Electronic Commerce Web Servers & Related Concepts MIS Spring 2006 Instructor: John Seydel, Ph.D.

Student Objectives Define what’s meant by “web server” Compare and contrast the top two web server programs Describe what’s important in choosing a computer to serve as a web server Compare and contrast static and dynamic web pages Describe what’s involved with a 3-tier and n-tier architecture Summarize the major issues associated with Discuss factors that result in effective ecommerce websites Describe the responsibilities of the members of a web team Use HTML to create bullet lists and simple forms on web pages

Agenda Article discussions Cao et al (design factors) Cao et al Berry (web teams) Berry Web page coding demonstrations and exercise Simple forms exercise Dynamic pages  Server-side scripting  Client-side scripting As time permits:  Review guidelines for HTML source code  Bulleted lists in HTML A discussion of web server concepts Martin & Nguyen team Additional comments

Now, Discussion of the Assigned Articles Cao et al  Design factors Brawley/Bray/Martin/Nguyen team Brawley/Bray/Martin/Nguyen Other remarksremarks Berry  Web teams Batten/Harper team Batten/Harper Other remarks

A Look at Dynamic versus Static Pages Start the following Internet Explorer (open your SuSE1 site) SmartFTP NotePad A static page: A dynamic version: Exercises & demonstrations Forms exercise / server-side scripting demo Forms exercise / client-side scripting exercise & demo

Web Servers Discussion led by Martin & NguyenMartin & Nguyen Other comments What’s actually happeninghappening Static vs dynamic pages  the reality 3-tier architectures 3-tier Correction  Dynamic content: either client-side or server-side  “Server-side scripting” and “dynamic page-generation” The major server-side scripting enginesserver-side scripting  Not really the problem apparent in the textbook  However, XML is a major player in moving into the future Wrap data of all sorts for display in diverse environments AJAX LAMP vs Win vs Sun What does “open source” really mean?

Comments Note: our concern is primarily from the sender side Know the law (CAN-SPAM) Following guidelines can help immensely Still, we also need to know how to protect our organizations, whether online or just IT-enabled Filters  Incoming mail  Outgoing mail (consider ASU vs AOL case) Accounting naming – TAMU example: students vs staff Barracuda demonstration Barracuda

Website Utilities Simple but powerful utilities ping tracert finger Data analysis of server logs: Analog Link checking: FrontPage, DreamWeaver,... Remote administation: TightVNC; FrontPage (!)

A Little More HTML (If Time Available) Review the guidelinesguidelines Bullet (i.e., unordered) lists Simple forms

Summary of Objectives Define what’s meant by “web server” Compare and contrast the top two web server programs Describe what’s important in choosing a computer to serve as a web server Compare and contrast static and dynamic web pages Describe what’s involved with a 3-tier and n-tier architecture Summarize the major issues associated with Discuss factors that result in effective ecommerce websites Describe the responsibilities of the members of a web team Use HTML to create bullet lists and simple forms on web pages

Appendix

Browser/Server Interaction

Three Tiered Internet Database Access Architecture

Guidelines Follow standard Netiquette Mixed case Subject lines Other... Other Getting around spam filters Avoid attachments; post to websites and use links Limit the number of addressees Send to one at a time

Some Guidelines for Source Code Use lowercase for tags & attributes Quote attribute values Use relative references for resources on same server Always use closing tags Nest elements properly; close in reverse order of opening Use indentation consistently and to make code readable No more than 80 characters per line of code; break long tags into multiple lines, typically one per attribute Avoid deprecated elements, e.g., Use no spaces in file names Treat all URLs and other resource names as if case- sensitive