In the two previous chapters, we have developed an electronic commerce case study application. This application allows users to browse the contents of an on-line book publisher's database. While viewing these contents, the users can choose to select books for purchase. Each book that they choose goes into their "electronic shopping basket." Once they have selected all of the books that they wish to purchase, the can proceed to order completion. The previous chapter ended with the user being able to browse the contents of their shopping basket.
In this chapter, we will look at the steps the user has to follow to fulfill their order. When the user entered their registration information, they were asked to enter their name and address information. To complete the order, all that remains is to gather the payment information. Once this payment information is gathered, the order can then be processed.
We will look at three parts of the order fulfillment process. One part will display the invoice information to the user then request and obtain the payment information. This will be developed using the similar 3-tier techniques used in the previous two chapters. The next part will show the transmission of the credit card information for processing by the credit card issuer. This will be developed using the techniques looked at in this chapter. Namely, we will be creating a server component that works with Message Queue Server to transmit the information to an acquirer bank whom then routes it onto the card issuer. There are many issuers of cards—you wouldn't have a link with each. Instead you have an agreement with one bank that acquires your transactions. It's their problem interfacing with all the card issuers. The last part will show how to create the receiving end of this message. This part will show how to use MSMQ functionality directly from an ASP page. While it will not be realistic in terms of how credit processing really occurs, it will show integration of ASP and MSMQ.There are several commercial solutions available for integrating ASP with banks, such as Verifone and Trintech.