University of Cape TownHonours Project Proposal

Table of contents1 Project Description.....................................................................................................3

1.1 CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS)..........................................................................31.2 THE E-COMMERCE WEBSITE/PORTAL...............................................................................31.3 PRODCUT, MERCHANT AND CUSTOMER DATABASE...........................................................31.4 ONLINE TRANSACTION SECURITY SYSTEM........................................................................41.5 DATA SECURITY SYSTEM.................................................................................................41.6 SYSTEM OVERVIEW.........................................................................................................41.7 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT..................................................................................................5

2 Related Work............................................................................................................52.1 Thesis: Architecture to Support Electronic Commerce for Small Businesses in

Developing Countries....................................................................................................52.2 Paper: Next Generation Web Technologies in Content Management...........................52.3 Paper: Content for One: Developing a Personal Content Management System...........52.4 Paper: Developing of an Electronic Commerce Portal System using a Specific

Software Development Process....................................................................................63 Outcomes.................................................................................................................6

3.1 SYSTEM.......................................................................................................................... 63.1.1 Software........................................................................................................................ 63.1.2 KEY FEATURES................................................................................................................63.1.3 MAJOR DESIGN CHALLENGES...........................................................................................7

3.2 QUESTIONS TACKLED.......................................................................................................73.2.1 What is being investigated?...........................................................................................73.2.2 WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?....................................................................................................73.2.3 WHAT METHODS ARE YOU GOING TO USE?........................................................................9

3.3 EXPECTED IMPACT OF THE PROJECT................................................................................83.4 Key Success Factors.....................................................................................................8

4 Work detail................................................................................................................84.1 RISKS............................................................................................................................. 84.2 TIMELINE......................................................................................................................... 84.3 RESOURCES REQUIRED...................................................................................................94.4 DELIVERABLES................................................................................................................. 94.5 MILESTONES................................................................................................................... 94.6 WORK ALLOCATION TO TEAM MEMBERS............................................................................9

5 References..............................................................................................................106 Appendix.................................................................................................................11

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1 Project Description

Tiro Sethate, a Botswana National who is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at UCT is currently investigating the problems associated with E-Commerce in developing countries. One of the requirements is an E-Commerce portal which will allow formal and informal merchants in developing countries to advertise and sell their goods on the internet. This would permit rural communities to make their wares available to the rest of the world via the World Wide Web.

The objective of this project is to create an e-commerce web portal with a content management system which would allow product information to be updated securely using a mobile device. The web portal will have an online interface in the form of an e-commerce website that will allow users to buy goods from the merchants in Botswana.

This project will be divided into 5 separate components:

1. The content management system (CMS)

2. The e-commerce website/portal

3. The product, merchant and customer database

4. The online transaction security system

5. The data security system

1.1 Content Management System (CMS)

The CMS will be responsible for managing the product, merchant and

customer database (MySQL). The CMS will process merchants’ SMS/MMS requests to update, add or remove products from the website. The CMS will also handle any changes that must be made to the database as a result of transactions on the e-commerce website. This information would be processed and the database would be updated accordingly using SQL queries.

1.2 The E-Commerce Website/Portal

The e-commerce website/portal will provide Botswana’s merchants with a medium through which they will be able to sell their merchandise. It will provide online shoppers with an interface through which they will be able to purchase merchandise from formal and informal merchants in Botswana. This e-commerce website component will be written in PHP, which is a very popular and versatile e-commerce programming language. The website will provide shoppers with information about the various products that are for sale. The information will include prices, product descriptions, stock availability as well as photographs of the products.

1.3 Product, Merchant and Customer Database

The product, merchant and customer database will store all information about the products that will be sold on the e-commerce portal (prices, product descriptions, photos of products). It will also store merchant information (names, banking details,

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contact details) as well as customer details (credit card information, shipping address). This database will use the MySQL architecture and will be manipulated using SQL queries via the content management system.

