DEVELOPMENT OF E-COMMERCE WEB APPLICATION USING WAMP

A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of
San Diego State University

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science
in
Computer Science

by
Jie Zhang
Fall 2010

iii

Copyright 2010
by
Jie Zhang

iv

DEDICATION

Dedicated to my parents, my sister and me.

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS

Development of E-Commerce Web Application Using WAMP
by
Jie Zhang
Master of Science in Computer Science
San Diego State University, 2010
Electronic Commerce, commonly known as e-commerce consists of the buying and
selling of products over Internet based on browser/server system. There are several related
technologies to develop an E-Commerce system such as ASP.NET, J2EE, but these
technologies have their disadvantages and weakness, to solve their problems, and improve the
system efficiency, WAMP (Windows+Apache+MySQL+PHP) architecture theory and
technology is needed for this purpose. We will compare these different technologies of their
performance by several different benchmarks-iteration operation, arithmetic operations, string
operations, database operations and file operations to acquire the result of in which scenario is
appropriate to use specific technology.
To get a understanding of how to develop an E-Commerce application by using
WAMP theory and technology, we will generate a simulation environment of an on-line store
system based on the three-tier MVC model and go through the whole process of system
requirements analysis, system architecture design, UI design and system testing.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LIST OF TABLES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

xi

CHAPTER
1

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.1

1.1.1

E-Commerce Industry Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.1.2

E-Commerce Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.1.3

E-Commerce Related Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.2

The Purpose of The Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.3

Thesis Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

COMPARISON OF SEVERAL DIFFERENT RELATED TECHNOLOGIES . . . .

2.1

ASP.NET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2

J2EE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.3

2.4

System Development Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2.1

J2EE Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2.2

JSP Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2.3

JSPRuntime Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

WAMP Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.3.1

Apache Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.3.2

MySQL Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.3.3

PHP Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Comparison of the Above Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.4.1

Performance Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.4.2

ASP.NET, JSP, PHP Performance Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.4.3

Overall Summery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

E-COMMERCE FRIENDLY USER INTERFACE AND EXPERIENCE AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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3.1

How to Build Friendly User Interface and Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.2

Html+Div+Css . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.3

JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.4

Xml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.5

Ajax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

SYSTEM DESIGN AND MODELING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.1

System Data Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.2

System Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.3

System Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.4

System Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.5

System Workflow Design and Function Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.6

Database Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Database Requirement Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.6.2

Database Entity-Relation (ER) Diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.6.3

Database Logic Structure Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

System Detailed Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5.1

System Front-end Detailed Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5.2

Back-end Management Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

SYSTEM TEST AND EVALUATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

6.1

6.2
7

4.6.1

Function Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.1.1

Add Products Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

6.1.2

User Registration Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

6.1.3

User Shopping Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

6.1.4

Order Management Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Browsers Compatibility Test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

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LIST OF TABLES
PAGE
Table 4.1 Product Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Table 4.2 User Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Table 4.3 Indent Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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LIST OF FIGURES
PAGE
Figure 2.1 WAMP multitier architecture diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Figure 2.2 Apache server architecture diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Figure 2.3 MySQL database server architecture diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Figure 2.4 PHP architecture diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Figure 2.5 Arithmetic operation test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Figure 2.6 Arithmetic operation test result (unit: ms). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Figure 2.7 String operation test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Figure 2.8 String concatenation test result (unit: ms). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Figure 2.9 Database operation test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figure 2.10 Database operations test result (unit: ms). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figure 2.11 File operation test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figure 2.12 File operations test result (unit: ms). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figure 2.13 The code to get run time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Figure 2.14 Comparison conclusion of several technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Figure 4.1 Data flow diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Figure 4.2 Front-end user model graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Figure 4.3 Back-end server model graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Figure 4.4 Online store use-case UML diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Figure 4.5 User order ER diagram. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Figure 5.1 Front-end PHP files and other folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 5.2 Front-end theme folder UI files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 5.3 Back-end admin folder PHP fils and others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Figure 5.4 Back-end admin folder UI files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Figure 5.5 Online store system homepage (upper part). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Figure 5.6 Online store system homepage (lower part). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure 5.7 User operation module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure 5.8 Front-end navigation bar module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure 5.9 Searching engine module.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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Figure 5.10 Back-end admin login module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Figure 5.11 Back-end start up module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 5.12 Back-end system operation module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 5.13 Back-end navigation module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 5.14 Main statistics information module.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure 5.15 Back-end search engin module. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure 5.16 Products list module.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure 6.1 Add products test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Figure 6.2 User registration test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Figure 6.3 User shopping test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Figure 6.4 Order management test. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to a number of people who have contributed to the successful
completion of my Masters program. First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor
Marko Vuskovic, for his guidance and valuable suggestions. In particular, I highly appreciate
the great amount of time he spent for my program and his high availability to students. My
thanks also go to Professor Kris Stewart, and Professor Jianwei Chen for taking their time
serving as members of my thesis defense committee.
Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my parents who are living in
China, for their love and incredible support.

