Liverpool John Moores University School of Computing Mathematical Sciences E-COMMERCE SYSTEM ANALYSIS, DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT By Chris Nwaigwe Jr 22 April, 2010 1 Abstract: E-Commerce has become a necessity for businesses, especially small businesses looking to maximize profit by using cost effective online marketing strategies. Adequate system analysis and design methods are required to achieve fully functioning user-friendly and re-scalable e-Commerce systems. This study covers the review of current e-commerce system analysis, design and implementation methodologies. The role of e-Commerce in businesses, the legal and security issues involved in developing e-Commerce systems, e-Commerce system architecture, design and development strategies are critically evaluated and the most suitable methods applied in the development of Divine Foods e-Commerce system. Keywords: e-Commerce system, e-Commerce Architecture, Systems Development Life Cycle, Database Design, System Security 2 Acknowledgements In writing this report, I have to thank the management of Divine Foods, especially Mrs. Rachel Davidson, Mr. T Ladipo and Richard Bola. Despite their busy schedule they took the time to comprehensively specify the requirements of the Divine Foods E-commerce system. My gratitude also goes to the other staff/personnel at DFs who also helped by completing the questionnaire with great pace. During the period of project research, I was guided and encouraged by my supervisor, Mike Baskett of Liverpool John Moores University. His guidance and assistance were great factors that facilitated the completion of this report. He always had a clear idea about what to do and gave me extremely helpful suggestions when I was in need of them. I would like to say thanks to all the academic staff that taught and guided me throughout my ICT and Multimedia Computing course at Liverpool John Moores University. I would want to thank my sister, mum, friends and family for supporting me throughout my studies. Chris Nwaigwe April, 2010 3 Table  of  Contents   Chapter 1 Introduction  ...........................................................................................................  8   Subjects to be studied  ..........................................................................................................  8   Background  ......................................................................................................................  8   Target Audience  ..............................................................................................................  9   Problems to be addressed  ...............................................................................................  9   Aims, milestones and initial ideas.  .....................................................................................  9   Initial Ideas  ....................................................................................................................  10   Software and hardware constraints.  ............................................................................  10   An outline plan of action and a time table.  ..................................................................  11   Milestones  .......................................................................................................................  11   Conclusion  ......................................................................................................................  12   Chapter 2: Literature Review  ..............................................................................................  13   Introduction to e-Commerce Systems  ..............................................................................  13   Information and communication technology and business  ............................................  14   EDI  ..................................................................................................................................  15   EFT  ..................................................................................................................................  15   Enterprise  resource  planning  (ERP)  ........................................................................  15   e-­‐Commerce  Systems:  Case  Studies  .................................................................................  18   ASDA  ...............................................................................................................................  18   Tesco  ..............................................................................................................................  19   e-­‐Commerce  Success  and  Failure  .................................................................................  20   Requirements  of  an  e-­‐commerce  system  ....................................................................  20   e-Commerce  Advantages  and  Disavdantages  .............................................................  21   Advantages  ....................................................................................................................  21   Disadvantages  ..............................................................................................................  22   E-­‐Commerce  System  Security  ........................................................................................  23   Risk  Analysis  ................................................................................................................  23   Types  of  e-­‐commerce  system  attack  ........................................................................  23   Securing  E-­‐Commerce  Systems  .....................................................................................  25   Legal  and  Ethical  Issues  involved  in  e-­‐Commerce  .....................................................  26   Electronic  Transactions  .............................................................................................  27   Privacy  &  Security  .......................................................................................................  28   Copyright  &  Trademark  .............................................................................................  29   4 Conforming  to  e-­‐Commerce  Legal  and  Ethical  Issues  ...............................................  29   Contracting  online  .......................................................................................................  29   Advertising  ...................................................................................................................  30   Compliance  with  the  Data  protection  Act  ...............................................................  30   Distance  Selling  Regulations  .....................................................................................  30   E-­‐Commerce  Marketing  Strategies  ...............................................................................  31   Internet  Marketing  ..........................................................................................................  31   Branding  ........................................................................................................................  32   Literature  Review  Conclusion  .......................................................................................  33   Research  methodology  ...................................................................................................  34   Qualitative  Research  ...................................................................................................  34   Quantitative  research  .................................................................................................  