Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer Contents Overview Mechanics of Web-Based Purchasing Using COM+ in E-Commerce 11 Using Commerce Server 2000 17 Lab 6: Creating Pipeline Objects for the OPP 30 Review 37 Information in this document is subject to change without notice The names of companies, products, people, characters, and/or data mentioned herein are fictitious and are in no way intended to represent any real individual, company, product, or event, unless otherwise noted Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation If, however, your only means of access is electronic, permission to print one copy is hereby granted Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property  2001 Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved Microsoft, Active Directory, ActiveX, BizTalk Server, FoxPro, FrontPage, Hotmail, Jscript, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio, Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, Visual Studio, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S.A and/or other countries Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer iii Instructor Notes Presentation: 55 Minutes Lab: 30 Minutes This module provides students with an overview of the transactional and security issues that are encountered on the business logic layer of an e-business Web site The module then discusses the Microsoft® NET technologies that minimize these issues After completing this module, students will be able to:
Identify the requirements of Web-based purchasing
Explain the mechanisms that can be used for credit card purchases
Identify the security issues related to conducting business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce
Explain the features of COM+
Describe how asynchronous processing can benefit B2C e-commerce
Describe the solutions available from Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 that address the security and transactional issues on the business logic layer Materials and Preparation This section provides the materials and preparation tasks that you need to teach this module Required Materials To teach this module, you need the following materials:
Microsoft PowerPoint® file 2260A_6.ppt
Module 6, “Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer”
Lab 6, “Creating Pipeline Objects for the OPP” Preparation Tasks To prepare for this module, you should:
Read all of the materials for this module
Complete the lab
Practice adding and removing objects from the plan pipeline for the demonstration iv Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer Module Strategy Use the following strategy to present this module:
Mechanics of Web-Based Purchasing Enumerate the key pieces of information that must be gathered to enable a successful transaction Do not talk about issues on state management in this section because they have already been discussed in Module 5, “Managing the Business Logic Layer,” in Course 2260A, Designing E-Business Applications with Microsoft NET Enterprise Servers Also, discuss the legal and tax issues involved in Web-based purchasing
Using COM+ in E-Commerce After determining what information to gather and the rules by which it will be manipulated, the developer plans how to implement business logic on the site In this context, introduce the concept of COM+ Describe the advantages of encapsulation and transaction processing, and describe the asynchronous communication mechanisms that COM+ offers Do not cover the role of COM+ in business-to-business (B2B) transactions because that topic is covered in Module 7, “Integrating with External Systems,” in Course 2260A, Designing E-Business Applications with Microsoft NET Enterprise Servers
Using Commerce Server 2000 Commerce Server 2000 includes many features that enable it to implement business logic in an e-commerce Web site In this section, examine those features, such as the Order Processing Pipeline (OPP) Be aware that the B2B element that was found in Microsoft Commerce Server 3.0 is now part of Microsoft BizTalk Server™ 2000 and is discussed in Module 8, “Exchanging Business Data,” in Course 2260A, Designing E-Business Applications with Microsoft NET Enterprise Servers This section includes a demonstration of modifying an OPP by using the Pipeline Editor
Lab 6: Creating Pipeline Objects for the OPP In this lab, students will create a pipeline object to insert into the OPP The pipeline object will determine the handling cost associated with a transaction at the Commerce Server 2000 Retail Solution Site Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer Overview Topic Objective To provide an overview of the module topics and objectives Lead-in In this module, you will learn how to plan an e-commerce transaction processing architecture that will overcome some problems of Web-based purchasing at the business logic layer
Mechanics of Web-Based Purchasing
Using COM+ in E-Commerce
Using Commerce Server 2000 *****************************ILLEGAL FOR NON-TRAINER USE***************************** After the customers that use an e-business site have chosen the goods or services that they wish to buy, the next step is to complete the purchase This process has several security and transactional issues associated with it This module describes such issues and discusses how they can be addressed After completing this module, you will be able to:
Identify the requirements of Web-based purchasing
Explain the mechanisms that can be used for credit card purchases
Identify the security issues related to conducting business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce
Explain the features of COM+
Describe how asynchronous processing can benefit B2C e-commerce
Describe the solutions from Microsoft® Commerce Server 2000 that address the security and transactional issues on the business logic layer Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer
Mechanics of Web-Based Purchasing Topic Objective To introduce the requirements for enabling Web-based purchasing Lead-in In this section, you will examine some of the processes that enable the purchase of goods at an e-commerce site
Gathering User and Order Information
Handling Legal and Tax Issues
Selecting Payment Options
Securing the Payment for Orders *****************************ILLEGAL FOR NON-TRAINER USE***************************** Implementing Web-based purchasing solutions involves more than simply presenting goods to the customer and accepting payment It includes issues such as presenting payment options and gathering user information along with tax and legal issues This section examines some of the processes that facilitate the purchase of goods at an e-commerce Web site Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer Gathering User and Order Information Topic Objective To list the information that is gathered before a customer’s purchase Lead-in Before a successful purchase, the e-commerce application must gather relevant information Let’s look at that information and the methods that the developer can use to collect it
Before a purchase, gather information about the list of products, billing address, shipping address, and payment details
To gather information:

Present a series of forms to the user
Store information about the current purchase in a session-based location
Store customer information, such as billing address, on a long-term basis Before calculating the total price, take into consideration product- and customer-specific discounts, promotions, and shipping and tax charges *****************************ILLEGAL FOR NON-TRAINER USE***************************** The purchasing process on an e-commerce site has several stages For example, the site needs to track the products that shoppers have put into their carts before they proceed to the checkout routine It is critical that you make the checkout process as clear and intuitive as possible If the checkout process is not user-friendly, the business can lose many customers Gathering Information Before the customer can make a purchase, the e-commerce application must gather certain information, including:
A list of the products that the customer wishes to purchase
A billing address
A shipping address
Payment details If some of this information is already stored for a particular user, as might be the case in a membership-based site, the site must retrieve it for the user, rather than requiring the user to re-type the information To gather the information, you must:
Present a series of forms to the user To ease the input and validation of information, you can implement Microsoft ASP.NET Web forms These are easy to implement and provide fast feedback to the client about incorrect entries without requiring a roundtrip to the server Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer
Store information about the current purchase in a session-based location This session-based location would typically be an ASP.NET Session object; however, when using Commerce Server 2000, the session-based location is the OrderForm object The OrderForm object is discussed later in this module
Store customer information, such as billing address, on a long-term basis Although this is not strictly necessary, it will improve the perceived ease of use of your e-commerce site You might typically store this information in a back-end database or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory Preparing for the Purchase Before the application can calculate the total price for the selected goods, certain factors must be considered, such as:
Discounts or promotions on individual products
Customer-specific discounts
Total number of items of each product purchased
Discounts based on multiple products purchased together
Shipping costs
Tax due on the products The application must also check whether the goods a customer wants to order are currently in stock This will affect whether the purchase takes place and whether the purchase takes place immediately or at a later time when the supplier can supply the goods Each of these purchasing calculations forms part of the business logic of the application The preferred method for incorporating business logic into a Microsoft NET application is encapsulating it in COM+ components The advantages of this approach are discussed later in this module Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer Handling Legal and Tax Issues Topic Objective To introduce the legal and tax frameworks with which e-commerce sites must comply
Lead-in Non-technical issues have a significant impact on the design of an e-commerce site As a developer, you need to be aware of these issues so that you can design a solution that is flexible enough to cope with changing rules and regulations
Legal Issues
Terms and conditions
Liability
Privacy and data protection Taxation
Tax rates and requirements can vary - Between nations and states - Depending on the type of product purchased *****************************ILLEGAL FOR NON-TRAINER USE***************************** Generally, the same rules that apply to any other form of commerce also govern e-commerce; however, you must give particular consideration to international or cross-state trade Legal Issues Before an e-commerce site begins trading, various legal issues must be considered, including:
What are the terms and conditions of sale? Will they be valid in all of the locations to which you plan to export? How does a customer return a product?
Is there any liability involved with the sale? If so, what sort of disclaimers you need to display?
Can you export the product to the user's location? For example, you must be aware of export restrictions on encryption products outside the United States of America if you create an application for a vendor of such products
If the site is collecting personal details, does it comply with relevant data protection acts? Does it ensure that the privacy of children under 13 is preserved in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)? These are just a few of the legal issues that e-commerce site developers must deal with Vendors are strongly recommended to seek professional legal advice before setting up their sites National and international law relating to e-commerce changes rapidly, so it must be a regular part of site reviews to make sure the site remains in compliance Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer Taxation Just as different states and nations have their own laws, their taxation systems and requirements can also vary greatly These issues pertain to the responsibilities of both vendors and consumers, including the responsibility to ensure that the correct taxes are paid Taxation rates and requirements can also vary depending on the type of product being purchased A list of the current status of Web-related taxation information for U.S states is maintained by Vertex Inc at http://www.vertexinc.com The part of the ordering process that calculates taxes must be able to handle these variations The use of substitutable Component Object Model (COM) components can help to adapt the sales process appropriately ... of transaction- processing application programming interfaces (APIs) in order to support transactions 14 Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer Components have their transaction. .. roundtrip to the server 4 Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer
Store information about the current purchase in a session-based location This session-based location would... Sub OnTransactionAbort() Response.Write "Update failed" End Sub %> Module 6: Transaction Processing on the Business Logic Layer 15 Making the Purchase Asynchronous Topic Objective To describe the