e-Marketplace Pattern using WebSphere Commerce Suite, MarketPlace Edition Patterns for e-business Series

40 e-Marketplace Pattern using WebSphere Commerce Suite, Marketplace Edition

Work is underway to document this advanced runtime topology. For more

details you should visit the patterns Web site at:

http://www.ibm.com/software/developer/web/patterns

3.4 e-Marketplace runtime topology subsets

This section discusses three enhancements to the basic proven runtime

topology discussed in the previous section but includes additional nodes

specific to the e-Marketplaces. You will notice that these topologies do not

implement the “proven variation” runtime topology; however, this could be

implemented if required. Starting with a simple, Web-integrated

e-Marketplace in subset 1, we progress to a fully integrated e-Marketplace in

subset 3 that features real-time automated integration of both buyers and

suppliers.

3.4.1 Subset 1 - Web integrated e-Marketplace

The Web integrated e-Marketplace provides the simplest runtime topology for

an e-Marketplace implementation. This topology provides for the integration

of suppliers and buyers via a Web interface only. For suppliers, this topology

means manual data exchange with the e-Marketplace using XML scripts or

HTML data entry. The obvious benefit of this model is that suppliers can

participate in the e-Marketplace without the need to undertake any

application development or employ middleware services.

The buying process

In this subset, the process for buying from the online catalog is described

below:

1. The buyer logs into the commerce server via the main entry page. If the

user is registered with the e-Marketplace, a user profile will be gathered

based on information contained in the database server. In the Marketplace

Edition, this profile will contain the user’s

role

.

2. The personalization engine in the Marketplace Edition presents the buyer

with a personalized view of the catalog and other services offered in the

e-Marketplace.

3. The buyer proceeds to interact with the site through the static and dynamic

pages provided by the site.

4. Items of interest to the buyer are added to the buyer’s shopping cart. The

database server persists this information in addition to persisting data

required to manage the session state. A cookie is delivered to the buyer’s

browser allowing the commerce server to track the interactions with the

site and to reestablish the connections to the shopping cart. Other options

Chapter 3. e-Marketplace runtime topology 41

are available to the buyer with regard to product pricing. For example, the

commerce server can provide other negotiation mechanisms, such as

RFQ, auctions, or exchange.

5. When the buyer purchases the shopping cart items, a purchase order is

generated and stored by the commerce server which is subsequently

made available to the appropriate suppliers.

The supplier process

1. Like the buyer, the supplier logs into the commerce server but is identified

as a supplier via the

supplier

role

.

1. The supplier can retrieve the purchase orders generated by the buyer via a

Web interface by interacting with the commerce server. They could also

respond to RFPs/RFQs at this point.

2. The supplier is also able to provide its catalog data for the e-Marketplace

by interacting with the Content Management/Aggregated Catalog node.

This may be via an interactive Web-based session or via a mass import of

product data in XML format.

In this runtime topology, user authentication and security is provided by the

directory and security services node. Additionally, encrypted transmissions

are used to protect sensitive data such as the transmittal of credit card

numbers.

Figure 14 depicts this runtime topology.

Figure 14. Web integrated e-Marketplace

Notification

Server

Content

Management

agg. catalog

Database

Server

Workflow

Manager

Commerce

and Web

App. Server

Search

Engine

Personalization

Pu blic Ke y

Infrastructure

Mail Server

Domain Name

Server

Purchaser

Supplier

User

Protocol Firewall

Domain Firewall

Directory and

Security

Services

Supplier or

Buy-Side

Internet

Dem ilitarized

Zone (DMZ)

e-Marketplace

Existing

Applications

and Data

Internal

Network

42 e-Marketplace Pattern using WebSphere Commerce Suite, Marketplace Edition

3.4.2 Subset 2 - e-Marketplace with supplier integration

The next evolution of the e-Marketplace introduces the supplier as an

integrated node. By doing this, we also to introduce the Delivery Gateway

node and the B2B gateway node.

These additional nodes provide automated integration of data between the

supplier and the e-Marketplace. Generally, data fed back and forth between

the e-Marketplace and the supplier is in an industry standard form such as

XML documents.

Supplier integration is a key aspect of the e-Marketplace and provides, for

example, the ability for suppliers to automatically update product data into the

e-Marketplace as it become available.

In addition, it allow suppliers to:

• Receive RFPs, RFQs, and purchase orders automatically by the

commerce server

• Provide real time inventory information to the e-Marketplace such as the

quantity and availability of stocks

• Automatically receive order data and order status changes

• Integrate their business process with the e-Marketplace via the B2B

gateway node and the associated delivery gateway node residing within

the DMZ.

Figure 15 shows the runtime topology for the integration of suppliers: