This section gives a very brief overview of the requirements for e-commerce. However, it is important to understand that all of these are not necessarily required for all levels of e-commerce. Requirements widely vary with different kinds of e-commerce activities.
Telecommunication Infrastructure Requirements
This mostly entails bandwidth and security. The requirement for bandwidth varies widely from one e-commerce activity to another making it hard to generalize. Bandwidth usually becomes crucial for service-based B2B e-commerce as opposed to product-based one and high-traffic B2C e-commerce as opposed to low-traffic one. Two main components of security requirements for e-commerce are type of firewall and encryption/algorithm mechanism. This also varies widely from one e-commerce activity to the other. Ranging from protection against unwanted disclosure of client information to guarantee of reliable electronic payment. Security requirements are a crucial part of e-commerce.
Hardware Requirements for E-commerce
Hardware requirements for high-traffic sites may be dependent on the following issues: number of transactions per second; number of hits per second; number of queries per second; number of queries done by RDBMS per second; number of pages served per second involving all of the above parameters. Some other factors that need to be considered when setting up a high traffic e-commerce site include clustering i.e. use of backup servers which automatically takes over operations in case of failure of primary ones. Low-traffic sites can be easily served from a single machine depending on the needs of the business. Pentium II/III based Intel server running Linux can serve hundreds of unique customers each day.
Software Requirements for E-commerce
several software are available free on the Internet that can be used to build e-commerce exchanges. Some examples are Apache Web Server, Apache-Jserv Servlet Engine, Linux Operating System, mySQL database, postgresql etc. Many of these open source software may not be adequate for high-traffic sites.
Technical Skill Requirements
A systems administrator must have a good knowledge of computer hardware, must be able to maintain and upgrade hardware including hard drive, processor and motherboard. He/she must also have the skill to install and compile Apache, mySQL and Java servlet engine. A developer needs to be a high level programmer with a few years of experience in the industry and must possess a clear understanding of how an e-commerce system works. Understanding how information flows from one end of the system to another and what modifications take place in between is essential. Specific required skills include programming skills in C, PHP and Java and knowledge on SQL programming and data architecture
Financial Infrastructure
Payment procedures are the ways in which a seller can receive payment in return for the goods or services sold. Access to these services depends on the banking infrastructure in location of selling and customers’ locations. For full-fledged e-commerce transaction the banking infrastructure requirements should be as follows:
Dependable telecommunication network
Use of integrated banking software for back office and front office data processing
Use of WAN and Internet for banking operations
Availability of Electronic fund transfer System
Availability of Electronic Clearing System
Availability of Public Key based Encryption System
Availability of Credit Card System both for local and international payment
Availability of Foreign Exchange Remittance Mechanism over the Internet
Availability of Legal Infrastructure supporting online payment mechanism Interim Solution:
If local telecommunication services in a country do not allow for direct connection of a web site to secure payment facilities, and in particular to those offered by credit card companies, it may be possible to host a web site in a neighboring location that is capable of providing the necessary financial connections.
Legal and Policy Framework
In general, policies that ensure legal certainty, security and consumer protection for online transactions and interactions should be enacted. These include the resolution of issues such as transactional security, electronic contract enforceability and the authentication of individuals and documentation. The development of such an enabling environment has involved a joint focus of government and private sectors on: an efficient and sound financial system (including online payments, the use of electronic currency and foreign exchange liberalization), an efficient, inexpensive and reliable telecommunication system (including to long-distance market, competitive local exchange carriers, and high speed lines),legal mechanisms for the enforcement of contract law, consumer protection and defense of intellectual property rights, an efficient tax administration, and swift, transparent, and reliable customs operations. The following factors, often influenced by national policy, should be considered: Perceived political risk, Predictability of the legal environment, Soundness of economic and monetary policy, Openness to foreign direct investment, Convertibility of local currency, Restrictions on capital flows, Credit card usage, Credit card processing protocols, Access to credit, Entrepreneurial culture, Access to startup capital, Regulations and restrictions on small business.
Here are some time Super useful wordpress Plugins & Tools for WordPress Developers
Below are some growing collection of WordPress plugins, and discovered some great resources for my WP “developer toolbox.” These are some super-useful plugins and tools for debugging, logging data, working with translation files, analyzing performance, and making otherwise difficult tasks efficient and manageable. May they serve you well!
WP Developer plugins & tools
(Note: descriptions taken from their respective resources)
Debug Queries:
“List query-actions only for admins; for debug purposes. See all queries on the frontend of the blog and find the slowest part. The plugin is perfect for WordPress developers, plugin and theme developers and site administrators who are trying to find out why the blog is too slow.”
Log Deprecated Notices
“Logs the usage of deprecated files, functions, and function arguments, and identifies where the deprecated functionality is being used.”
WordPress Hook Sniffer
“The WordPress Hook Sniffer plugin is a tool for plugin developers that helps determine the sequence in which action and filter functions are fired. It allows you to peer into the inner workings of the WordPress Plugin API. You can configure what is outputted and to where the output is sent (screen or text file).”
WP-FirePHP
“This Plugin integrates FirePHP in your WordPress installation and simplifies developing. No more vardump() and echo while debugging. FirePHP take care of it, clean and easy.”
Codestyling Localization
“You can manage and edit all gettext translation files (*.po/*.mo) directly out of WordPress Admin Center without any need of an external editor.”
Debug Objects
“Debug Objects provides a large number of information: query, cache, cron, constants, hooks, functions and many more.” E.g., query, cache, cron, constants, hooks, and functions. “Values and content get displayed at the frontend and backend of the blog, to analyze errors but also to better understand and develop with/for WordPress.”
5 Ways to Debug WordPress
“Many plugin and theme authors don’t take full advantage of some really helpful debugging tools in WordPress. Here’s a quick run-down of five cool tools for debugging.”
And here are some more useful plugins that haven’t been updated in awhile but continue to provide much-needed functionality. Old doesn’t mean broken 😉
WP Developer Assistant
WP Developer Assistant is “essentially is a toolkit that makes life as a WordPress developer easier.” Does cool stuff like customizable PHP errors, global variable dump, table modification, execute queries, phpinfo(), and much more.
AskApache RewriteRules Viewer
“Displays Most Everything about your WordPress Rewrites. Displays Most Everything about your WordPress Rewrites, Permalinks, URI’s, in a very detailed and raw way. Informational plugin only… Nothing is modified or changed.”
Latency Tracker
“This really simple plugin hooks into your wp_footer function (so make sure that your theme uses it) to count the number of queries, how long they took, how much memory was use, and when it all occurred. That way, they can show some solid data to the host so that they are able to compare numbers and know for sure that their load times are faster or slower when compared.”
TPC! Memory Usage
“TPC! Memory Usage allows WordPress administrators to view the current and peak memory usage of the application. This is extremely helpful when testing new plugins, or if there are a lot of modifications, plugins, or large language files. As of version 0.4, administrators now have the ability to view detailed system information about their web server, MySQL, PHP, and WordPress software.”
WP-Devel
“Developer toolbar giving you easy access to debug information across your entire website. The WP-Devel plugin for WordPress features a ton of debug options to help developers. Debug information is easily turned on/off from the WP-Devel toolbar anywhere on your website.”
WordPress Theme Generator
BONUS tool! I don’t know how useful it actually is, but the WordPress Theme Generator enables anyone to create custom WordPress themes “without any need for HTML, JS, PHP, or CSS knowledge.”