1. ELC 200 Day 14
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2. Agenda Assignment 4 Not graded (yet) I’ll get itcorrected this weekend
Assignment 5 is posted
DUE March 2:05 PM
NEW Course Schedule
Discussion on Web Portals and Web Services
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3. New schedule Mar 20 Web Portals Mar 24 Web portals Assignment 5 due
B2 ecommerce
Mar 31
eCore values
Assignment 6 due
April 3
Quiz 3
Apr 7
Going on line
Assignment 7 due
Apr 10
eSecurity
Apr 14
Encryption
Apr 17
Apr 21
Getting the money
Assignment 8 due
Apr 24
Quiz 4
Apr 28
Presentations
May 1
Framework Paper due
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4. Web Portals and Web Services

5. The focus of this chapter is on several learning objectives
The concept of Web portal
How portals transform a business
The main techniques and functionalities of an enterprise portal
Knowledge portals and their uses
Web services and portals
Who is building and sponsoring enterprise portals
How to select a portal product
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6. What Are Portals?
A portal is a Web page that offers links to other Web sites. Portals can be broad or narrow, specific or general
Vertical portals are electronic exchanges that combine upstream and downstream e-commerce activities of specialized products and/or services
Google Define: portal
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7. Portals are Considered
Virtual workplaces for the following functions:
Promoting knowledge sharing among different categories of end users
Providing access to structured data
Organizing unstructured data
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8. Portals Are Considered (Cont’d)
Offering varieties such as
Portals on intranets
Customer-facing information portals
Supplier-facing information portals
Enterprise portals
The most promising tool for simplifying the access to data stored in various application systems
Facilitating collaboration among employees
Assisting the company in reaching its customers
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9. Portal Disadvantages Difficulty integrating with other applications
Organizational and financial costs
Culture shock
The need for additional investment in technology
The difficulty of retaining skilled staff
Uncertainty of benefits
Expense of technology
Unprepared suppliers
Incompatibility with existing IT infrastructure
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10. Quick Discussion What is the difference? Data A fact Information
Understanding
Knowledge
Wisdom
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11. Portal Categories
Horizontal Portal is an electronic exchange that focuses on many subjects (e.g. )
Enterprise Information Portal is a portal that ties together multiple, heterogeneous internal repositories and applications, as well as external content sources and services, into a single browser-based view that is individualized to a particular user’s task or role
Maine Street UMS portal
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12. Portal Categories (Cont’d)
Knowledge portal is a Web page or a facility that offers a single, uniform point from which all of an enterprise’s data sources can be accessed
Knowledge worker is a person who transforms business and personal experience into knowledge through capturing, assessing, applying sharing, and disseminating it within the organization to solve specific problems or to create value
Knowledge producer interface
Knowledge consumer interface
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13. Knowledge Portals versus Information Portals
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14. Corporate Portal as a Gateway to Information
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15. Knowledge Based Corporate Portal Framework
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16. Functions of a Knowledge Portal
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17. Search Engines
Software agents whose task is to find information by looking at keywords or by following certain guidelines or rules
Like Yellow Pages for online businesses
Crawlers are computer-automated programs that scour the Internet for Web links
Site content and relevance are integral parts of automated search engines
No search engine is free of drawbacks
DMOZ project
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18. How Search Engines Work
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19. The Business Challenge
The explosion in the volume of key business information already captured in electronic documents has left many organizations losing their grip on information
The speed with which quantity and content are growing means rigorous internal discipline to mine and integrate the sources of enterprise knowledge
Companies realize that they must develop strategies and processes designed to best utilize intellectual resources at strategic and operational levels
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20. Typical Business Pressures
Shorter time to market
New products and services
Product life cycles much shorter
Knowledge worker turnover
Loss of key employee means loss of key knowledge and abilities
More demanding customer and investors
Customers want better quality and service at a lower cost (Free, Perfect, Now)
Investors want greater return on their investment
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21. Role of Portals in Facing Business Pressures
Business Integration vs. Information Integration or Application Integration
Process Integration
Application and Information Integration
Enterprise Metadata Repository
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22. Key Functionalities of Portal
Gathering
Categorization
Distribution
Collaboration
Publish
Personalization
Search/Navigate
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23. Collaboration
The goal of the collaboration tool is to support information sharing
Two or more people working together in a coordinated manner over time and space using electronic devices
Asynchronous collaboration is human-to-human interaction via computer subsystems having no time or space constraints
Synchronous collaboration is computer-based, human-to-human interaction that occurs immediately (within 5 seconds) using audio, video, or data technologies
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24. Synchronous and Asynchronous Collaboration Tools
Teleconferencing
Computer Video/Teleconferencing
Online Chat Forum
Asynchronous Collaboration
Electronic Mailing Lists
Web-Based Discussion Forums
Lotus Notes
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25. Requirements for Successful Collaboration Tools
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26. Content Management
Also referred to as content management system (CMS); a system used to manage the content of a Web site
Includes structured and unstructured internal information objects
Complexity is handled by building sophisticated knowledge management taxonomy based on metadata
