ITSK 34133423 ECommerce

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ITSK 3413/3423E-Commerce

• Lecture 16
• Intranets, LANS, VPNs
• URL Variables
• (EC 65-73)

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Agenda

• Well swap content
• Intranets vs. Internet vs. Extranets
• Session Variables
• Project 6

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Intranets vs. InternetLAN VPN
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How We Got Here

• Corporations had large monolithic mainframes
• Then there was a push to microcomputers
• Then the PC provided everyone access
• Networking allows for file sharing
• Ubiquity and maintainability are key now

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Inter-Corporation Networks

• So we have the machines within a corporation
  networked together
• Now how about creating a standard for
  communications
• Forget worrying about the OS-level details
• Abstract the essence!

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Why Not TCP/IP?

• Corporations already have a Web presence
• PCs are already connected over the LAN
• Using the browser and HTTP, we can accomplish
  nearly everything we need

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Internet
Outside World
Company Web Server
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Intranet
Corporate PCs
LAN
Company Web Server (no outside access)
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Lets Consider Costs

• Lotus Notes on 5000 machines
• 70 per user license fee
• 50 per user installation process
• Total of 600,000
• IE on 5000 machines
• No license fee (assuming youre using Win)
• No installation (built into the OS)
• Total of 0

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To Be Fair

• Lotus Notes does offer benefits over IE
• Completely integrated groupware package
• But it does required MIS support and licensing

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Intranet Benefits

• Open Standards Interoperability
• Inexpensive way to link various platforms
• Ease of Use
• HTML and supporting technologies are designed for
  non-geeks
• Effective Middleware
• Hides complexity
• Offers validation/security

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Intranet Benefits (cont)

• Integrate Legacy Systems
• Seamless to the user
• Open architecture intermediary interfaces
• Manage resources users
• Anywhere, anytime
• Open architecture
• Various vendors products work together

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Intranet Benefits (cont)

• Easy to publish information
• HTML (and associated authoring tools) is easy
• Low cost
• Most corps have LANs and TCP/IP infrastructure
• Easy to use
• Most PC users are familiar with browser interface

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Intranet Benefits (cont)

• Low maintenance
• All information in one location (not spread over
  multiple file systems)
• Scalable architecture
• Easy to add more users
• Easy to increase server capacity (load balancing)
• Easy software distribution/management

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Open Architecture

• Why is this a positive of Intranets?
• Reduce cost
• Customization
• Avoid the one vendor trap
• Upgrades planning for the future

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Supported Tasks

• Corporate Communication
• One-to-many
• Information pages
• HR
• Many-to-many
• Newsgroups
• Facilitate brainstorming/planning activities

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Supported Tasks (cont)

• Decision support applications
• Automatic report generation
• Customer profiling/targeting
• Navigating complex data sets and examining what
  if scenarios
• Enterprise Resource Planning

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Not Everyone Has a PC

• How can a corporation leverage the benefits of
  Intranets without leaving anyone out?

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Expanding the Visibility

• Intranets use the same technologies as the
  Internet
• Selectively releasing information to the Internet
  (outside world) is a logical step
• We can also share information with partner
  corporations
• Creating extranets

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Extranets Over PublicNetwork
Outside World
Company Web Server
Company Web Server
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Extranets Over PrivateNetwork
Company Web Server
Leased lines
Company Web Server
Company Web Server
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ExtranetsOver VPN
Company Web Server
Company Web Server
Company Web Server
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So What Do We Know

• Intranets vs. Internet vs. Extranets
• Benefits of Intranets

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Half Time
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Storing Session Information

• You already know how to store information on a
  client machine
• Temporary cookies live during an open session
  (die when the browser is closed)
• Persistent cookies live until their expiration
  date/time (still live after browser is closed)
• What if cookies are disabled?

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URL Garbage

• Ever wonder what all that garbage is in the URL?
• From http//www.msdn.microsoft.com
• http//search.microsoft.com/us/dev/default.asp?qu
  agentbooleanALLnqNEWsoRECCNTp1chkMonrad
  M2chkSonradS2chkAonradA2chkPonradP2c
  hkKon

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URL Variables

• We can use URL variables for a couple of
  different reasons
• When cookies are disabled, session variables can
  give us the functionality of temporary cookies
• When we want a very fast turnaround time
• Getting into the details of ASP(which well
  discuss later)

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Anatomy of a URL with Control Items
Query String
space

• Default.asp?qumicrosoftagentbooleanALL

name/valuepair
name/valuepair
filename
URLvariableseparator
Variableseparator
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Query Strings

• The HTML standard limits query strings to 1000
  characters
• Created automatically when a form has the get
  method
• This is opposed to the post method

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The Get Method

• Your past experience with HTML forms had you
  sending information to the server
• But we can also request information from the
  server (which is different from a typical page
  download)
• This is accomplished via the get method

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Get vs. Put

• The action attribute of the form specifies what
  file to talk with when the submit button is
  pressed
• The method attribute
• We use the put method to write data to the
  server
• We use the get method to request data from the
  server

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ASP Object Model

• On the server side, weve got a few objects
• Application
• Open as long as the server is up
• Session
• Persistent for an http connection
• Request
• All information that is given to the server from
  the client
• Response
• The server creates this and sends it back to the
  client

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So What Does Get Do?

• It creates a QueryString attribute as part of the
  Request object
• All elements of the form and their associated
  data are added to this QueryString
• This includes hidden elements
• Any non-named element is ignored

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The Client Side

• ltform action"form.asp" method"get"
  name"frmInput" id"frm"gt
• ltinput type"hidden" name"Bradbury_Classic"
  value"Something Wicked This Way Comes"gt
• lth1 align"center"gtPlease enter the following
  informationlt/h1gt
• ltp align"center"gt
• First name ltinput type"text" size"30"
  name"txtFirstName"gt
• Last name ltinput type"text" size"30"
  name"txtLastName"gt
• lt/pgt
• ltp align"center"gt
• Age ltinput type"text" size"3"
  name"txtAge"gtlt/pgt
• ltp align"center"gt
• ltinput type"submit" value"Push me!"
  id"cmdSubmit nameSubmitButtongt
• ltinput type"reset" value"Clear form"
  id"cmdReset"gt
• lt/pgt
• lt/formgt

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The Server Side

• lt languagevbscriptgt
• lt option explicitgt
• lt response.buffertruegt
• lth1gt Hello
• lt response.Write(Request.QueryString("txtFirstNam
  e") " " Request.QueryString("txtLastName")
  ",ltbrgt") gt
• lt/h1gtltpgt
• lt
• if CInt(Request.QueryString("txtAge")) lt 25
  then
• response.Write("WOW, you're young! A mere
  spring chicken at ")
• elseif CInt(Request.QueryString("txtAge")) lt
  40 then
• response.Write("You've got a while before
  retirement as you are only ")
• elseif CInt(Request.QueryString("txtAge")) lt
  65 then
• response.Write("You'll be able to retire
  soon given that you're ")
• else
• response.Write("I hope you're not still
  working now that you're ")
• end if
• response.write(request.QueryString("txtage")
  " years old.")
• gt

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So What Do We Know

• URL variables are useful when
• You need to pass information from one web page to
  another
• You cant use cookies
• You need faster performance
• The get method creates a QueryString object
  that the server can use

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Stay Tuned for Project 6
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Project 6

• Visit the hotbot.com search engine page
• Notice the various options given for the search
• Try a few searches and note the URL (and control
  items)
• Change the settings to see how the control items
  change
• Manually edit the control items and resubmit the
  request to the server and note what happens.