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter will give the introduction of E-commerce and its evolution.

1.1 S YSTEM D EVELOPMENT BACKGROUND

The following is the related concept of the system development background.

1.1.1 E-Commerce Industry Description

E-commerce usually refers to the trade in global business activities, the Internet
environment based on browser/server application mode, achieving consumer on-line shopping
[1], on-line transactions between merchants and on-line electronic payment and a variety of
business activities.
Over the past years e-commerce has grown fast. In order to keep successful, an
e-commerce website need to attract new customers and keep existing ones, as extended
customer relationships will lead to direct rising profits [2].
E-commerce website is one type of web applications, most web systems have to
provide transaction service, state maintenance, and reliable storage functions [3], so these
rules also apply to e-commerce applications. A transaction activity is involved to plenty of
database operations and some third party interactions, such as shipping and payment service
[4].

1.1.2 E-Commerce Category

Most E-commerce activities can be divided into one of the following categories:
Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Customer (B2C) and Customer-to-Customer (C2C).
Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses corporations is referred to
as business-to-business or B2B. Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses
and consumers is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C[5]. On-line shopping is usually
a form of B2C.

1.1.3 E-Commerce Related Technologies

Normally there are three kind technologies which are used to design and build many
different kind web applications -ASP.NET, J2EE and WAMP. Although they can also be used
to build e-commerce website, for their respective features, each of them is appropriate for
specific scenarios. It is important to know about their respective advantages, disadvantages

2
and performance difference in several related metrics-iteration operation, arithmetic
operations, string operations, database operations and file operations.

1.2 T HE P URPOSE OF T HE T HESIS

The purpose of this thesis is to:
Compare and evaluate several different related technologies-ASP.NET, J2EE and
WAMP.
Generate a simulation environment that could be used for building a e-commerce
system.
Accomplish the simulation by designing, developing and testing an on-line store system
using WAMP.

1.3 T HESIS OVERVIEW

This thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 1 describes the background of the
e-commerce, related technologies and the goal of the thesis. Chapter 2 introduces the detailed
related technologies which used to accomplish web application including e-commerce
application, such as: ASP.NET, JSP and PHP, and compare them based on different aspects,
especially performance in several different benchmarksiteration test, arithmetic operations,
string operations, database operations, and file operations, and give the summary of the
comparison. Chapter 3 describes the importance of user interface and experience for
e-commerce application, and the related technologies with it. Chapter 4 presents the process
of on-line store system design and modeling. Chapter 5 describes the detailed system user
interface design. Chapter 6 gives the system test and evaluation with several different test
metrics. Chapter 7 summarizes the conclusions and proposes future work.

CHAPTER 2
COMPARISON OF SEVERAL DIFFERENT
RELATED TECHNOLOGIES
The architecture of an e-commerce web system normally consists of three layers: UI
layer, Business logic layer and Database layer [6].
The following is several related technologies; we will analyze and compare them in
performance in several different benchmarks-iteration operation, arithmetic operation, string
operation, database operation and file operation. With the comparison result, we will draw the
conclusion of which specific technology combination is appropriate for specific scenario.

2.1 ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a Microsoft technology that is embedded in Web pages executed by the
server side. It is the process-based server programming language running in IIS. Unlike the
previous ASP interpreter immediately, but will first run the server program when compiled[7],
so the next time when it run will become faster. But when it is revised, it must be re-compiled;
the effect of implementation will be reduced.

2.2 J2EE
The following is the introduction of the J2EE technology.

2.2.1 J2EE Description

Java Platform Enterprise Edition or Java platform EE is a multi-tier architecture for
server programming in the Java based language. J2EE takes advantage of Java 2 platform
enterprise solutions to simplify development, deployment and management of complex issues
related to architecture. It is based on a core Java platform or Java 2 Platform Standard
Edition[8, 9], J2EE not only consolidated the many advantages, such as write once, run
anywhere features, easy access to the database JDBC API, CORBA technology, and provides
EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans), Java Servlets API, JSP (Java Server Pages) and XML support.