1.4 Online Transaction Security System

The online transaction security system will provide a safe and secure method for online shoppers to make credit card purchases on the e-commerce website. When a credit purchase is made using the website, the credit card information will be encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and transmitted to the bank for processing. This security system will also provide access control for website visitors, which will allow only registered users to make purchases. The registered customers’ account

information will be stored in the customer information database mentioned earlier.

1.5 Data Security System

The data security system will allow data to be securely transmitted between the various components of the e-commerce portal. This includes transmission of product, merchant and customer information from the content management system to the website, and also the transmission of data from the website to the content management system.

1.6 System Overview

Figure 1 shows how the final e-commerce portal architecture will function and the parties that will be involved in its use.

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Figure 1: Overview of the e-commerce portal architecture

Figure 1 depicts two scenarios that show how the system will typically be used. The first shows the process of a merchant updating his product information via SMS. The second scenario depicts an online shopper making a purchase via the e-commerce website.

1.7 Scope of the Project

There are two main limitations to the scope of this project:

The e-commerce online portal will not handle shipping or tracking of ordered products.

The implementation of this project will be limited to Botswana.

2 Related Work

This project forms part of an on going PhD thesis “Architecture to Support Electronic Commerce for Small Businesses in Developing Countries” by Tiro Sethate. A number of ideas and concepts mentioned in his work will be used in the development of the e-commerce portal.

2.1 Thesis: Architecture to Support Electronic Commerce for Small Businesses in Developing Countries

Tiro Sethate’s research investigates the different computer application architectures and explores the appropriate architecture that will enable small business enterprises to conduct electronic commerce [1]. He

uses Botswana as a case study for his research.

Keywords: Electronic commerce, developing countries, mobile commerce, business model, Architecture

We also looked at a number of papers discussing general designs and implementations of content management systems.

2.2 Paper: Next Generation Web Technologies in Content Management

In this paper, the authors present a proposal for an efficient and flexible content management system called Infoflex [2]. It is designed for management of distributed content using the latest web technologies such as web services and semantic web facilities.

Keywords: Content management, web services, semantic web

2.3 Paper: Content for One: Developing a Personal Content Management System

This was an especially interesting paper as it discusses the creation and use of an easy-to-use personal Content Management System, or CMS. He also compares a range of open-source packaged systems and some made using PHP and MySQL [3]. This is very close to the type of system we would like to develop.

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Keywords: Content Management Systems, calendars, documentation, scripting.

2.4 Paper: Developing of an Electronic Commerce Portal System using a Specific Software Development Process

In this paper, the authors discuss how the development process of electronic commerce portal systems differs significantly from normal software development. This is because in the case of highly-interactive e-commerce systems, the ergonomics, didactics and psychology are especially important and thus conventional software development processes must be adapted to accommodate for these needs. [4]

The design principles and development models mentioned in this paper will be very useful in designing the e-commerce website’s user interface.

Keywords: Electronic commerce, software development process, application integration, component based development, distributed architecture design.

3 Outcomes

3.1 System

The primary outcome of this project will be the e-commerce web portal

and the content management system. The languages that will be used to program the system as well as the features that the system will contain are explained in detail in this section.

We also mention design challenges that we will face while designing the e-commerce portal.

3.1.1 Software

The content management system and the data security system for the e-commerce portal will be developed in Java. This language was chosen because it is platform-independent and because it supports a number of easy-to-use socket and database libraries that will prove useful for this project.

The e-commerce website will coded in PHP as it provides excellent connectivity to databases and is a very versatile language.

In order to build the product, merchant and customer database, we will use MySQL Server with the MySQL Database Manager package.

3.1.2 Key Features

The e-commerce portal will have the following key features:

An online shop that will allow online shoppers to buy wares from Botswana’s formal and informal merchants.

A search engine on the website to allow customers to find specific types of merchandise.

A secure online transaction system that will allow shoppers

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to purchase goods safely using their credit cards.

A database of merchandise with photos, product descriptions and stock information. This database will also contain all relevant merchant and customer information.

A content management system that will process SMS and MMS commands sent by merchants. These commands will be processed and the necessary updates will be made to the database.

A data security system that will ensure that all data that is transmitted between the various system-components is secure.

3.1.3 Major Design Challenges

One of the challenges that we face is designing for developing countries. Since this project is directed towards Botswana, a developing country, one realizes that the users are not as computer literate as we are. They do not understand how computers work and will have difficulties in operating a computer or even a cellular phone. This is a problem since they are the end users of the project.

This would also be a problem when designing the content management system since the people responsible for updating the web portal would have a minimal computer education background. Thus, the content management system would be designed in a way such that it would require minimal human intervention.

There is also a challenge in obtaining input from the user. As mentioned the user would use the SMS/MMS format to send information to the content management system. A command list scheme will be used to make changes to the products, this means that we will have to make a list of commands that will be intuitive and easy to remember.

The database will hold the banking information of the buyer and the seller. This means that security would be an issue since data must not be sent to unintended recipients or accessed by unauthorized users.

3.2 Questions Tackled

3.2.1 What is being investigated?

We are investigating whether e-commerce architecture can be developed for small businesses in developing countries such as Botswana. We are also investigating whether the portal can be updated using a mobile phone via a content management system.

3.2.2 Why is it important?

This investigation will give Botswana and other developing countries new opportunities. It will allow sellers of goods in these countries to expose their goods to the international community and to begin export their products to other countries. It will also give small businesses in developing countries access to a global market. This will be an important step forward in developing 3rd world countries IT infrastructure and strengthening their economies through increased trade.

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3.2.3 What methods are you going to use?

The e-commerce portal will be developed at UCT and implemented on one of the university machines for testing purposes. The system will then be thoroughly tested to ensure that it works correctly. Once the testing of the whole system is complete, we may be able to pilot it in Botswana to get an idea of how the public will receive and use such a new service.

3.3 Expected Impact of the Project

The system that we will develop during this project could be used as a generic architecture or template for other e-commerce portals that will be developed for developing countries. This system will give developing countries a window of opportunity to display their products to the world, instead of only their neighboring cities or countries. E-commerce would grow and be more prevalent in Botswana and later in other developing countries. This, in turn, would help grow the economies of these nations and help bridge the gap between developing countries and the first world.

3.4 Key Success Factors

The key success factors of this project lie in whether the final e-commerce portal functions as planned and whether it will be accepted and used by the merchants in Botswana.

4 Work detail

4.1 RISKS

Some of the risks that we must account for while the project is under way are:

The hard drive containing the project code and documentation crashes (Can be mitigated by keeping multiple backups of all code and documentation)

One of the team members falls ill and cannot work (Can be mitigated by constantly informing each other of what the other is doing, so he may take over the other’s work until the ill team member has recovered).

In order to minimize risks and the delays in project development that they may cause, the project team will meet regularly and discuss any issues that may arise. This will allow us to plan ahead and mitigate risks before they occur.

4.2 TIMELINE

The project is expected to run for approximately six months. This includes the development of all the e-commerce portal components, writing up of the report as well as the completion of the posters and the project website. Please see the appendix for a detailed Gantt chart of the project.

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4.3 RESOURCES REQUIRED

For this project we will require:

Two personal computers for coding the e-commerce portal components.

A server system on which we will set up the e-commerce portal. This will be used for testing purposes and for the demonstrations.

A mobile phone to test SMS/MMS commands that the e-commerce portal will use.

4.4 Deliverables

The following table shows all the deliverables for this project:

Table 1: Deliverables for the project

4.5 Milestones

The major milestones for the project will be:

Completion of the designs and planning for the e-commerce portal.

Completion of the content management system and data security components.

Completion of the e-commerce website and online transaction security components.

Completion of the product, merchant and customer database.

Successful integration and testing of all the system’s components.

Demonstration of the final e-commerce portal.

Final project presentation and the end of the project.

4.6 Work allocation to team members

The project workload will be divided between the two team members as follows:

Konstantin Masalov Development of the E-

Commerce website Development of the product,

merchant and customer database

Development of the online transaction security system

Creation of the project website

Shiraaz Moollatjie Development of the Content

Management System Development of the data

security system Creation of the project poster

The rest of the work, such as testing and integration of the system components will be done by both team members.

