Electronic Commerce
An Introduction to the Technologies
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Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University
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The Graduate Reading Forum
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James Madison University
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Overview
- The Technological Foundations
- Reaching Critical Mass
- Core Electronic Commerce Technologies
- Initial Research/Engineering Questions
- Future Research Areas
- Conclusions
The Technological Foundations
- Physical Layer
- Hierarchical Networks
- Packet Switching
- The Network Layer (Routers, Gateways, and Hosts)
- Internet Protocol (IP)
- Domain Name System (DNS)
Reaching Critical Mass
- Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP),
the Hypertext markup Language (HTML),
the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), and
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)
- Mosaic
E-Commerce Technologies: HTTP
- A simple stateless protocol for accessing hypermedia
documents:
- Client opens a connection
- Client sends a request and waits for a response
- Server processes the request
- Server sends a response
- Server closes the connection
- Common Requests:
GET, HEAD,
and POST
E-Commerce Technologies: HTML
- Yet another mark-up language (i.e., specify function not form)
- Includes ways to solicit user input
- Includes ways to link documents/pages in a nonlinear way
- Allows for multimedia documents
E-Commerce Technologies: CGI
- Allows an HTTP server to temporarily pass control to another
program/process
- Includes several methods of passing parameters
- Includes a standard method of encoding non-alphanumeric
characters
Initial Questions: Page Generation
- The Issue:
- Static
- Pages are written in HTML
- Quasi-Static
- Use a database and generate HTML pages off-line
- Dynamic
- Use a database and generate HTML pages on the fly (using the CGI)
- Interesting Technologies:
- Extensible Markup Language (XML)
- Active Server Pages (ASP)
Initial Questions: Page Formatting
- The Issue:
- Fixed
- Pages can only be formatted one way
- Flexible
- Pages can be formatted on the fly in a variety of different ways
- Interesting Technologies:
- Extensible Style Sheets (XSL)
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
Initial Questions: Dynamic Content
- The Issue:
- Dynamic Pages
- Real-time, page-oriented content
- Streaming Media
- Real-time but not page-oriented
- Interesting Technologies:
- Client-Pull and Server-Push
- Real Audio/Video and Shockwave
Initial Questions: Clients and Servers
- The Issue:
- Server-Side Processing
- It's expensive to perform many tasks on the server
- Client-Side Processing
- HTML itself doesn't provide any means for client-side procesing
- Interesting Technologies:
- ECMAScript
- Java Applets and Servlets
Initial Questions: Saving State
- The Issue:
- HTTP is Stateless
- Nothing about HTTP transactions is "remembered"
- E-Commerce Requires State Information
- It's "expensive" to save state information on the server
- An Interesting Technology:
Research: Microtransactions
- The Issue:
- Many transactions are very small
- Processing costs can exceed the value of the transaction
- An Example (from my research):
- Real-time traffic information
Research: Multi-Site Protocols
- The Issue:
- Some activities involve more than one site
- Transferring state information is very difficult
- An Example (from my research):
- Inter-related reservations at multiple hotels/restaurants
Research: "Intelligent" Agents
- The Issue:
- Some transactions are very tedious
- A rule-based system could handle them for you
- Examples (from my research):
- Comparison shopping for gasoline
- Taxi/livery bidding systems
Research: Domain-Specific Protocols
- The Issue:
- Many application domains have specific needs
- Formal standards are unlikely to be developed
- Examples (from my research):
- XML DTD for hotel reservations
- XML DTD for restaurant menus
Research: Coupons, Invoices, etc...
- The Issue:
- Some transactions do not involve traditional delivery
mechanisms
- Some transactions involve unusual/delayed payment
- Examples (from my research):
- eVoucher for a pre-paid meal
- eInvoice for negotiated gasoline price
- eCoupon from a travel guide for a hotel
- Electronic equivalent of "Green Stamps"
Research: Coupons, Invoices, etc... (cont)