Electronic Commerce

Electronic Commerce applications require easily implemented architectures that should satisfy the following design requirements:

• Data conversion and mapping - When sharing data between applications, the data must either be in the same format, or a mechanism for translating it from one format to another must be provided. Although there are strong trends toward the use of standards-based formats, an EDI message has to go through a lengthy, time-consuming development process before it can become a standard.  Therefore, using some industry standards in proprietary formats, or Internet standards, such as SGML/XML, is unavoidable at the present time. The Redix AnyToAny XML Format Converter Engine is an ideal data conversion and mapping component, which provides data format independence to any application.
   
• Data Security - Sending business data and objects across the Internet means exposing them to a number of threats, notably: 
  
  Unauthorized disclosure of message/data content
  Intentional insertion of message/data
  Duplication, loss or replay of message/data
  Modification of message/data content
  Deletion of message/data
  Repudiation of message/data responsibility by its sender or its receiver
   

• Data Auditing - Auditing applications deliver information about customers, orders, and business processes to a variety of platforms and people within the company. Despite a variety of back-end technologies and data stores, these applications retrieve this information, regardless of the location of the base system or the person requesting the information.

• Integration with existing systems - Unless the data is fully integrated into existing application systems, an enterprise will not gain the expected benefits from an Electronic Commerce system. Therefore, providing a framework for integrating data with the Electronic Commerce architecture is essential.

• General design   User services, business services, and data services must be separated.  In other words, three-tier model using a component-based approach is crucial to the Electronic Commerce  design.

Using a Pipeline Architecture

The Commerce Interchange Pipeline (CIP) is an implementation of the Microsoft® Commerce Server version 3.0 pipeline architecture. Each pipeline is essentially a framework that executes processes in sequence. The framework consists of stages, where each stage is an abstraction that describes generally the kind of work performed by one or more components associated with a stage.

Each stage consists of one or more pipeline components. A component is a Component Object Model (COM) in-process server that performs some operation on the business object. For example, the CIP Encryption stage may contain the EncryptPCKS component, which is designed to encrypt a business data object.

A CIP configuration file is created in the same way that a Commerce Server order processing pipeline (OPP) configuration file is created: using the Pipeline Editor or the ASP-based pipeline editor.

The configuration of a particular pipeline is saved in a pipeline configuration (.pcf) file. The pipeline configuration contains the following component types:

• Data Conversion Components. Converts the contents of a business data object to a transmissible format, or converts received data to the object in which it was originally stored. Both EDI and XML should be supported.
• Add/Open Header. Adds/removes elements to and from the Transport Dictionary including sender and receiver addresses and receipt requests.
• Digital Signature component. Determines the type of digital signature used (if any) to digitally sign a business data object, or to verify its signature.
• Encryption/Decryption component. Determines how to encrypt or decrypt the contents of the business data object, using certificates.
• Audit Components. Writes various pieces of the business data object to the audit database.
• Transport connector. Designed and configured to transmit or receive a business data object.
• Application Integration. Invokes an application to process the received business data object.

The following diagram illustrates — at a high level — the architecture of a business to business Electronic Commerce application using CIP pipelines.

Consultation

As pioneers in the Electronic Commerce business, Redix International Inc. staff have extensive experience in the development of customized Electronic Commerce systems using Microsoft pipeline technology. Redix can work with you to determine exactly what tasks need to be accomplished, provide a detailed technical solution containing a list of the types and amounts of resources required to complete these tasks, as well as timelines for each task. Redix can then pull together the required resources from within Redix, your organization or other external sources, assign tasks, update timelines and assure that all sub-tasks are completed to provide a quality Electronic Commerce systems on schedule. Contact Redix if you need more information.