise-wide scale. Standardised business object models and distributed object computing are combined to give greater flexibility to the business With the emergence and popularity of ERP sw, distributed enterprise architecture promises to enable e-commerce to extend business processes at the enterprise level.

Advantages of the Distributed Enterprise Architecture

Allows significant modification of DCA deployment without code changes. Non-developers can configure the DCA and the Data Adapters. Collection Strategies and system parameters can be configuration managed
separately from the code base.

Disadvantages of the Distributed Enterprise Architecture

Software implementation is difficult. Network setup is complicated. More components to fail because of so many components are used. Security issue is low to maintain.

Software Implementation
Java Excel Add ,Update, Delete.

Front End

Database Screenshot