Chapter 12: Implementing E-Commerce Databases

“Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.”

—Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)

Overview

E-commerce technology is growing at a phenomenal pace. The Web provides a platform independent, common user interface to information all over the world at an economical rate. Every major software vendor in the world has included some sort of e-commerce-based solution for their products, ranging from support to direct interfaces to Web technology.

Over the last seven years, the Web has evolved from a file-based retrieval system to an application-oriented medium where users can perform purchases, query databases, or even customize their interface to various sites. This evolution has challenged Web developers and Web masters to keep the content on Web sites up-to-date, collect meaningful statistics on the use of the site, and empower the content owners with the maintenance of the Web content.

The state of Web technology has evolved so quickly that there are many competing e-commerce database implementation solutions from which the developer can choose. Most of these solutions work well in a single vendor or a homogeneous environment. However, when working in a heterogeneous environment with multiple operating systems, database applications, and Web server technologies, the options for the Web-database developer become limited.