2.2.2 JSP Introduction

JSP (Java Server Page) is a technology that software developers can use to build
dynamical websites. The JSP syntax has XML-like tags, called JSP tags. JSP technology uses
Java programming language to encapsulate and produce dynamic pages processing logic.
When web server accesses JSP page in the event of a request, first implements the logic code,

4
then the results will be embedded in HTML code with the result returned to customer[10, 11].
The inserted Java code can operate database and build dynamic pages in order to achieve the
functionality required. JSP and Java Servlet, both are implemented in the server side, usually
returned to the client an HTML text, so long as the client browser will be able to browse.

2.2.3 JSPRuntime Environment

Running JSP file needs a JSP supported web server. The commonly used server is
JBoss and Tomcat. Tomcat is a servlet and JSP container developed by the Apache Software
Foundation (ASF)[12]. Tomcat compiles the Java Servlet and provides a Java-based web
server environment for Java code to run.

2.3 WAMP I NTRODUCTION

The WAMP Platform is a multi-tier enterprise applications (see Figure 2.1), the web
server tier, PHP programming tier, database server tier and business logic tier. Windows +
Apache + Mysql + Python, a group softwares often used to build dynamic Web site or
server[13], itself are separate programs, but because often used together with the increasing of
compatibility, constitute a powerful Web application platform.

Figure 2.1. WAMP multitier architecture diagram.

2.3.1 Apache Introduction

Apache Web Server is a very stable and robust web server for the Linux, Unix,
Windows and other related operating systems that existed today. Apache is a process-based
structure, the process consumes more system costs than the thread does, so it is not suitable
for multi-processor environment [14, 15], therefore, when an Apache Web site needs to
expand, usually to increase or expand a server cluster rather than increase processors. The
layout below (see Figure 2.2) shows the general setup flow to follow, when setting up a Web
Server or HTTP server as follows:

Figure 2.2. Apache server architecture diagram.

2.3.2 MySQL Introduction

MySQL is a popular relational database management system. It can provide high
performance and stability. It is used by websites developers to build different types web
applications [16], it provides API for many languages such as: C, C++, Java and PHP etc. The
top layer of MySQL architecture is not unique for MySQL, all network-based C/S for web
applications should include the connection handling, authentication, security management.
The middle layer is the core of MySQL, including query parsing, analysis, optimization, and
caching. It also provides functions across storage engines, including stored procedures,
triggers and views and so on. The bottom layer is a storage engine, which is responsible for

6
access to data. Web server through the storage engine API[17] can interact with a variety of
storage engines. The following is the MySQL architecture (see Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3. MySQL database server architecture

diagram.

2.3.3 PHP Introduction

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a webpage programming language that was designed
to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the html source
file with PHP tags and interpreted by a web server[18]. PHPs special syntax mixes C, Java,
Perl syntax. It can be faster than the CGI or Perl when implements dynamic webpages. The
following is PHP architecture (see Figure 2.4). The top layer is web serve which will process
PHP code, middle layer is PHP core which provides most important PHP api, such as
connection to database, under it is zend api and extensions, the bottom layer is zend engine
which used as php compiler and executor.

2.4 C OMPARISON OF THE A BOVE

T ECHNOLOGIES
In order to select appropriate programming platform from the above technologies, we
need to compare them in performance metrics. Here we will use several different performance
benchmarks to evaluate them.

2.4.1 Performance Metrics

Performance metrics including response time, reliability, and availability have been
used to measure the performance of web applications [19, 20]. Response time is a very
valuable performance criteria. These metrics can be used to measure the efficiency of a Web

Figure 2.4. PHP architecture diagram.

application in processing requests or transactions. The performance of an e-commerce system
should also be measured in an economic way. Menasce et al [21] proposed a metric named
revenue throughput, which is measured in dollars/second. Although the metric is not widely
accepted, the economic performance of an e-commerce system is considered important. A
good web system should have a high level of system performance in response time and in
reliability so as to provide customers with enjoyable shopping experience. Short response
time and high level reliability are the essential to friendly customer experience[22].

2.4.2 ASP.NET, JSP, PHP Performance Test

We will compare the several different technologies performance with sveral
benchmarks.

