|
 |
 |
XactCommerce™ Server is many things. At the core of it, the XactCommerce™
engine is an application logic and data management application environment.
The XactCommerce™ engine is written in 100% pure Java. A XactCommerce™ Server
is more than the XactCommerce™ engine. A XactCommerce™ Server utilizes
all of the incorporated components to achieve a specific mission,
to serve and manage information, business logic and accounting data
as an integrated whole.
The XactCommerce™ engine controls all pages, files and data incorporated
into an XactCommerce™ site. Simple HTML web pages as well as other
specialized pages, i.e. PHP, Perl, etc., may be incorporated into
a XactCommerce™ site. But, the XactCommerce™ engine's primary purpose
is to interpret (parce) XactScript™ files (pages), operate on the included
instructions, and generate HTML, Javascript Code, plain text or
other output. This output can be sent to the user via a Web Browser
such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, e-mail, converted into a
PDF document or a postscript output file for printing, or sent as
a data stream to some connected device.
The XactCommerce™ engine acts as an information gatekeeper. Each user has access
to information based on permissions granted in XactCommerce™ site by the
site administrator, top level managers and other users who are given
access to manage permissions. The XactCommerce™ engine interprets the code to generate
pages and retrieves data based on the access permitted to the connected
user. The very look and composition of web pages and reports generated
can be tailored to show or hide information so that each user sees
just what that user is intended to see. Also, each XactScript™ page must
be incorporated into the site by an authorized administrator before
it is allowed to be processed. This means that a XactScript™ file cannot
be uploaded and run by an unauthorized user to gain access to your
company's data for what ever reason.
The XactCommerce™ engine, in Version 3.0, consists of a number of Java Servlets,
Interface Modules, Business, Application and Specialty Function
Logic Modules. Because the design is modular, new capabilities can
be "plugged in" to the existing system. And, adding capabilities
that extend current capabilities is also extremely efficient. This
allows us to easily add capabilities like new credit card processors,
new drop ship messaging methods, new pricing models, and more without
rewriting or impacting existing capabilities.
The XactCommerce™ engine also manages data streams and optimizes performance in
a number of ways. The XactScript™ coder can ask the XactCommerce™ engine to store frequently
accessed pages of essentially "static" information as templates.
This allows a single page of XactScript™ code to generate perhaps thousands
of views of specific data and have that stored so that when a user
requests it it is served in a flash without requiring a singcom.xactsys.database
access. The XactCommerce™ engine also caches frequently requested and temporary
data in the User session so that accessing and paging through data
is faster and also reduces unnecessary load on the DB server. The XactCommerce™ engine
can also be used to compress the output data stream so that HTML
or other data can be transferred compressed. Compressing the data
stream can significantly improve perceived performance especially
on relatively slow Internet connections.
The XactCommerce™ engine permits XactScript™ pages, Javascript Pages, HTML Pages, local files and other resources
to be "included" into XactScript™ pages. Thus, XactScript™ pages may use other pages to save coding time;
to create mini-libraries of headers, footers, and controls; and to allow more efficient updating
and management of XactScript pages. The XactCommerce™ engine also provides powerful math and logic expression
evaluation capabilities that speed calculations processed by The XactCommerce™ engine's business, accounting,
and data handling, interface and logic modules.
The XactCommerce™ engine also manages connections to multiple resources in addition
to Databases. These include mail servers, file repositories, data
conversion utilities, third party services or databases, web, XML
or file based data exchanges in open text or encrypted streams,
and more. XactCommerce can be configured to test for the presence of
resources and choose alternatives if available. And, the XactCommerce™ engine can
be tasked to manage connections to these resources as a shared pool
or as individual sessions depending to the specification for this
requirement.
In short, an XactCommerce™ site running on a XactCommerce™ Server is designed to have the flexibility
and customizability to create radically different business related sites while preserving
as much as possible the benefits and power of using a standardized application.
|
|
|
 |
