Integrating FrontPage with E-Commerce Elements

The following sections examine the five elements of e-commerce mentioned previously and how the element does or doesn't integrate with FrontPage.

Product

Obviously, FrontPage has very little to do with the product you are selling unless you are selling a software or information product.

Product has to be considered in many aspects of the e-commerce process not only in elements of pricing, but also inventory and availability. Usually these issues are handled on the server side.

FrontPage's comprehensive coding capabilities could easily be used to write code to check an inventory database for availability and present such information to an interested customer. Such an inventory database could be created only for online use or the same database used by the rest of the business with the Web acting as another client.

For more on FrontPage's capability to interact with other data sources, see Part VIII, "Accessing Data with FrontPage 2003," p. 661.


Forms Processing

FrontPage's form capabilities make it a natural partner in the coding and development of the form related elements of any e-commerce solution. Whether you are writing a solution from scratch or integrating a third-party choice, there is no reason why you should not use the form capabilities of FrontPage in your implementation (see Figure B.1).

Figure B.1. The Form Properties dialog box allows you to integrate your form information with any custom script or database FrontPage friendly, or not.

graphics/ap02fig01.gif

When you create a form in FrontPage, the form is surrounded by a dotted line in the Design view. To edit what happens to the form fields, right-click anywhere in the dotted line and select Form Properties from the option.

For more on FrontPage's capability to interact with other data sources, see "Using Forms," p. 359.


Payment Processing

Nothing in FrontPage directly controls or affects the transfer of funds from the customer to you (or vice versa). FrontPage is a product for Web design, not financial manipulation.

You can, however, use a FrontPage form to gather information that will lead to a funds transfer.

CAUTION

Remember, when you collect this kind information (credit card numbers, and so on) it is extremely sensitive in nature and should be treated with a tremendous amount of respect and caution. Always collect this type of information behind a secure connection to prevent snoops from grabbing your customers' private data.


There is nothing built in to FrontPage that would be suitable for this kind of information collection. You could build a form to take all the information, but as discussed in the previous caution, make sure to collect the information behind a strong level of Internet security.

TIP

FrontPage Cart (http://www.frontpagecart.com) provides a tool to collect simple payment processing information and does so behind its secure servers only giving you the information via a secure connection. This keeps you from having to invest in a secure environment of your own.


Security

If you are going to collect sensitive information in your FrontPage Web site such as credit card numbers or checking account data, you'll want to make sure that the numbers are secured and can't be lifted online by those sniffing data packets for this very information. The standard for such a connection is via SSL.

SSL?

SSL stands for Secured Sockets Layer and is a protocol (originally developed by Netscape) for the purpose of sending private information over the Internet. Netscape developed the protocol for the specific purpose of e-commerce, and it has been the standard online since it's introduction.

The Netscape specification for SSL can be found online at http://ssl.frontpagelink.com.

When a Web page is viewed online via SSL, the browser will show the Web address at https://www.sitename.com instead of http:www.sitename.com, where the s after http stands for "Secure." Different browsers indicate a secure connection in different ways, such as a key in Netscape or a lock in Internet Explorer.

Making an SSL connection is not as simple as adding an s after the http in your Web address. Secure Web server technology is needed as is a digital certificate that "proves" your online identity before the secure connection is made. Contact your ISP directly if you'd like to add the ability to add SSL to your Web site.


Although security and SSL is a server-side issue not controlled by FrontPage, FrontPage can connect to a site via SSL (via FrontPage Extensions) if the server is set up accordingly and has a valid digital certificate. In Figure B.2, I've connected to Colligan.com via SSL and FrontPage 2003 and can use the connection to transfer secure data to and from my server.

Figure B.2. You can open a Web site with FrontPage Server Extensions via SSL, keeping the information transferred between your computer and your Web server completely secured.

graphics/ap02fig02.jpg

Security is not just an issue of the data transferred between the Web site and the customer. Issues of data stored and the site need to be considered as well. The news continues to report stories of hackers who break into a server with tens of thousands of credit card numbers, and you don't want to be one of the statistics.

TIP

Hackers can't steal information that isn't available at your Web server. There is little reason to keep personal data stored on a server connected to the Internet for long periods of time. Back up your data on a regular basis to offline sources to minimize potential impact should your server be compromised.


Secured Shared Servers?

Even if your server is 100% secured from the outside, if anyone else has access to your server, it is important to determine if they have access to your data as well. This could be as obvious as locking your system every time you leave your desk to auditing the list of people who have access to the server your Web site is hosted on.

Many businesses host their e-commerce solutions in a shared hosting environment that holds the data of not just your customers but the customers of your "neighbor" as well. If you are "sharing a box" with anyone else and doing e-commerce online, take great care to make sure that your data is secure.

You also might want to consider placing your e-commerce solution on a server that only you have access to.


Privacy Policies

A privacy policy is a statement made by a Web site regarding what the company and organization behind the Web site is going to do with content collected and contained at a Web site. Smart shoppers are trained to look for a site privacy policy before they shop online and give away sensitive information that they don't want falling into the wrong hands.

TIP

Privacy policies aren't limited to financial account information. They also should contain data on how the site will handle customer information submitted via email, over the phone, and so on.

More and more "smart shoppers" are looking for a solid privacy policy at a site they visit before they'll give any information or make a purchase online.


The interesting thing about a privacy policy is that it is, just that, a policy. Although the Federal Trade Commission is still working out the specific laws of Internet Commerce, it is still a vastly uncharted territory.

TIP

A great tool to help you develop your Privacy Policies can be found at http://autoweblaw.frontpagelink.com.


Once you have presented a privacy policy at your site, you are obligated to follow it. As a result, make sure to get your policy right the first time. Do your homework on this one. A great resource on privacy policies can be found online at http://privacypolicy.frontpagelink.com.

Privacy Policies for Third-Party Providers

If you are using a third-party provider for any element of your e-commerce process, do you know what their privacy policies are? Have you communicated these issues on your Web site's privacy policies?



Special Edition Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
Special Edition Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
ISBN: 0789729547
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 443

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