Deliverable Due dateFinal project proposal (this document) 4 May ‘07Project presentation 11 May ‘07Definition and Background chapters 25 May ‘07Design chapter 30 July ‘07Prototype of system for demonstration 2 August ‘07User evaluation of system 24 September ‘07Implementation and testing chapters 1 October ‘07Outline of complete reportDraft of project report 15 October ‘07Final project report 19 October ‘07Poster 23 October ‘07Project web page 24 October ‘07Final system for demonstration 25 October ‘07Final project presentation 15 November ‘07

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5 References

[1] Sethate, T. 2007. Architecture to Support Electronic Commerce for Small Businesses in Developing Countries. Ongoing PhD thesis

[2] Fernández-Garcia, N., Sánchez-Fernandez, L., and Villamor-Lugo, J. 2004. Next generation web technologies in content management. In Proceedings of the 13th international World Wide Web Conference on Alternate Track Papers &Amp; Posters (New York, NY, USA, May 19 - 21, 2004). WWW Alt. '04. ACM Press, New York, NY, 260-261. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1013367.1013425

[3] Simpson, D. L. 2005. Content for one: developing a personal content management system. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM SIGUCCS Conference on User Services (Monterey, CA, USA, November 06 - 09, 2005). SIGUCCS '05. ACM Press, New York, NY, 338-342. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1099435.1099512

[4] Gruhn, V., Mocker, M., Schope, L. 2006. Development of an Electronic Commerce Portal System using a Specific Software Development Process. In Proceedings of the Fortieth International Conference on Tools Pacific: Objects for internet, mobile and embedded applications (Sydney, Australia).

ACM. DOI= http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&id=564106

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6 Appendix

Gantt chart showing the timeline of the project

ID Task Name Duration Start Finish

1 Planning 15 days Mon 07/07/02 Thu 07/07/192 Requirements analysis 6 days Mon 07/07/02 Mon 07/07/09

3 Designing content management system 9 days Tue 07/07/10 Thu 07/07/19

4 Designing website and database 9 days Tue 07/07/10 Thu 07/07/19

5 Dev eloping content management system 31 days Fri 07/07/20 Thu 07/08/306 Bui lding back-end software 25 days Fri 07/07/20 Thu 07/08/23

7 Setting up data security 11 days Mon 07/08/13 Sun 07/08/26

8 Testing content management system 15 days Mon 07/08/13 Thu 07/08/30

9 Dev eloping w ebsite and database system 36 days Fri 07/07/20 Thu 07/09/0610 Setting up MySQL database 9 days Fri 07/07/20 Wed 07/08/01

11 Coding PHP pages 25 days Mon 07/07/23 Fri 07/08/24

12 Refining website interface 21 days Mon 07/08/06 Fri 07/08/31

13 Setting up onli ne transaction security 11 days Tue 07/08/21 Mon 07/09/03

14 Testing website 15 days Mon 07/08/20 Thu 07/09/06

15 Demoing prototype of system 1 day Thu 07/08/02 Thu 07/08/02

16 Integrating w ebsite and CMS 11 days Fri 07/09/07 Fri 07/09/2117 Linking websi te to content management system 8 days Fri 07/09/07 Tue 07/09/18

18 Testing integrated system 8 days Wed 07/09/12 Fri 07/09/21

19 Implementing e-commerce portal 26 days Mon 07/09/24 Thu 07/10/2520 Setting up final e-commerce portal 5 days Mon 07/09/24 Fri 07/09/28

21 Demonstrating system 1 day Thu 07/10/25 Thu 07/10/25

22 Preparing final deliv erables 20 days Tue 07/09/25 Thu 07/10/1823 Prepari ng final report 16 days Tue 07/09/25 Sun 07/10/14

24 Designing poster 10 days Mon 07/10/08 Thu 07/10/18

25 Designing project website 10 days Mon 07/10/08 Thu 07/10/18

'07 Jul '07 Aug '07 Sep '07 Oct '07 Nov '07 Dec