2.4.2.1 I TERATION S PEED T EST

(a) ASP.NET Test iteration cycle is 2000*2000, result is 54 seconds, and the following
is the code:
<%
response.write now
response.write "<br><br><br>"
for m = 0 to 2000
for n = 0 to 2000
next
next
response.write now
%>

8
(b) JSP Test iteration cycle is 2000*2000, test result is 52 seconds, the following is the
code:
<jsp:useBean id = clockA scope = page class = dates.JspCalendar/>
<jsp:getProperty name = "clock" property = "time" />
<%
int m = 0;
int n = 0;
for (m = 0; m < 2000; m++) {
for (n = 0; n < 2000; n++) {
}
}
%>
<jsp:useBean id = clockB scope = page class = dates.JspCalendar/>
<jsp:getProperty name = "clockB" property = "time" />
(c) PHP Test iteration cycle is 2000*2000, test result is 57 seconds, the following is
the code:
<?
$Time = date("Y-m-d"). " " . date("H:i:s");
echo $Time;
echo "<br>";
for ($m = 0; $m < 2000; $m++) {
for ($n = 0; $n < 2000; $n++) {
}
}
$Time = date("Y-m-d"). " " . date("H:i:s");
echo $Time;
?>

2.4.2.2 A RITHMETIC O PERATION

Arithmetic operations are important operations for web systems, as for most complex
computer arithmetic operations, such as multiply, divide etc are actually executed using
addition, so knowing the addition speed is useful.
Test Operation:
Iteration NNNN times, Integer Add Operation (see Figure 2.5)

Figure 2.5. Arithmetic operation test.

The test result table presents the comparison result based on different iteration scope
of arithmetic addition operation (see Figure 2.6)

Figure 2.6. Arithmetic operation test result (unit: ms).

Test result analysis:
Because PHP is interpreted and run, and its variable has no type, so everytime
compiler has to determine the type of arithmetic operations, this will cause its calculation
speed slower than JSP.
It is not appropriate to use PHP for complex numerical calculations, if you have to do
better to use a c user-defined PHP function, use C language to achieve and call it with PHP.

2.4.2.3 S TRING O PERATION

String operations are very frequently used in web applications[23]. Different
programming language have different sting operations api and performance.
Test Operation: String Concatenation (see Figure 2.7)
The test result table presents the comparison result based on different iteration scope
of string concatenation operation (see Figure 2.8)

10

Figure 2.7. String operation test.

Figure 2.8. String concatenation test result (unit: ms).

Test result analysis:
Because Java is strong type language, everything in Java is object, so string
manipulation is also object operation, it is obvious that for string operation, PHP is much
better than JSP (Because for string operation, most of them is categorized in string
concatenation, so here we just compare concatenation operation).
PHPs string manipulationmost of them is directly call Cs string function (PHP is
written by C language), so it has a better efficiency.
In web application, it is very frequently using string operation (including generate
SQL string at most time), so for this important aspect, PHP is better than JSP.

2.4.2.4 DATABASE O PERATIONS

For nowadays web 2.0 web applications, most websites have to use database, so
compare different languages database performance is very useful.
Test Operation:
Iteration NNNN times for database open, query and close operation. Compare JSP
connect/disconnect database with PHP connect/disconnect database (see Figure 2.9).
The test result table presents the comparison result based on different iteration scope
of database connection and disconnection operation (see Figure 2.10)
Test result analysis:
For normal connection, Javas connection to MySQL is slower than PHPs for about
one fold, but if using Java database connection pool, performance is enhanced very obviously.
If move database connection and database disconnection out of iteration, JSP and PHP
run time are almost the same, iterate 60 times will cost about 19 ms, because in database
operations, connection and disconnection operation is very resource costly, and JSPs
database connection and disconnection is more costly than PHPs.

11

Figure 2.9. Database operation test.

2.4.2.5 F ILE O PERATIONS

In web applications, file operation is used frequently, such as: file upload/download
and other operations.
Test Operation
Test several kind of file operation. First check if file exists, if yes then delete it, and
create a new file, write some content in it. Iterate this operation N times (see Figure 2.11).
The test result table presents the comparison result based on different iteration scope
of file operations (see Figure 2.12)

Figure 2.10. Database operations test result (unit: ms).

12

Figure 2.11. File operation test.

Figure 2.12. File operations test result (unit: ms).

Test result analysis:
This result shows that JSP is better than PHP for file operation.

