| The Past & Future
of E-Commerce |
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| Sometimes simple technologies combine in ways
that create massive innovation and opportunity.
The Web itself is a modern example. Formed as a
simple request/response document delivery mechanism,
the core technologies of the Web -- HTML and HTTP
-- central to a broad computing platform shift.
It's because these technologies were so simple and
accessible that the Web exploded the way it did.
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| In 1994 we saw that this simple technology could
be extended with two other well known, simple technologies
-- scripting and databases. With CFML and a basic
database engine, the Web could be used both as a
publishing medium and as the foundation for interactive
online business. Like the Web itself, technology
platforms such as CF have evolved to meet the new
demands of online businesses. CF 4.0 represents
a mammoth release for Allaire, with major innovations
in rapid development, scalable deployment, open
integration and total security. |
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| But, hidden inside CF 4.0 is another "simplicity
revolution". Evolving from the basic need to
exchange query data between CF servers, the Web
Distributed Data Exchange (WDDX) emerged as a simple
technology that solves enormously complex problems. |
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| WDDX is an XML-based technology that enables the
exchange of complex data between programming languages,
creating "Web syndicate networks". WDDX
consists of a language-independent representation
of data and a set of modules for a wide variety
of languages that use WDDX. (For more technical
details or to download the WDDX SDK, check out http://www.wddx.org/)
WDDX and the different WDDX language platform modules
are all open-source, freeware technologies and don't
require CF. |
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| WDDX improves what you can do with the Web in
three major ways: |
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it can be used as the foundation
for building Web syndicate networks, where
the content and commerce assets of Web sites
are exposed and shared to other sites on the
network; |
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it increases platform interoperability and
legacy migration; |
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it increases the performance and usability
of Web applications. |
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| WDDX can radically change your Web-business model.
Until now, most companies and site developers have
seen their investments in Web systems and Web sites
as primarily being aimed at endusers who access
applications through Web browsers. |
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| Recently, however, all kinds of companies have
begun to realize that their application assets could
be leveraged in more substantial ways by exposing
them as "services" to other applications
on the Web. Based on Metcalfe's Law, which states
that the value of a network increases exponentially
with every node added to the network, these companies
are building Web syndicate networks where applications
serve both endusers AND other Web applications.
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| A good example can be drawn from e-commerce. Any
merchant setting up a commerce site will have backend
shipping and fulfillment requirements. This often
involves a Web application invoking and tracking
a shipment via a provider like FedEx. In the world
of Web syndication, FedEx.com is less an enduser
site and more an automated portal into the FedEx
business computing infrastructure. And, the data
and services that are performed with FedEx can be
done in an automated fashion using any Web application
server or programming language, over HTTP and using
WDDX. |
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| In another example, the owners of a Web site offering
recipes for Italian food lovers might want to offer
additional content and commerce features. Additional
content could include popular books on Italian cooking
from Amazon.com (including all of the books' details,
user reviews, etc.) and even a custom user interface
for purchasing. |
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| All this could be handled under the hood -- with
the recipe site using ASP, and Amazon.com using
CGI and a custom C++ application -- with the recipe
site providing a custom content and commerce experience
that s molded into the user experience. |
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| Web syndicate networks open new business models
based on the networked economy. Without a doubt,
it's the most exciting application of WDDX. |
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| Huge challenges continue to face Web application
builders. By their nature, Web applications often
involve tying together data from multitudes of disparate
systems. They involve integrating with legacy code
and applications, even coexisting with desktop fat-client
applications based on Visual Basic, MS Access or
even Java. WDDX eases this by providing an open,
cross-platform and cross-language model for sharing
data. |
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| Because WDDX is XML-based, moving complex data
between systems can be handled using simple text
strings. And since WDDX is available for use with
Java and COM, your application data can reach systems
built with almost any common desktop programming
tool or OS platform. Often referred to as XML Middleware,
this use of XML allows you to "tunnel"
data between systems, despite differences in implementation
and runtime environments. |
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| WDDX shields you from having to know anything
about XML itself – all transformation and
data exchange happen under the hood, using things
like XML and HTTP as transports for application
data. |
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| The platform interoperability advantages are important
to Web developers forced to work in mixed Web application
environments. With WDDX you can reuse code and data,
preserving your technology investment and supporting
richer development and deployment models. This is
important to customers who are concerned that an
investment in a given platform is closed and can't
be used in the future. WDDX provides a conduit to
your Web applications that can be reused by other
applications. |
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| One limitation of the basic Web architecture is
that with an HTML-based user-interface you're limited
in the richness of interactivity that can be provided
to an enduser in the browser itself -- HTML is a
static user interface. One secondary effect of this
is that simple forms of interactivity require additional
requests to the server, increasing server load and
decreasing the application's performance. |
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| In the past few years, the capabilities of the
browser have increased through the use of JavaScript
and DHTML. The 4.0 level browsers have rich programming
models that can be used to create flexible and interactive
user interfaces. But these have been under leveraged
because of browser incompatibilities, and it's been
difficult -- if not impossible -- to move application
data between Web browsers and application servers.
So despite an increase in the capabilities of Web
clients, even simple data binding has been impossible. |
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| WDDX provides a simple, lightweight cross-browser
solution to increasing usability and performance
in your Web applications. Because JavaScript supports
WDDX, you can easily move data between any server-based
applications and browser-based applications using
JavaScript. In this model, you could have a database
query on the server passed to a JavaScript browser
where it works with the data locally, rendering
it using the Document Object Model and DHTML, then
passing any changed data back to the server when
it's completed. The WDDX SDK includes extensive
examples for using WDDX to enhance DHTML user interfaces
and to create data-binding and offline browser applications.
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1999-
Digital Mesh Softech India (P) Limited, Kochi.