35   Chosen  Research  Method  and  Justification  ................................................................  37   Systems  Development  Life  Cycle  ..................................................................................  39   SPIRAL  LIFECYCLE  .......................................................................................................  39   RAPID  APPLICATION  DEVELOPMENT  (RAD)  /  PROTOTYPING  LIFECYCLE  .......  40   V-­‐Shaped  SDLC  .............................................................................................................  41   Chosen  SDLC  Method:  The  Waterfall  Model  ...........................................................  42   Work  breakdown  structure  .......................................................................................  43   System Development Life Cycle flowchart for Divine Foods  ...........................................  46   Chapter  3:  Requirement  Analysis  .....................................................................................  47   Background  on  DFs  .........................................................................................................  47   Review  of  company  current  systems  of  business  operations  .................................  48   Problem  identification  ...................................................................................................  50   Project  specification  and  outline  ..................................................................................  52   Project  objectives  of  E-­‐commerce  On-­‐line  ordering  system  ...............................  52   End-­‐User  Requirements  .................................................................................................  54   Benefits  of  the  Proposed  System  ..................................................................................  57   System  Analysis  and  Design  Methodologies  ...............................................................  58   SSADM  ............................................................................................................................  58   Data  Flow  Diagrams  ............................................................................................................  60   Chapter  4:  Design  ................................................................................................................  62   System  Functional  Requirements  ................................................................................  62   System  Technical  Specification  .....................................................................................  63   5 Database  Design  Models  ................................................................................................  66   Object  Oriented  Databases.  .......................................................................................  66   Relational  DBMS  (RDBMS)  .........................................................................................  67   Object-­‐Relational  DBMS  (ORDBMS)  .........................................................................  69   The  differences  between  the  three  Database  Design  approaches  .....................  70   Justification  of  Selected  Database  Model  ................................................................  72   Justification  of  Chosen  Implementation  tools  ...........................................................  73   PHP  vs  ASP.NET  ............................................................................................................  73   MySQL  vs  Microsoft  SQL  server,  Oracle,  Access  and  DB2  .....................................  74   Platform comparison  .........................................................................................................  74   FrontPage  Vs  Dreamweaver  ......................................................................................  75   AJAX  ................................................................................................................................  76   Justification of Use  ............................................................................................................  77   Data  Modelling  .................................................................................................................  78   Entities  and  Attributes  ...............................................................................................  78   Normalisation  ..................................................................................................................  79   The Normal Forms  ........................................................................................................  79   First Normal Form (1NF)  .............................................................................................  79   Second Normal Form (2NF)  .........................................................................................  79   Third Normal Form (3NF)  ...........................................................................................  80   Fourth Normal Form (4NF)  .........................................................................................  80   Applying  Normalisation  to  DFs  e-­‐Commerce  system  ............................................  80   Entity  Relationship  Diagrams  .......................................................................................  82   Entity  Types  ..................................................................................................................  83   UML  Diagrams  ..................................................................................................................  85   UML  Class  Diagram  ......................................................................................................  85   UML:  Use  Case  Diagram  ..................................................................................................  86   UML  Activity  Diagrams  ...............................................................................................  88   Database  Data  Definition  ...........................................................................................  89   Website  Design  ................................................................................................................  94   Page  Layout  ...................................................................................................................  94   Web  Design  Issues  .......................................................................................................  95   Flow  Chart  Diagrams  ...................................................................................................  97   Web  Story  Board  ..........................................................................................................  97   6 Chapter  5:  Implementation  .............................................................................................  102   Creating  the  Database  ...................................................................................................  102   Website  Design  ..............................................................................................................  103   Web  Design  in  Photoshop  ........................................................................................  103   Slicing  in  Adobe  Fireworks  ......................................................................................  106   Coding  in  Dreamweaver  ...........................................................................................  