2.4.2.6 T HE C ODE T O G ET RUN T IME

The following is the code to get run time (see Figure 2.13):

2.4.3 Overall Summery

From above test results, it is indicated that when using JSP or PHP in web
applicationthe performance difference between them is not very obvious, we can only say

13

Figure 2.13. The code to get run time.

they are expert in some aspects respectively. JSP is not good as PHP in database operation and
string manipulationsbut is better than PHP in file operation and arithmetic operatio
From the above analysis we can get the following conclusion:
Windows + Apache + PHP + MySQL (WAMP)
This combination is good value for economic cost, and has the fastest response time of
the database, also is quite stable. WAMP drawback is the weak numerical calculation ability,
so it is unsuitable for enterprise level computing, but it is a better choice for situation of plenty
of reading and writing database operations, and not many arithmetic calculation processing
applications, such as medium and small sized e-commerce websites, forums, etc.
Windows + IIS + ASP.NET + SQL Server

14
This combinations development costs should be low, because it has the most powerful
desktop integration environment to support many functions, especially for small and medium
sized enterprise office automation network, enterprise portal sites.
LinuxUnix+ Apache + Tomcat + JSP + Oracle 11g
This combination is designed for medium to large enterprise information systems,
although Oracle requires higher hardware configuration, but is suitable for mass data storage.
Large enterprises often multiple databases, use J2EE to integrate them is appropriate, and it is
easily to scale up through the server clusters, in a timely manner to meet business clients
growing quickly. This combinations vulnerability is relatively high development costs, in
particular, involves some of J2EEs advanced features but not too mature.
From the above comparison results and analysis, we can draw the comparison
conclusion (See Figure 2.14) of these technology combination on some different features

Figure 2.14. Comparison conclusion of several technologies.

15

CHAPTER 3
E-COMMERCE FRIENDLY USER INTERFACE
AND EXPERIENCE AND RELATED
TECHNOLOGIES
Improving the user experience, is very important to e-commerce website, user
experience includes from the impression of the website, the website features, website
usability, to website content, a combination of factors to improve the website environment
[24]. It can be said that the performance of the user experience will be directly related to the
value of e-commerce website.

3.1 H OW TO B UILD F RIENDLY U SER I NTERFACE

AND E XPERIENCE
1. Nice page design, arranged in orderly columns Websites overall page design is
simple and beautiful, the purchasing process is clear and easy to use, so it is easy to attract
new users, but also can increase the viscosity of the old users.
2. Shopping process is easy and convenient Internet users in the process of online
shopping go into a shopping website, from registration of new users through purchase orders
and payment, the process should be as simple as possible, so that users feel it is convenient to
operate, if the site is very complex, users may give up shopping.
3. Web site effective help center There may be new users who are not too familiar with
online shopping process, so the website needs to provide helpful tips.

3.2 H TML +D IV +C SS
DIV is an element of html, div + css is a page layout approach, this page layout is
different from the traditional table layout approach, and achieves the w3c separation of
content and presentation.
DIV element is used within the document for the bulk of the content structure and
background elements. DIV start and end tags are used for everything between the block[25],
in which the characteristics of the elements contained in the DIV tag attribute to control, or
through the use of style sheets to format the block to be controlled.
Relative to the conventional table, using DIV + CSS technology web, the website will
be friendlier to search engine. It also separate website content and style, so that the
adjustment of the page and style has become more convenient.

16

3.3 JAVA S CRIPT

JavaScript is an object oriented web page programming language used by web
application programmer.
Based on the html, using Javascript can develop dynamic interactive Web pages[26].
The emergence of Javascript enables web pages and users to achieve a real-time, dynamic,
interactive relationship, so that pages contain more active elements and more exciting content.

3.4 X ML
The difference between XML and HTML is: XML is used to store data, focusing on
the data itself. HTML is used to define the data, focusing on the data display mode[27].
XMLs simplicity make it easy to read and write in any application data, this makes
XML becomes the unique data exchange language, although different applications also
support other data exchange format.

3.5 A JAX
Traditional web applications allow users to fill out the form, as when the form is
submitted to the web server sends a request. Server receives and processes the coming form,
and then returns a new page. This approach will waste a lot of bandwidth, because the major
content of the two pages in HTML code are the same. Since each application needs to interact
with the request to the server, application response time depends on the server[28, 29]. This
has resulted in response time to the user interface is much slower than the local application.
AJAX applications will only send to the server and required data, using SOAP or other
web service interfaces based on XML, and JavaScript on the client side deals with the
response from the server[30]. Because the server and browser exchange significant reduced
data, so web server also reduces the processing time.
The greatest advantage of using Ajax is to update the entire page without the premise
of maintaining data. This makes web applications more rapid responded to user actions.

