Electronic Commerce

Web Servers & Related Concepts

MIS 6453 -- Spring 2006

Instructor: John Seydel, Ph.D.

Student ObjectivesDefine what’s meant by “web server”Compare and contrast the top two web server programsDescribe what’s important in choosing a computer to serve as a web serverCompare and contrast static and dynamic web pagesDescribe what’s involved with a 3-tier and n-tier architectureSummarize the major issues associated with emailDiscuss factors that result in effective ecommerce websitesDescribe the responsibilities of the members of a web teamUse HTML to create bullet lists and simple forms on web pages

AgendaArticle discussions

Cao et al (design factors) Berry (web teams)

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 Other remarks

Berry Web teams Batten/Harper team Other remarks

A Look at Dynamic versus Static Pages

Start the following Internet Explorer (open your SuSE1 site) SmartFTP NotePad

A static page:www.suse1.astate.edu/~flory/page2_proc.html

A dynamic version:www.suse1.astate.edu/~flory/page2.htmlwww.suse1.astate.edu/~flory/page2_proc.html

Exercises & demonstrations Forms exercise / server-side scripting demo Forms exercise / client-side scripting exercise & demo

Web ServersDiscussion led by Martin & NguyenOther comments

What’s actually happening Static vs dynamic pages the reality 3-tier architectures Correction

Dynamic content: either client-side or server-side “Server-side scripting” and “dynamic page-generation”

The major server-side scripting engines 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?

eMail 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

Website Utilities

Simple but powerful utilities ping tracert finger

Data analysis of server logs: AnalogLink checking: FrontPage, DreamWeaver, . . . Remote administation: TightVNC; FrontPage (!)

A Little More HTML (If Time Available)

Review the guidelinesBullet (i.e., unordered) listsSimple forms

Summary of ObjectivesDefine what’s meant by “web server”Compare and contrast the top two web server programsDescribe what’s important in choosing a computer to serve as a web serverCompare and contrast static and dynamic web pagesDescribe what’s involved with a 3-tier and n-tier architectureSummarize the major issues associated with emailDiscuss factors that result in effective ecommerce websitesDescribe the responsibilities of the members of a web teamUse HTML to create bullet lists and simple forms on web pages

Appendix

Browser/Server Interaction

Three Tiered Internet Database Access Architecture

eMail Guidelines

Follow standard Netiquette Mixed case Subject lines 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 & attributesQuote attribute valuesUse relative references for resources on same serverAlways use closing tagsNest elements properly; close in reverse order of openingUse indentation consistently and to make code readableNo more than 80 characters per line of code; break long tags into multiple lines, typically one per attributeAvoid deprecated elements, e.g., <font>Use no spaces in file namesTreat all URLs and other resource names as if case-sensitive