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OVERVIEW NOTE FOR E-COMMERCE (COMP323/DCM127)

INTERNET TECHNOLOGY

The internet in simple terms is a network of the interlinked computer networking worldwide,

which is accessible to the general public. These interconnected computers work by transmitting

data through a special type of packet switching which is known as the IP internet protocol.

ELECTRONICS-BUSINESS:

Ecommerce comes in many forms. Online shops can sell virtually anything. There are regularly

bought and sold over the Internet to an increasing worldwide market who is needed for your

products. Business can offer their services and skills over the Internet. Everyone, from the local

plumber to your lawyer, can find the Internet useful for attracting new clients and customers.

Having an online presence gives your customers the convenience of finding you anytime. It is

also one of the cheapest forms of advertising for your business. Having a website can give you

an advantage, an advantage that can mean the difference between failure and success.

FTP: (FILE TRASFORM PROTOCOL)

FTP was developed long before the internet as a way to share files between computers in closed

networks. The very first version of FTP was released in 1971, and was called RFC 114.

Many improvements have been made to FTP since its beginnings to keep up with technology

advancements. One of the major steps in its development was in 1980 when version RFC 765

was redesigned and released to function through modems. Now files could be uploaded and

downloaded from computers over vast distances using the telephone networks.

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HTTP:

It is full form Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol used by the World Wide

Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers

and browsers should take in response to various commands. When you enter a URL in your

browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing it to fetch and

transmit the requested web page. The other main standard that controls how the World Wide

Web works is HTML, which covers how Web pages are formatted and displayed.

USES OF HTML

HTML is a set of codes that a website author inserts into a plain text file to format the content.

The author inserts HTML tags, commands, before and after words and phrases to indicate their

format and location on the page. HTML tags are also used to add tables, lists, images, music, and

other elements to a webpage.

RSS:

RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication also known as Rich Site Summery. An RSS

feed will stream information directly to your RSS reader. This information will include site

updates from your favorite web sites informing you of new pages, weekly/monthly newsletters,

news articles on subjects that interest you and much more.

This allows you to stay up to date with what is happening on your most visited web sites and

also, have the information that most interests you beamed directly to your reader. Web sites are

slowly taking this new technology on board as it increases in popularity amongst their viewers.

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PHP

Hypertext Preprocessor, is a server-side open source scripting language that is used to help

improve and facilitate web development. Currently, Most of websites use PHP as their server-

side scripting language.

PHP is adopted among web developers because it is easy to read and understand. PHP syntax is

based off of both C and Perl and can be easily parsed, so having experience with those two

languages should make development even easier. It is also easy to use and understand for

newcomers. Compared to other complex programming languages, PHP is very clean, eloquent,

and organized. 

APACHE:

Apache is a public-domain open source Web server developed by a loosely-knit group of programmers. The first version of Apache, based on the NCSA http Web server was developed in 1995. Core development of the Apache Web server is performed by a group of about 20 volunteer programmers, called the Apache Group. However, because the source code is freely available, anyone can adapt the server for specific needs and there is a large public library of Apache add-ons. In many respects, development of Apache is similar to development of the Linux operating system.

MYSQL:

MYSQL is currently the world’s most popular and widely used open source database technology

and data storage system. MYSQL offers great reliability and ease of use. It is free and comes

with free documentation as well as thousands of programmers that share their code that relates to

communicating with a MYSQL database.

DATABASE:

A database is a collection of information organized to provide efficient retrieval. The collected

information could be in any number of formats. There are physical and electronic databases.

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A database could be as simple as an alphabetical arrangement of names in an address book as

complex as a database that provides information in a combination of formats. It stores the

information which supply using application at the same time dynamically display for application

as well.

AUTHENTICATION

Authentication is any process by which a system verifies the identity of a User who wishes to

access it. Since Access Control is normally based on the identity of the User who requests access

to a resource, Authentication is essential to effective Security.

Authentication may be implemented using Credentials each of which is composed of a User

ID and Password. Alternately, Authentication may be implemented with Smart Cards,

an Authentication Server and even a Public Key Infrastructure.

ROLES OF E-COMMERCE:

The main services provided by e-commerce are as follows:

E-Mail: It is the most popular service through which we can electronically send and receive messages anywhere in the world. The spoken messages can be sent and received through voice email.

Video Conferencing: It is a meeting between two or more people located at different places. It is conducted through computer network. It provides an environment of normal meeting.

Electronic Shopping: The shopping conducted through Internet is known as electronic shopping or e-shopping. Many business organizations have their websites on the Internet. These websites are use to sell goods and services.

Electronic Banking: A service that allows an account holder to obtain account information and manage certain banking transactions through computer network is called electronic banking or e-banking.

ADVANTGES OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATION:

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Modern Ecommerce, known as online business, has been around since the mid 1990s, ever since

the advent of the World Wide Web. Now anyone can become a global seller of goods, services,

and information online. No longer do you need huge distribution networks and management

teams to run a successful business. These are the real Ecommerce advantages Ecommerce is the

perfect example of globalization.