17

CHAPTER 4
SYSTEM DESIGN AND MODELING
This on-line store system provides convenient environment for users to search and buy
many different kinds of products. The system is divided into front-end side (user side) and
back-end side (Administrator side). There are registration, browse products, search products,
order products modules etc in the user side; there are user management, order management,
products management modules etc in the administrator side for admin to manage, update and
maintenance system.

4.1 S YSTEM DATA F LOW

The following is the data flow diagram (see Figure 4.1):

Figure 4.1. Data flow diagram.

4.2 S YSTEM C OMPONENTS

1. Front-end Side has the following modules:
User Registration User Login / Logout User Center (my information, my order, my
favorite, my comments) Search Engine (use category or key word to search, advanced search)
Shopping Cart Order Query Shop Notice and Articles Friendly Reminders Email Subscribe
Front-end Counter All Products Exhibition (Recommended Products, Hot Products, New
Products, and Promotion Products) Categorized Products Exhibition Check Products Detail
Information View History Buy and Check out Add Products to Favorite Write Comments to
Products

18
2. Administration Management Side has the following modules:
Products Category Management: add, delete, update, query Products Management:
add, delete, update, query Member Management: add, delete, update, query Order
Management: add, delete, update, query order, and check order manifest, product delivery
status. Article Category Management: add, delete, update, query Article Management: add,
delete, update, query Reports Statistics: sales details
The following are the front-end user side model and back-end server side model (see
Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3).

Figure 4.2. Front-end user model graph.

Figure 4.3. Back-end server model graph.

19

4.3 S YSTEM A RCHITECTURE

This system is a three-tier architecture, UI layer send request to business layer through
unified interface, business layer performs database operation after handle the request based on
its logic rule, then encapsulate the data which are returned from the database into class format
and present for UI layer [31, 32]. This makes UI layer unknown the database structure, the UI
layer only need to maintenance the interface to the business layer.

4.4 S YSTEM M ODELING

UML (Unified Modeling Language) is used for software systems as a visual modeling
language. UML is used for object-oriented development system description, visualization,
and documentation[33].
This method uses object model, dynamic model, functional model and use case model
together to complete the system modeling, the definition of concepts and symbols can be used
for software development, analysis, design and implementation of the whole process[34, 35].
UML has the following mostly used three types:
The first is use case diagram, which can describe system functions from a user point of
view, and point out the operator of the function.
The second type is a static diagram, including class diagrams, object diagrams and
package diagrams. Class diagram can describe the system static structure of classes and static
relationship for the systems entire life cycle.
The third type is the behavior diagram, which can describe the system dynamic model
and the composition of the interactions between objects. One type is object state diagram
which shows all possible states and state transfer of the incident conditions.
The following is use-case diagram, it describes system functions from a shopping
users point of view, and points out the operator of the function (see Figure 4.4).

4.5 S YSTEM W ORKFLOW D ESIGN AND F UNCTION

M ODULE
When you come into this system, you can browse products and search the products
you want (search includes category and key word ways). For this system, only registered user
can buy products on-line, so when you select a products and want to put it into shopping cart,
you must login the website first. If you have user name and password, you can directly login;
if not, you need to register first, then login. When you successfully login, you can check and
manage your shopping cart, update order item number, check and manage your personal
registration info. You can submit your shopping cart to bill when you make sure you will buy
the products, and after submit you can still buy products, the back-end server received the user
submitted order and handle the request order. This is the whole process of shopping

20

Figure 4.4. Online store use-case UML diagram.

productss. After user submit the order, if he/she immediately pay the cost, after the payment
process, the admin need to manually update the order status to paid status in the server side.
The administrator in the server side is required to login and be validated to go into
admin UI, at this time, the system searches if there is user record which is inputted by user
from Products Admin user database table, and validate whether it is correct, if it is not correct,
the system will give an alert to go back and re-login, if it is correct, then go into consequent
workflow process. Now the admin can perform management operation, such as user
management operation (browse user info, add user, delete user, update user info), products
management operation (browse products list, browse products detail info, add products, delete
products, update products), order management operation (browse order, confirm order, update
order status, delete order). Admin can logout system after management operation.

4.6 DATABASE D ESIGN

Database is very important in an information management system, designing a good
database architecture will directly affect the efficiency of the application system[36].
Reasonable database structure can improve the efficiency of data storing, to ensure the data
integrity and consistence.

