Develop/Acquire Technical Functionality for Your Site
Once
you feel you have a overall look & feel that fits your site map and
navigation scheme, you need to design or acquire the functionality
needed to make it work. What are some of your choices?
- Form
fields - ways site visitors can enter information on your site.
Examples: buttons, drop-down menus, input boxes, check boxes, on-off
"radio" buttons.
- Gateway programs - software
that allows data entered by a site visitor to go to your server and be
processed by the applications designed into your site. Examples: Cold
Fusion, Visual Studio.
- Database programs -
programs that store information for retrieval when you want it, like an
online registration feature. Examples: MSAccess, FoxPro, Oracle, Sybase.
- Secure
server technology, digital authentication, encryption, merchant
software, and electronic software - secure server technology that makes
it possible to securely transmit data over the Internet.
- Cookies
- files that your site causes to be stored on your customer's site so
that it will recall information from a previous session - like a
password or a reference number. Cookies allow you to customize your
site to fit the stated preferences of your customers.
Identify 3 - 5 functionality features that you will have on your eBusiness site.
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For
small businesses, much of this functionality can be leased from vendors
set up to handle eCommerce storefronts (what the visitor sees) and
back-room operations (what makes the site function). For larger volumes
or unique business situations, you may wish to develop the functions
you need from a combination of available resources.
Online
purchasing sites, for example, require ordering screens that you can
build using the merchant software you have selected. Your merchant
bank, the bank that processes your online orders, will provide you with
a Merchant Identification Number and Terminal Identification Number.
Your ISP will specify the payment processing services it works with so
you can register with one.
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