E-commerce Application Introduction

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

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1.1 PROJECT SUMMARY

This is an E-commerce application, which facilitates the user to shop online.

The customer/user can browse through the categories and buy any product of his
choice. Once the customer becomes a registered user, he can create his own account
and manage it the way he likes it.

This application contains some easy navigational and silent features to guide
the users while shopping. The search facility helps the users to find exactly what they
desire without wasting much of their time. The shopping cart summary serves as a
reference for the customer as they continue to browse for more products. The other
facilities include advanced search, progress steps, related products, sorted search
results, etc.

The application is made user-friendly and convenient to such an extent that the
user is never required to type the same information more than once (except
passwords).

The project also includes an administrative control center. From this area the
administrator can fully manage every aspect of the entire store. He can view and
process the orders placed by the customers and also edit all its aspects after the order
has been placed. He can print receipts and invoices. The inventory management and
full vendor management also rests with him. In short, he has total control on all the
features of the system.

1.2 PURPOSE

The goal of this project is to develop a generic web application that can be
deployed on a web server and purchase order for the desired products could be placed
online.
The convenience of being able to purchase anything from a car to a pencil in
the comfort of your home without having to travel has made online shopping a
massive success. So convinency of the customer is one of the basic objective of this
application.
A user-friendly environment helps the user to carry on shopping with great
ease and efficiency. Moreover it also helps the owners to attract more customers. So
developing a user-friendly interface can also be considered as one of the goals.
An effort has also been made to see that the customer gets the best quality
products at a very reasonable cost.
In short the key goals are - bringing in the best visitors, promoting a strong
brand and making buying easy.

1.3 SCOPE

Project scope simply refers to the size of the project in terms of what will be
included and what will not.

The scope of this project includes the following features:

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 Secure ordering support and real-time processing of orders

 Enables easy adding, deleting and modifying of shopping cart contents
 Easy back navigation
 Incomplete orders removed automatically
 Save customer information once entered
 Special announcement e-mails to the users
 User feedbacks
 Recommendations on product pages about related items, accessories to the
product listed there
 Password management
 Order confirmation either through email or via the web

The list of things (or anything else) outside the scope of our project would
constitute what’s called scope creep. Our project scope will not include:
 Auction /Bidding
 Comparison of prices of different stores
 Selling of products
 Links to other sites
 Multimedia like video or Flash Automatic
1.4 TECHNOLOGY AND LITERATURE REVIEW

1.4.1 ASP.NET 2.0 and C# 2.0

ASP.NET is a unified web development model that includes the

services necessary for you to build enterprise-class web applications with a
minimum of coding. AP.NET is part of the .NET Framework, and when
coding ASPLNET applications you have access to classes in the .NET
Framework. You can code your applications in any language compatible with
the common language runtime (CLR), including Microsoft Visual Basic, C# ,
Jscript.NET, and J#. These languages enable you to develop ASP.NET
applications that benefit from the common language runtime, type safety,
inheritance, and so on.

ASP.NET includes:

 A page and controls framework

 The ASP.NET compiler
 Security infrastructure
 State-Management facilities
 Application configuration
 Health monitoring and performance features
 Debugging support
 An XML Web services framework
 Extensible hosting environment and application life cycle
management
 An extensible designer environment.

1.4.2 ASP.NET

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ASP.NET provides a unified Web development model that includes the

services necessary for you to build enterprise-class web applications.
ASP.NET is part of the .NET Framework and enables you to take full
advantage of the features of the common language runtime, such as type
safety, inheritance, language interoperability, and versioning.

The topics in this section provide you with conceptual information

about how ASP.NET works and procedural topics that show you how to write
code that take advantage of the power of ASP.NET to create dynamic web
applications.

1.4.3 Why ASP.NET 2.0 preferred?

The Microsoft .Net Framework version 2.0 includes significant

enhancements to ASP.NET in virtually all areas. ASP.NET has been improved
to provide out of the box support for the most common web application
situations. You will find that you can get web sites and pages up and running
more easily and with less code than ever before. At the same time, you can add
custom features to ASP.NET to accommodate your own requirements.

Specific areas in which ASP.NET has been improved are:

 Productivity. You can easily and quickly create ASP.NET web pages and
applications using new ASP.NET server controls and existing controls with
new system-level functionality that would normally require extensive
developer coding. Core development scenarios, particularly data, have
been addressed by new data controls, no code binding, and smart data
display controls.
 Flexibility and extensibility. Many ASP.NET features are extensible so that
you can easily incorporate custom features into applications. The ASP.NET
provider model, for example, provides pluggable support for different data
sources.
 Performance. Features such as recompilations, configurable caching, and
SQL cache invalidation allow you to optimize the performance of your
web applications.
 Security. It is now easier than ever to add authentication and authorization
to your web application.
 Hosting. ASP.NET includes new features that make it easier to manage a
hosting environment and create more opportunities for holsters to add
value.
 Completeness. New and existing features work in concert to allow you to
create end-to-end scenarios that address real-world web development
challenges.

The following sections of this topic describe changes made in different areas of
ASP.NET:

 Web Site Management

 Page Design

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 Controls
 Data
 Security

1.4.3.1 Web Site Management

Web site configuration is improved to include many more settings. You can
easily manage application settings using the Web Site Administration Tool, which
provides a wizard-like interface for setting up and maintaining your application. The
web Site Administration Tool is particularly useful for managing remote sites (for
example, sites that are hosted by an ASO.NET compatible ISP).