4.6.1 Database Requirement Analysis

Target to normal store requirement, we can get the following info: User is
categorized as unregistered and registered. Order is categorized as single detailed order and

21
total order One user can buy products (1:M) One user relates to many orders (1:M) One
list relates to many orders (1:M) Based on the system function analysis, we can summarize
and get the following info: User, includes fields: user ID, user name, password, email,
phone, address, etc Products, includes fields: products ID, products category, products
name, price(store price, market price, promotion price), products quantity, products
introduction, etc Order List, includes fields: order ID, products ID, number of ordered
products, etc Order, includes fields: order ID, user ID, order time, etc

4.6.2 Database Entity-Relation (ER) Diagrams

The following are order module ER Diagrams (see Figure 4.5) from this system: The
entities extracted from the system are: user entity, products entity, order entity, order list
entity. User Order ER diagram:

Figure 4.5. User order ER diagram.

4.6.3 Database Logic Structure Design

On-line store system tables are designed as the following:
Table 4.1 is product table.
Table 4.2 is user table.
Table 4.3 is order table.

22
Table 4.1. Product Table
Field Name Data Type Length Not Null
ID
Int
10
No
Productsname
Varchar
40
No
Productsclass
Int
10
No
Author
Varchar
25
Yes
Publish
Varchar
150
yes
productsNo
Varchar
30
yes
Content
Varchar
4000
yes
Price
float
yes
Amount
int
10
Yes
Leav number
int
10
Yes
reg time
Datetime
No

Table 4.2. User Table

Field Name Data Type Length Not Null
ID
Int
10
No
Username
Varchar
20
No
Password
Varchar
50
No
Names
Varchar
20
Yes
Sex
varchar
2
Yes
Address
varchar
150
Yes
Phone
varchar
25
Yes
Post
varchar
8
Yes
Email
varchar
50
Yes
Retime
datetime
8
Yes
RegIpAddr
varchar
20
Yes

Table 4.3. Indent Table

Field Name
Data Type Length
ID
int
10
IndentNo
varchar
20
user id
int
10
Submittime
datetime
8
consignmentTime datetime
8
Totalprice
float
8
Content
varchar
4000
ipAddress
varchar
20
isPayoff
int
10
isSales
int
10

Description
auto increprimary key
products name
products category
products author
publish agency
products number
content summary
65price
total amount
in-store amount
In-store time

Description
auto incrememberID
user name
Password
member level
Gender
Address
Telephone
post number
Email
registration time
registration ip

Not Null
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Description
auto incre
order number
memberID
submit order time
delivery time
total price
content
user ip
is pay off
Is delivered

23

CHAPTER 5
System Detailed Design
The system program files consist of front-end and back-end files. Front-end files and
back-end files both consist of UI files and logic files.
Front-end logic files (see Figure 5.1) are the php files with .php extension. Each php
file is used for specific module.

Figure 5.1. Front-end PHP files and other folders.

The front-end UI files (see Figure 5.2) are located in the folder of theme and each of
them is used for specific modules layout.

Figure 5.2. Front-end theme folder UI files.

Back-end logic files (see Figure 5.3) are located in the folder of admin and with the
file extension .php.
Back-end admin UI files (see Figure 5.4) are the files with file extension of .htm.

5.1 S YSTEM F RONT- END D ETAILED D ESIGN

Homepage is always very important, it will give users first impression when then get
into the website, so make it integrated and appealing will attract user to come back again.
Homepage is divided into several parts according positions (see Figure 5.5, Figure
5.6): top, left, middle, right and foot side. According to these different areas there are many

24

Figure 5.3. Back-end admin folder PHP fils and others.

Figure 5.4. Back-end admin folder UI files.

function modules: user center, navigation bar, search engine, category tree, products
exhibition, promotion products and store info.
This homepage UI consists of three part: top.html, index.html and footer.html. For
most of front-end pages, we can reuse the top.html and footer.html files.

Figure 5.5. Online store system homepage (upper part).

User operation module (see Figure 5.7) is designed for users to registration and sign
in, after user sign in, he can click view cart to check the goods he selected. As this is a very
important module, users should very easily to find it, so it is designed on the right top of each
webpage.

25

Figure 5.6. Online store system homepage (lower part).

Figure 5.7. User operation module.

