An introduction to e-commerce and distributed applications

Introduction

This unit examines the type of system which is described by the umbrella term ‘e-commerce’. A number of typical application areas are examined including retailing using the internet, supply chain management and online auctions. The unit also looks at some of the underlying technologies used to implement e-commerce applications, for example web technology. The final part of the unit looks at some of the problems which are encountered when developing distributed e-commerce systems, for example problems in ensuring that a system is kept secure from criminal activity. It concludes with an examination of a typical retailing system, how some of the technologies fit together and business models used in the internet.

Concepts

Anonymous remailer, B2B exchange, browser, checkout page, common gateway interface, cookie, day trading, denial of service attack, design pattern, disintermediation, distributed objects, dynamic pages, dynamic pricing, e-auction, e-learning, email server, e-mall, e-procurement, e-shop, e-tailing, file transfer protocol, framework, horizontal portal, hyperlink, hypertext mailer, Hypertext Markup Language, information brokerage, Java, online trading, portal, posting, procurement, query, rapid application development, search engine, Secure Sockets Layers, Server Side Includes, Servlet, shopping cart, spam, spider, stateless server, supply chain, third party marketplace, thread, trust brokerage, vertical portal, virtual community. web page, web server, website, webmaster.

This unit is from our archive and it is an adapted extract from Developing Internet Applications (M360) which is no longer taught by The Open University. If you wish to study formally at The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in this curriculum area. [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]