If you host sites for others, you can use a new ASP.NET Microsoft
Management Console (MNC) plug-in or an administrative API to manage sites and
monitor their health. You can add value to your hosting site by offering controls or
services that you can selectively enable or disable.

These new features of ASP.NET will help you easily manage web site
application, which are:

 Administration Features and Tools

 Reserved Folders for Special Functionality
 Pre compiling Web Sites for Error Checking and Deployment
 Navigation.

1.4.3.2 Page Design

New features of ASP.NET help you easily create pages that are more
consistent and can offer a richer experience to users.

 Consistent Layout using Master Pages

 Themes for Consistent Appearance
 New Code-Behind Model for Pages
 User-Customizable Web Pages
 User-Specific Values
 New Caching Features
 Enhanced Client-Side Functionality

1.4.3.3 Controls

ASP.NET features many improvements to Web server controls, including both

enhancements to existing controls and a selection of new controls.

1.4.3.3.1 General Control Improvements

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A major area of enhancement in ASP.NET 2.0 is in the controls you use to

create ASP.NET Web pages. General improvements to controls include:

 By default, controls now generate markup that is compatible with the XHMTL
1.1 standard.
 All controls support adaptive rendering, and can emit markup that is
appropriate for the requesting browser.
 All data controls can use either the new data-binding model with data source
controls, or can continue to use the model used in earlier versions of ASP.NET.
 All controls support themes and skins so that you can customize their
appearance using an ASP.NET theme.
 You can use device filtering with many control properties, specifying different
property values for different devices. When the control is rendered, the
appropriate property value is set based on the requesting browser.
 Validator controls can now be grouped, which allows you to selectively enable
validation for some controls.
 Improvements to individual controls such as the Label control, Listbox
Control, and others to add functionality often requested by developer.

1.4.3.4 Data

ASP.NET includes substantially improved support for working with data in

your Web applications.

 Data Source Controls

 Middle-Tier Data Access
 Data Display Controls
 XML Support
 Connection String Storage

1.4.3.5 Security

New ASP.NET features provide built-in support for authenticating and

authorizing users. ASP.NET membership manages authentication, providing facilities
for validation user credentials and helping users manage their passwords.

The membership service provides APIs that you can call programmatically to
create new users, validate credentials, and get user information. To simplify
authentication even more you can use the new login controls, which work with the
ASP.NET membership to perform a variety of tasks, often with no extra code
required. The Login control prompts users for credentials and validates them. The
Password Recovery control provides various options for helping users either change
or remember their password. You can display user information with the Login View
control allows you to mark content in a page that is visible only to authenticated user.

ASP.NET role management helps you manage authorization, providing high-

level ways for you to define and check roles for users.

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1.4.4 Microsoft’s C#. NET

An ASP.NET page is restricted to code written in a single programming

language. Currently, ASP.NET supports Visual Basic, C#, and J#. The default
language is Visual Basic, but any other language can be declared as the default
language for the page by placing a directive at the top of the page, such as the
following:

<%@Language = “C#”%>

The language can also be declared in a <script language = …> as block, as in

the example provided in Code Blocks in ASP.NET. If different languages are declared
in separate script blocks on the same page, an error will be thrown.

Although only one language can be used on a single page, any user controls
that you use on a page can be written in different languages, including Visual C++.
This allows application to take advantage of function libraries in different languages.

Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) is not supported, but VBScript

syntax is similar to Visual Basic 2005 Syntax, so any required changes to existing
code should be minor.

These topics summarize common programming concepts with side-by-side

code examples or tables. This information is designed for those who want to learn a
new language or refresh their memory of how to work with a particular language.

1.4.5 MS SQL Server 2000

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is a full-featured relational database management
system (RDBMS) that offers a variety of administrative tools to ease the burdens of
database development, maintenance and administration. The six of the more
frequently used tools are: Enterprise Manager, Query Analyzer, SQL Profiler, Service
Manager, Data Transformation Services and Books Online.

Enterprise Manager is the main administrative console for SQL Server

installations. It provides you with a graphical "birds-eye" view of all of the SQL
Server installations on your network. You can perform high-level administrative
functions that affect one or more servers, schedule common maintenance tasks or
create and modify the structure of individual databases.

Query Analyzer offers a quick and dirty method for performing queries
against any of your SQL Server databases. It's a great way to quickly pull information
out of a database in response to a user request, test queries before implementing them
in other applications, create/modify stored procedures and execute administrative
tasks.

SQL Profiler provides a window into the inner workings of your database.
You can monitor many different event types and observe database performance in real
time. SQL Profiler allows you to capture and replay system "traces" that log various

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activities. It's a great tool for optimizing databases with performance issues or
troubleshooting particular problems.

Service Manager is used to control the MS SQL Server (the main SQL Server
process), MSDTC (Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator) and SQL Server
Agent processes. An icon for this service normally resides in the system tray of
machines running SQL Server. You can use Service Manager to start, stop or pause
any one of these services.

Data Transformation Services (DTS) provide an extremely flexible method

for importing and exporting data between a Microsoft SQL Server installation and a
large variety of other formats. The most commonly used DTS application is the
"Import and Export Data" wizard found in the SQL Server program group.

Books Online is an often-overlooked resource provided with SQL Server that

contains answers to a variety of administrative, development and installation issues.
It's a great resource to consult before turning to the Internet or technical support.

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