Front-end navigation bar module (see Figure 5.8) is the panel which contains most
important buttons. Users can click specific category to check related products. Admin can
create a category and put it on the navigation bar.

Figure 5.8. Front-end navigation bar module.

Searching engine module (see Figure 5.9) is designed for users to search products by
different criteria and/or key words, he can also click advanced button to search by advanced
options.

5.2 BACK - END M ANAGEMENT S IDE

Back-end admin login module (see Figure 5.10) is the first webpage of the back-end
management side. Admin can click Return to Home to go to front-end homepage.

26

Figure 5.9. Searching engine module.

Figure 5.10. Back-end admin login module.

Back-end start up module (see Figure 5.11) is the first webpage after admin logged in.
This start up page presents the most useful categorized information for admin to manage the
back-end system.
It is designed by integrating several different parts. The top of it is system operation
module, which provides some useful function, eg. Shop guide, refresh, profile, calculator,
clear cache and quit button. Under the top module is system navigation bar, which contains
several important quick launch buttons in the color orange. The content page is under
navigation bar, and is divided by two parts: the left menu tree and the right specific content
page. When admin click specific item on the left menu tree, the according content page of that
item will present on the right side.
Back-end system operation module (see Figure 5.12) is in color purple. This module
provides admin several useful functions. Shop guide provide some basic information of store
system. Refresh is used when sometimes if no response of some functions. Calculator is a
system tool which will pop up a calculator when click button, it is useful when admin wants to
calculate some price and sales. Clear cache will clear the memory cache to activate some
updated state. Quit button is click to log out and go back to back-end log in webpage.

27

Figure 5.11. Back-end start up module.

Figure 5.12. Back-end system operation module.

Back-end navigation module (see Figure 5.13) located under system operation
module. This module provides admin several important buttons which he can use to quickly
check the related info.

Figure 5.13. Back-end navigation module.

Main statistics information module (see Figure 5.14) is the start up page right middle
side. This module shows admin all the important categorized statistics information and he can
also click to check the detailed information.
Back-end search engine module (see Figure 5.15) is located on top of most specific
item page. It can search by category, subcategory and keywords etc.
Products list module (see Figure 5.16) is an item of product category. This module
shows all the products detailed information and enables admin to manage them using different
buttons.

28

Figure 5.14. Main statistics information module.

Figure 5.15. Back-end search engin module.

Figure 5.16. Products list module.

29

CHAPTER 6
SYSTEM TEST AND EVALUATION
Software testing provides manual or automated means used to run or test a system,
process, aimed at testing whether it satisfies specified requirements or expected results [37].
To provide high quality, software system should place emphasis on reliability and integrity
[38].
Capability Maturity Model (CMM) [39], points out that the improvement of software
quality pertains to defect prevention, technology management. The Capability Maturity
Model Integration (CMMI)[40, 41] emphasize that software improvement can be facilitated
by effective test analysis and bug fix.
Peeger [42] asserts that there are several types of evaluation techniques, such as
feature analysis, case study, and formal test. Brown and Wallnau [43] proposed that software
evaluations efficiency is depend on the evaluation staffs skills and experience.

6.1 F UNCTION T EST

The following is several different detailed function tests:

6.1.1 Add Products Test

The following is adding products test details (see Figure 6.1).

Figure 6.1. Add products test.

6.1.2 User Registration Test

The following is user registration test details (see Figure 6.2).

30

Figure 6.2. User registration test.

6.1.3 User Shopping Test

The following is user shopping test details (see Figure 6.3).

6.1.4 Order Management Test

The following is order management test details (see Figure 6.4).

6.2 B ROWSERS C OMPATIBILITY T EST

Tested in IE7,8 Firefox 3.5-3.6 Maxthon 3.0 Opera 2.0 All the functions run correctly
in these browsers.

31

Figure 6.3. User shopping test.

Figure 6.4. Order management test.

32

CHAPTER 7
CONCLUSION
This thesis researched the e-commerce web application related issues. We compared
several related technologies-ASP.NET, J2EE and WAMP of their advantages and
disadvantages and performance based on several different benchmarks-iteration test,
arithmetic operations, string operations, database operations, and file operations. Through the
process of comparison, we get the comparison result of these technologies on some different
features, and we recommend to use WAMP for medium or small sized e-commerce
corporation or group to build their website.
We also designed and developed an on-line store system to be familiar with the
procedures of developing an e-commerce web system through the whole process of system
modeling design, system architecture design, UI design and system testing.

33

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