CMS handles the way documents are analyzed, stored and categorized
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the specification developed by the W3C designed especially for Web documents
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27. Sample XML Document <?xml version=1.0 encoding=“ISO-8859-1”?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don’t forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
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28. Services of Intelligent Agents
Customized customer assistance with online services
Customer profiling
Integrating profiles of customers into a group of marketing activities
Predicting customer requirements
Negotiating prices and payment schedules
Executing financial transactions on the customer’s behalf
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29. Web Services and Portals
Web services are essentially business services, composed of standards that allow different platforms, operating systems, and languages to exchange information or carry out a business process together
Improve the ways a company conducts electronic transactions with trading partners
A simple “packaging” technology accessible over the Internet that does not require any technology tied to a vendor’s platform
Web services are mobile and interactive
More about successful business strategy than technology
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30. Major Aspects of Web Services
A service provider that provides an interface for software that can perform specified tasks
A client that invokes a software service to provide business solution or service
A repository that manages the service
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31. Web Services

32. Figure 11-13: Ordinary Webservice versus Web Service
HTTP Request
SOAP-
Capable
Browser
HTTP Response
Web
Service --
Interface
Properties
Methods
Webserver
Client PC
SOAP Message
Using XML Syntax
Web services are objects (programs)
Clients send them commands and data
Web services send back results
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33. Figure 11-13: Ordinary Webservice versus Web Service
HTTP Request
SOAP-
Capable
Browser
HTTP Response
Web
Service --
Interface
Properties
Methods
Webserver
Client PC
SOAP Message
Using XML Syntax
Web service requests are sent via FTP
They are sent as SOAP messages written in XML
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34. Figure 11-13: Ordinary Webservice versus Web Service
HTTP Request
SOAP-
Capable
Browser
HTTP Response
Web
Service --
Interface
Properties
Methods
Webserver
Client PC
SOAP Message
Using XML Syntax
Web services have interfaces that will accept commands
Commands contain methods and properties (parameters)
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35. Figure 11-14: Simple SOAP Request and Response
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Carried in HTTP request or response message
Formatted using XML Syntax
Similar to HTML syntax but the sender and receiver can create new tags that they can then use in transactions, such as <price>$33</price>
HTTP Header
SOAP
Body
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36. Figure 11-14: Simple SOAP Request and Response
Situation
There is a pricing object that returns the price if another object sends the part number, quantity, and shipping type (rush, etc.) on an interface
Objects can be on different computers
Request
(PartNum, Quantity, ShippingType)
Sending
Object
Pricing
Object
Response
(Price)
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37. Figure 11-14: Simple SOAP Request and Response
SOAP Request Message
HTTP Request Header pointing to program
<?xml version=“1.0”>
<BODY>
<QuotePrice xmlns=“QuoteInterface”>
<PartNum>QA78d</PartNum>
<Quantity>47</Quantity>
<ShippingType>Rush</ShippingType>
</QuotePrice>
</BODY>
Note: xmlns specifies an XML namespace for the object
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38. Figure 11-14: Simple SOAP Request and Response
SOAP Response Message
HTTP Response Header
<?xml version=“1.0”>
<BODY>
<QuotePrice xmlns=“QuoteInterface”>
<Price>$750.33</Price>
</QuotePrice>
</BODY>
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39. Web Services: A More Complex Example1
(Object)
Service
Via HTTP:
SOAP +
XML
Service Via HTTP:
SOAP + XML
Server
Client PC
With
Browser
Service Via HTTP:
SOAP + XML
Web service 3
(Object)
Web service 2
(Object)
Mainframe
Minicomputer
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40. Web Service Interaction
Figure 11-15: Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Server for Web Services
UDDI Functions:
White Pages
By name
Yellow Pages
By type
Green Pages
Details of how
to use,
payment, etc.
Client PC 2.
Web Service Interaction
Server with
Web Service 1.
UDDI
Request for
Information,
Response
Interaction Between
UDDI Servers
to Fulfill a Request
UDDI Server
UDDI Server
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41. Web Service Description Language (WSDL)
Protocol for asking a corporate webserver about the company’s SOAP-compliant services
WSDL
Request-Response Cycle
Client PC
Corporate
Webserver
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42. Perspective on Web Services
Benefits of Web Services
Offers a way to standardize interactions between objects over the Internet
Can make distributed computing far simpler once Web services standards are fully developed
Concerns
High overhead (very chatty)
Standards immaturity
Security is embryonic
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43. Issues in Providing IT for Knowledge Sharing
Responsiveness to user needs
Content structure
Content quality requirements
Integration with existing systems
Scalability
Hardware-software compatibility
Synchronization of technology with the capabilities of the user
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44. Planning and Developing an Enterprise Portal
Identify the sore points in the business that a portal can help address.
Identify the portal users and their role in the firm.
Select, install, and incorporate portal technology and associated hardware.
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45. Chapter Summary
A portal is a secure, Web-based interface that provides a single point of integration for and access to information, applications, and services for all people
Portals have made their way into enterprises, bringing together not only information from the Internet, but in-house data as well
The term data sources encompasses structured data and unstructured data, but also includes the data resulting from specific processes and enterprise applications
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46. Chapter Summary (Cont’d)
Content management requires directory and indexing capabilities to manage automatically the ever-growing store of structured and unstructured data residing in data warehouses, Web sites, ERP systems, legacy applications
Collaborative functionality can range from tracking to developing workplace communities
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