Exercise 10: Application server platforms in e-commerce

1. List some application servers in competition with ZOPE. Access the web and find the latest version of the application servers mentioned in the text. When were they released? Can you make any conclusion about the release cycle of Internet software in comparison to other business software (e.g. spreadsheet, word processor, accounting packages)?
2. List the main Web servers. What types of companies are offering the leading servers? Distinguish between open source and proprietary products. Who is providing support for the products? How much do they cost? Do you think the Web server purchase price is a significant factor in budget considerations for a large e-commerce initiative?
3. Go to the website of IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Sybase. Is there any mention of e-commerce associated with their database products? What suite or partnership do they list with related e-commerce offerings? How do they compare with open source products like MySQL?
   Access the web and find the current rate for website hosting. What are the criteria used by the ISP for pricing?
4. Why is the perception getting stronger that integration will become a critical factor in coming days?
5. What is the role of ERP within the enterprise software architecture?
6. What is Customer Resource Management and why is it important to e-commerce?
7. What are the differences between HTML and DHTML?
8. Why was XHTML developed? Do you think this addresses most of the HTML weaknesses?
9. What are the similarities between JavaScript, VBScript and ZOPE’s DTML?
10. What are the similarities and differences between ASP, JSP and PHP?
11. What are the differences between the various approaches to scripting?
12. List some of the shareware or freely available tools for web design. In addition to a good HTML editor, what utilities could be very handy to the developer?