Now anyone can become a player in the world wide market. Obviously this too is one of the

major advantages of Ecommerce. In the U.S alone over 60% of people have purchased goods

online and that figure is steadily growing. Online business gives you access to the largest market

available.

DATABASE SERVER:

A database server can typically be seen in a client-server environment where it provides

information sought by the client systems. Apart from offering the benefits of a dedicated server,

a database server offers several roles and functions.

1. With a database server, all the data of your organization is stored in one location.

2. A database server allows you to take measures to increase the security of your data.

3. A database server offers you database management services. The data is arranged in a

way that speeds up searches and retrievals.

4. It is easier to search and retrieve data on a database server. The client-server interactions

are fast and smooth with a database server.

5. Several clients can access the data stored in the database server at one time, without any

confusion.

STORED PROCEDURE:

It is a subroutine available to applications that access a relational database system. A stored

procedure is actually stored in the database dictionary. Typical, it is used for stored procedures

include data validation and access control mechanisms. Store procedures can consolidate and

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centralize logic that was originally implemented in applications. Extensive or complex

processing that requires execution of several SQL statements is moved into stored procedures,

and all applications call the procedures. One can use nested stored procedures by executing one

stored procedure from within another.

DISADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE:

The disadvantages of Ecommerce are far and few between plus most can be overcome. The

technology can be alien to someone new to Ecommerce therefore all the normal fears and self

doubts of engaging in something new.

The single biggest disadvantage of ecommerce is the loss of the personal touch. That is friendly

human interaction that you have with the store owner that keeps you going back time and time

again.

Build your site with this in mind. Keep it personal and follow up sales with a thank you email.

This is easily done with an auto responder.

Send out monthly or quarterly email news letters about updates to your site and offer your

customers specials.

Tell them about new products, tell them about your holiday, and include pictures of you and your

family.

VIRTUAL SERVR

Virtual server is a server at someone else's location that is shared by multiple Web site owners so

that, each owner can use and administer it as though they had complete control of the server.

Some Internet service providers offer a virtual server service instead of virtual hosting. Using a

virtual server, a company or individual with a Web site can not only have their own domain

name and IP address, but can administer their own file directories, add e-mail accounts and

address assignments, assign multiple domain names that resolve to a basic domain name without

involvement from the ISP, manage their own logs and statistics analysis, and maintain

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passwords. Users of a virtual server, however, do not have to manage the hardware aspects of

running a server and effectively share the cost of expensive line connections to the Internet.

AUTHENTICATION AND AUTHENTICATED

Authentication verifies the identity of a user and authorization is a process where you can check

whether or not the identity has access rights to the system. In other words, you can say that

authentication is a procedure of getting some credentials from the users and verify the user's

identity against those credentials. Authorization is a procedure of granting access of particular

resources to an authenticated user. You should note that authentication always takes place before

authorization.

BRIEF HISTORY OF PHP

PHP was conceived sometime in the fall of 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf. Early non-released

versions were used on his home page to keep track of who was looking at his online resume. The

first version used by others was available sometime in early 1995 and was known as the Personal

Home Page Tools. It consisted of a very simplistic parser engine that only understood a few

special macros and a number of utilities that were in common use on home pages

Today PHP ships with a number of commercial products such as C2's Strong Hold web server

and Red Hat Linux.

FUCTION OF PHP

PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to server-side web

development, in which case PHP generally runs on a web server. Any PHP code in a requested

file is executed by the PHP runtime, usually to create dynamic web page content and dynamic

images used on application

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MYSQL

MYSQL is a popular choice of database for use in web applications and is a central component

of the widely used LAMP open source web application software stack. LAMP is an acronym for

Linux, Apache, MYSQL and Perl/PHP/Python.

DYNAMIC CONTENT

Dynamic content is content that displays in a content box according to the rules that you define

based on the subscriber's attributes and data extension column values. By using dynamic content,

you can ensure that a more-tailored message is reaching your targeted audience.

DOMAIN NAMES

Computers communicate by using numbers, called IP addresses, to contact each other, much like

you use a phone number to dial a specific person's phone. Domain names on the internet are

much like entries in a phone book. The phone book tells people looking for a business what the

entries are just as a domain tells people that a domain is hosted on the server.

Without a domain, you would have to tell your customers that your site is located at a temporary

URL such as 123.456.789.123/ my site instead of using a domain name such as mysite.com,

making your site appear unprofessional and impractical.

WEB-HOSTING SERVERS

The web-hosting or server is much like the space that you rent out to have your business in. It's

merely the space itself. It does not include furnishings like shelves for your products, just as the

web-hosting account doesn't include a site for you to sell your products.

Luckily, in the web-hosting world, it's very easy to furnish the space provided by your host,

because you can install many framework applications through the Quick Install icon within

your cPanel.

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Without the hosting services, you won't have a place for your files to reside, so your domain

would then become like a disconnected phone number in the phone directory, and your site files

would have nowhere to stay.