Micro Modeling Associates - Microsoft Official Web Commerce Solutions, Web Technologies

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PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052-6399

Copyright 1999 by Micro Modeling Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Microsoft Commerce Solutions / Micro Modeling Associates,
Inc.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7356-0579-3
1. Internet programming. 2. Web site development. 3. Retail
trade--Computer networks. I. Micro Modeling Associates.
QA76.625.O24 1999
658'.054678--dc21 99-10307
CIP

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Technical Editor: Richard Collins Manuscript Editor: Anne Owen Graphic Artist and Desktop Publisher: Lulu ShellhaseFor Microsoft Press:Proofreader: Mildred RosenzweigAcquisitions Editor: Juliana Aldous Indexer: Robert SaighProject Editor: Thom Votteler Project Manager: Brian Miller Chapter 1

by Andy Maretz

It's hard to forget the hysteria that surrounded the rise of the Web in the early 1990s. Generally unfamiliar to mainstream business people and even many computer professionals as late as 1993, the Web became overwhelmingly familiar to these groups, along with virtually all others, by about the first half of 1995. Around this time, business cards, stationery, and advertisements started mentioning, or even primarily featuring, Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs. By 1996, it became pretty normal to recite a URL in everyday conversation, and people quickly figured out that you could even omit the http:// part of a URL, and everyone still knew what you were talking about. Time went on, and the Web continued to permeate daily life. Entire businesses sprang up to exploit it, and a general flood of activity developed around it.

It's now the early part of 1999 as we write this book, and the flood of activity just continues to intensify. The Web is entrenched in our culture and our economy, and legitimately credited with transforming both. It's a publishing medium, an entertainment form, a social device, a commerce instrument, and so many other things. And it's still surrounded by the same hysteria as when it first surfaced from obscurity just five years ago.

Most crazes don't last this long. Those that do usually owe their above-average shelf life to some actual substance beneath the veneer, and the Web seems to fit pretty well into this category. The Internet data network brought the possibility of cheap, easy connectivity to essentially every desktop in the world, and with the easy-to-use Web user interface, technical laymen became able and willing to use this connectivity. These innovations have had profound implications for those engaging in commerce. But although a few Web commerce success stories have made news over the last few years, the Web remains much more a story of untapped potential. Most attempts to use the Internet for profit have failed, and most businesses haven't even given the Internet a try so far. One big reason is a lack of understanding of how to approach the Web from a business and marketing standpoint. In fact, getting the business strategy down should be the first step for any company. That topic, however, is very deep and not the subject of this book. This book addresses the other big reason for this slow progress in tapping the potential of the Web: the technical difficulty of implementing effective Web commerce solutions. We hope this book makes it easier.

This book is about building commerce-enabled software for use over the public Internet or a private intranet. It discusses both the special nature of commerce-enabled applications, as well as the special nature of the Web as an application platform. It then describes the key technologies and techniques necessary to build Web commerce solutions. Whether you're specifically trying to do business on the Internet, or just interested in getting a better understanding of the practical issues behind Web commerce, this book should help.

The book is organized into the following major sections:

• I: Getting Started presents the case for commerce over the Web, the aspects of the Web medium that make it unique, and an overview of the technologies available to build commerce applications.
• II: Infrastructure and Security discusses the hardware, connectivity, and security issues you must address to provide a solid platform for commerce application development. It also covers issues related to secure payment over the Web.
• III: The Site Server Commerce Platform covers the basic services available in Microsoft Site Server to run and administer a Web site, and the specific commerce functionality provided by Site Server Commerce Edition.
• IV: Server-Side Components explains the role of Active Server Pages (ASP) as a "glue" technology for integrating components and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) as a universal technology for accessing relational and other types of data stores. It then proceeds to detail all aspects of writing custom business logic to run on the server side of a Web application.
• V: Web User Interfaces provides a guide to building compelling user interfaces using the standard tools of the Web: HTML, DHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), client-side scripting, and client-side components. It also describes the role of XML as a method of exchanging data between the server and browser, how to use Microsoft Office as an alternative user interface, how to integrate collaboration into commerce workflows, and how to add dynamic video and audio content to provide a more compelling user experience