Database access must be efficient. What is Web hosting? Web hosts are Internet service providers who also allow access to: E-commerce software Storage space E-commerce expertise You can choose: Managed hosting: the service provider manages the operation and oversight of all servers Unmanaged hosting: the customer must maintain and oversee all servers.
Benefits Cost effective for small companies or those without in-house technical staff. Can eliminate the need to hire and oversee technical personnel. Make sure that the site is scalable. If you need help in choosing a Web host, contact the Web Host Guild. Formed in , it is a sort of Better Business Bureau of the Internet.
Services provided Access to hardware, software, personnel Domain name, IP address Disk storage Template pages to use for designing the site E-mail service Use of FTP to upload and download information Shopping cart software Multimedia extensions sound, animation, movies Secure credit card processing. Summary ISPs have Web hosting expertise that small or medium-sized companies may not. Creating and maintaining a Web site using an existing network can be difficult.
With the exception of large companies with large Web sites and in-house computer experts, it is almost always cheaper to use outside Web hosting services. B2C e-commerce Requirements: A catalog display Shopping cart capabilities Transaction processing Tools to populate the store catalog and to facilitate storefront display choices Any e-commerce software must be integrated with existing systems: Database Transaction processing software. Catalog display Small storefront fewer than 35 items Simple listing of products No particular organization Example: Quebec maple syrup Larger catalog Store product information in database More sophisticated navigation aids Better product organization Search engine Example: LL Bean.
Shopping carts Early e-commerce shopping used forms-based check out methods. Required writing down product codes, unit prices, etc. A shopping cart: Keeps track of items selected Allows you to view the items in a cart Allows you to change quantities of items Because the Web is stateless, information must be stored for retrieval. Transaction processing Usually performed with a secure connection.
May require the calculation of: Sales tax Shipping costs Volume discounts Tax-free sales Special promotions Time sensitive offers Details about transactions must be tracked for accounting, sales reports.
B2B e-commerce Business-to-business e-commerce requires tools and capabilities different from those required for business- to-customer systems. ERP integrates all facets of a business including planning, sales, and marketing. Levels of packages Three levels of e-commerce packages: Basic : Requires a few hundred dollars in fees and less than an hour to set up.
Typically hosted by an ISP. Can connect with a database server. Requires hardware purchase and some skills. Enterprise-class : For large companies with high traffic and transaction volumes. Hardware and in-house specialists needed. Fundamental services Banner advertising exchanges Full-service mall-style hosting.
Fundamental services Available for businesses selling less than 50 items with a low rate of transactions. These services offer: Space for the store Forms-based shopping The Web host makes money from advertising banners placed on the site. Each business has some control over which banners are placed on its site.
Examples: Bizland. Banner exchange sites Banner exchange sites aid online store promotion. Banner exchange agreements are made between sites that sign up for the service.
The BES organizes the exchanges, enforces banner exchange rules, collects statistics about customers, and rotates ads on the sites. A click through count is the number of visitors that a banner produces at a site. Full-service mall-style hosting Full-service hosting sites provide: High-quality tools Storefront templates An easy-to-use interface Quick Web page creation and maintenance No required banner advertising In exchange these sites may charge: One-time set up fees Monthly fees A percentage of each transaction A fixed amount per each transaction.
Store , BigStep. Midrange packages Distinction from basic e-commerce packages: The merchant has explicit control over Merchandising choices Site layout Internal architecture Remote and local management options Other differences include price, capability, database connectivity, software portability, software customization tools, computer expertise required of the merchant.
Typically has connectivity with complex database systems and stores catalog information. Highly customizable Requires part-time or full-time programming talent. Features Good tools for linking supply and purchasing. Can interact with the inventory system to make the proper adjustments to stock, issue purchase orders, and generate accounting entries.
Web platform choices Hardware, operating system, and application server software must be considered together since each affects the other. Whatever your choice you must ensure that the server hardware is scalable, meaning that it can be upgraded or a new server added as necessary. Other needs, such as a database server, should be handled by separate hardware. Database products have large processing needs. Factors in performance Hardware and operating system choice Speed of connection to the Internet User capacity Throughput : The number of HTTP requests that can be processed in a given time period.
Response time : The amount of time a server requires to process one request. The mix and type of Web pages Static pages Dynamic pages: Shaped in response to users. Benchmarking Benchmarking is testing used to compare the performance of hardware and software. Please, consider contributing. To create and edit a website, you need a text editor. Text editors create and modify unformatted text files.
Other formats, like RTF , let you add formatting, like bold or underline. Those formats are not suitable for writing web pages. You should put some thought into which text editor you use, since you'll be working with it extensively while you're building the website. All desktop operating systems come with a basic text editor.
These editors are all straightforward, but lack special features for webpage coding. If you want something a bit fancier, there are plenty of third-party tools available. Third-party editors often come with extra features, including syntax coloring, auto-completion, collapsible sections, and code search.
Here is a short list of editors:. When your website is ready for public viewing, you'll have to upload your webpages to your web server. You can buy space on a server from various providers see How much does it cost to do something on the web? Once you settle on which provider to use, the provider will email you the access information, usually in the form of an SFTP URL, username, password, and other information needed to connect to their server.
Note: FTP is inherently insecure. You should make sure your hosting provider allows use of a secure connection, e. Uploading files to a web server is a very important step while creating a website, so we cover it in detail in a separate article. For now, here's a short list of free basic S FTP clients:.
As you already know, you need a web browser to view websites. There are dozens of browser options for your personal use, but when you're developing a website you should test it at least with the following major browsers, to make sure your site works for most people:. If you're targeting a specific group e. But testing gets complicated because some browsers only run on certain operating systems.
It's best to take advantage of services like Browsershots or Browserstack. Browsershots furnishes screenshots of your website as it will look in various browsers. Browserstack actually gives you full remote access to virtual machines so you can test your site in the most common environments.
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