107   The  Final  Web  Page  Preview  in  Browser  ..............................................................  110   Chapter  6:  Evaluation  and  Testing  .................................................................................  114   Further  Work  .................................................................................................................  116   Chapter  5:  References  &  Bibliography  ..........................................................................  117   References  ......................................................................................................................  117   Bibliography  ...................................................................................................................  121   Useful  Websites  ..........................................................................................................  122   Chapter  7:  Appendix  .........................................................................................................  124   The Login Page 2  .............................................................................................................  143   Appendix  D  .....................................................................................................................  168   DFs  user questionnaire/survey questions  ......................................................................  168   Appendix  E  ......................................................................................................................  171   Log  Book  ......................................................................................................................  171     7 Chapter 1 Introduction Subjects to be studied e-Commerce System Analysis, Design and Implementation This study covers the analysis, design and implementation of an e-Commerce system using common web practices, system analysis and design methodologies. The main subject areas of interest are database design and web development; these subject areas encapsulate the different database development strategies, web 2.0 development methods and standards, e-Commerce systems architecture, design and implementation as well as other subject areas studied during the school academic year which are relevant to this project. Background The aim of this project is to develop an e-Commerce system which will enable sales and marketing of products and services online. This system must be reliable, secure, re-scalable, and user friendly. The stakeholder of the proposed e-Commerce system: Divine Foods (herein known as DFs) is a local, family run food manufacturing company based in South East London. Established in 2004, its main purpose is the production, sales and distribution of traditional African food products. The company is primarily controlled by Ms Rachel Davidson, she is supported by two of her daughters and six fulltime employees; they operate from a small corner shop, handling over 50 orders every week. The company has grown reasonably since its conception four years ago and is still growing exponentially with customers now scattered across the UK. This local company now operates both on a Business-to- Business (B2B) and Business-to-Customer (B2C) basis where other businesses can make wholesale purchases and private customers can place individual orders. There are currently twelve fulltime and several part-time employees. There are about 7 major product lines and 67 products offered by DFs, they have several suppliers in Africa, Europe and North America that provide the raw resources needed to manufacture their products. DFs have over 700 customers around UK, carrying out an average of 50 in-store transactions and 7 telephone orders daily. 8 Target Audience This system is aimed at the current and potential customers of DFs. Current customers will be advised and encouraged to use the online ordering system, while online marketing strategies will be utilised for the acquisition new users and retention of existing users of the system. The website is intended for users around the UK, though users from other countries can register and access the website, orders can only be accepted by management once they are certain products can be delivered without violating any international trade laws. Problems to be addressed DFs is growing continuously, with more customers, products and orders. All records are currently held on a manual filing system; as a result of this expansion this system of operation is becoming ineffective. Data retrieval is difficult, sometimes impossible Customers are usually left waiting for orders due to delays in order processing and payment arrangements; the consequence being decreased income from sales revenue. There is a lack of competitive edge as major competitors have already taken advantage of the online environment, using some sort of e-Business and/or ordering systems. Since DFs operate a traditional “brick and mortar” business, they are limited to certain geographical areas of the UK. This system of operation makes targeting a larger geographical area and competition with major rivals almost impossible. This growth has brought on many problems as the workload on the owner and employees has increased tremendously in the last year. In some cases, customers are left waiting for their orders due to delays and/or errors stemming from manual data entry and paper based filing system. In other cases orders have had to be declined as the company cannot guarantee they can meet these orders; due to shortage in staff and the costs of hiring more staff. Aims, milestones and initial ideas. Given the problems faced by DFs the aim of this project is to develop an e-Commerce system that will automate several processes and provide around-the-clock availability of products and services to customers; enabling customers to place orders online, providing efficient communication channels as well as marketing and advertising techniques (e.g. Emails, newsletters, banner ads etc). This system will store detailed 9 information of products, customers and orders and also offer more flexible and easier methods of payment. The website will provide a form of interaction with users; i.e i. By incorporating a recipe blog into the website where users can post or view recipe posts by other users ii. By integrating with social networking websites such as facebook or twitter Initial Ideas The e-Commerce system can be built using either one of the following database management systems; Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Oracle 11g, IBM DB2 MYSQL along with either of the following web scripting languages: PHP, ASP.NET, HTML, PEARL. Whichever one of these methods is used, the website will incorporate a very unique and professional design that makes it distinct from that of DFs’ competitors. The system will offer both the customers and DFs more convenient alternative payment options other than cash on delivery method. The system will create advertising avenues by; i. creating a mailing list (with user permission), which will email monthly offers to registered users ii. Using clear headers to optimize search engine indexing Software and hardware constraints. No specialist hardware or software system will be required in the implementation of this project. Readily available Database Management programs such as Microsoft Access and/or SQL Server, MYSQL etc will be used; Web developments programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, PHP, and ASP.NET may also be used for implementation. The database and website will be developed on a local network using the Apache server, and then a username and password will be required 10