View Full Version : Need some quick responses...
:salams
At the moment, I am writing a technical proposal for one of my uni courseworks (its due in two days :zzz:). In brief, its a web portal where customers can request services from different participating organisations. It will involve online transactions using credit card/paypal etc. Apart from other tasks, I need to specify and justify what hardware and software are needed for the web portal and the companies participating to this scheme. Because cost is a very important issue, I am gonna suggest free and open source resources. So for example, I'm suggesting use of Unix/ Linux, Java/ PHP, mySQL (do I need anything else?). To deal with the data security, I'm going to suggest 128 bit encryption (is this enough or do I need to look for something more for security).
Do you think I am going the right way? Or can you suggest something better ? Also I'm kinda stuck on what kind of hardware is required for the project (My guess is a web server with very good broadband connections)
Any ideas please?
BTY, I just need to produce the proposal only. I won't need to implement what I propose, so be brave please :D
I just wrote a similar piece a few days ago.
What you seem to be heading towards is a "many to one" e-commerce system. Are you suggesting others come to you and offer you services and then you pick and choose? Or will you sell services to others? If it's the latter then that's a "one to many" schema.
As far as online transactions are concerned I think you made a viable choice by going with 128-bit security. That's actually the standard. But one thing about this is, you don't really need to get that technical with this system. You can mention you'll partner with web hosts such as OLM.net, IPower.com or whatever host you like, and let them handle the online shopping cart, transaction and e-commerce system. You can then just briefly touch on how these systems work. Mention things like Thawte and VeriSign. Paypal is only a person to person sales system and it's not something you'd use when dealing with big companies. For those situations you're better off using real EDI systems.
For the type of systems, it's definitely best to go with F/OSS since you'll have a lot of room for scalability. Remember this is a huge thing since many dot-com companies went belly up and one reason was because of scalability. The actual software needed depends on the type of portal you'll be using. If for example you want to use something like Plone, then you'll need the whole LAMP stack. Most likely you're web host will provide you with the necessary software when you sign up for a hosting plan, so check out the web host and see the software they provide for e-business and e-commerce sites.
Hope that helps.
As salamu alaikum
:jkk: bro belal :up:
You got it perfect. It is indeed a "many to one" system where the portal acts as a broker between the customers and the service providers,although it not quite similar how the online comparison sites work (the portal does not redirects the customers to different websites, instead it delivers the requested services through web services from different organizations). The portal will also have its own database where information about participating companies will be stored.
I guess I'm heading towards the right direction. However, I am not sure if I am missing anything or not. For example, if you wanted to implement such a system, what resources (hardware and software) would you need ?
N.B. I can't decide what to use for developing the server side application. Should I use ASP, JSP, PHP or Perl ? Although, initially I went for PHP, now with the information I got, I guess its not versatile enough for this kinda situation (but I don't know really!).
:jkk: bro belal :up:
You got it perfect. It is indeed a "many to one" system where the portal acts as a broker between the customers and the service providers,although it not quite similar how the online comparison sites work (the portal does not redirects the customers to different websites, instead it delivers the requested services through web services from different organizations). The portal will also have its own database where information about participating companies will be stored.
I guess I'm heading towards the right direction. However, I am not sure if I am missing anything or not. For example, if you wanted to implement such a system, what resources (hardware and software) would you need ?
N.B. I can't decide what to use for developing the server side application. Should I use ASP, JSP, PHP or Perl ? Although, initially I went for PHP, now with the information I got, I guess its not versatile enough for this kinda situation (but I don't know really!).
wa iyyaka,
okay well atleast that's cleared up now (regarding the type of system). Since you want to receive quotes from different companies basically you'll be networking between your companies intranet and the other organizations' extranets. This is pretty much networking the companies systems with suppliers systems (exactly how Walmart has it actually where the minute someone buys a certain product, walmart's system notifies the suppliers and then suppliers respond by shipping new products right there). However this isn't a just-in-time inventory system.
Eitherway, in order to facilitate such a system you'd have to have some type of interoperability. XML should be the best option as it's most compatible but you'd have to check with the other companies to find out what would work and what wouldn't. I'd recommend going with a consulting firm that specializes in middleware applications. That way they'll work between your organization and the others in order to create middleware that would integrate between your system and the others' legacy apps.
hope that helps.
as salamu alaikum
oops...looks like we have lost the plot although having a great start :D
Just in case you've forgotten that it is just a coursework where apart from the design part, I need to specify what hardware & sofware I would need to implement such system. Ofcourse there is an interoperability issues thats where web services come in.
Apart from other questions I asked before, the main thing I'm looking for right now is if I am creating such a web portal myself what script/language should I use (asp,jsp,php,perl)? I would've gone with asp but since cost is a concern in this project I need to go with something else (probably jsp) but not sure yet.
I'd recommend going with a consulting firm that specializes in middleware applications. That way they'll work between your organization and the others in order to create middleware that would integrate between your system and the others' legacy apps.
:rubeyes: you want me to contact a consulting firm to complete my coursework !!! lol :D
oops...looks like we have lost the plot although having a great start :D
Just in case you've forgotten that it is just a coursework where apart from the design part, I need to specify what hardware & sofware I would need to implement such system. Ofcourse there is an interoperability issues thats where web services come in.
Apart from other questions I asked before, the main thing I'm looking for right now is if I am creating such a web portal myself what script/language should I use (asp,jsp,php,perl)? I would've gone with asp but since cost is a concern in this project I need to go with something else (probably jsp) but not sure yet.
:rubeyes: you want me to contact a consulting firm to complete my coursework !!! lol :D
In a simple answer: PHP would probably be the way to go since it's very flexible. I would recommend JSP but I heard complaints about it from somewhere. But see, this gets easier if you just pick a open source e-commerce solution and start off from there. The language comes later on because really, you can use anything and it'll work. But I would be a little cautious with Perl. Since it's something that's server based, too many connections and you'll have performance issues and your site can crash. In order to work around that, you'd need some pretty high system specs on the web host, and that means you'd be paying more for web host (see how it all comes back to price per performance?)
bro when you start writing the paper, I think it would be wise to first discuss the type of system and how the systems will work. You can get technical towards the end of discussing each system. But unless you first decide on the types of systems, it'll be difficult to pick and choose the technical specs of each element.
And no akhi, I was saying for you to actually goto a consulting firm, I meant hypothetically if you were to come up with a start-up, then I would recommend going to a consulting firm for help with integrating your systems with the other companies. Without going to a consulting firm, you'd end up with ALOT of headaches and hiring your own dev team may be more costly.
By the way, if you go ahead with JSP that wouldn't be a bad approach. I would say look at apache.org and check out their offerings. You could mention their apps since they provide a whole lot of free software for everything web related. If you go ahead with JSP, you could make use of every single one of their apps.
:jkk: brother belal. Your help is much appreciated :up:
:jkk: brother belal. Your help is much appreciated :up:
wa feeka baarakallahu
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