B2B applications are presented. Quality characteristics of B2B applications are defined. B2B application structure is defined. The application for contracts is developed. The advantages are identified.B2B, quality, structure, efficiency

Vintilă Bogdan-Cătălin

English

Research Papers in Economics

354 
 
B2B oriented on-line applications generator 
 
Vintilă Bogdan-Cătălin 
bogdanvi86@yahoo.com 
ACADEMY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES BUCHAREST 
 
Abstract 
B2B applications are presented. Quality characteristics of B2B applications are defined. B2B 
application structure is defined. The application for contracts is developed. The advantages are identified. 
 
Key words: B2B, quality, structure, efficiency. 
 
1.  B2B application types 
 
A distributed system is a collection of interdependent computers forming a computer network 
looks as a single computer to the users. 
Middleware is a software component that connects software components or applications. It allows 
interaction between processes running on different computers through a network. 
There are many definitions for distributed applications. 
According to [SUND08] a distributed application is made of different components that run in different 
environments, on different platforms connected through a network. 
According to [CONE08] a distributed application is an application formed by different components that 
interact and are physically localized on different computers from a network. 
According to [IBMX08] a distributed application is defined as being composed of different components 
physically localized on different computers connected by a network. 
 
A distributed application is therefore characterised by: 
-  it is composed by many distinct components; 
-  components running on different computers; 
-  running computers connected by a network. 
 
Distributed applications are classified into: 
-  two-tier with two components out of witch one is the client and the other is the server; 
-  three-tier formed by three components out of witch one is the client, the second is the middleware 
and the third is the server; 
-  multi-tier are applications formed by many middleware and server components and one client 
component. 
 
Client  –  server architecture separates the client from the server. This architecture is always 
implemented on a network. Each client is connected to at least one server. The client sends requests to the 
server, the server processes them and then sends the reply to the client from whom it received the request. 
Three-tier and multi-tier architectures are client – server architectures for witch the user interface, 
the functional process logic, data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent 
modules, most often on different platforms. 
Modularization allows independent administration, developing and modifying of modules. 
  Distributed applications are usable in domains where the processing power of a single computer 
is overwhelmed by the needed processing power, where users are distributed over a large area, or when 
they must access simultaneously the system, or when the same data are simultaneously used and updated. 
 
2.  Quality characteristics for B2B applications 355 
 
 
Scalability – represents the software application’s capacity of supporting more and more users with the 
increase of hardware equipment. If the maximum supported number of users is reached, the increased 
number of computers within the network leads to augumentation of the maximum supported users 
without any further application modifications. If, by increasing the number of computers on witch the 
application runs, it does not allow the increase of the supported users number, then the application is not 
scalable. 
Applications are scalable if the indicator NrUSA –number of users supported by the application, is 
defined by the following relation: 
 
NrUSA = NrS*NrUSS 
 
where: 
NrS  -  number of servers within the network; 
NrUSS  -  number of users each server supports; 
 
 
The reliability of the distributed application – shows the measure in witch the application processes 
without any problems the users requests. A reliable application, assuming a computer breaks, continues 
its activity without any problems, recording only a drop in performance. The distributed application’s 
reliability depends on the number of servers on witch it runs, on the distribution method, on the number 
of copies of the data and on resource accessing frequency. 
The PNMD indicator – performance obtained provided that NMD computers of the network are broken, is 
defined by: 
 
PNMD = PM – NMD/NTMR*PM 
 
where: 
PM  -  maximum performance obtained when all the 
computers within the network are working; 
NMD  -  number of broken computers; 
NTMR  -  total number of computers within the network; 
 
If, provided that a number of computers within the network are broken, the application’s performance is 
given by the above formula, then the application is reliable. 
 
Efficiency – is the report between the number of useful operations and the total number of operations. The 
closer the value is to 1, the more efficient the application is, the closer to 0, the more inefficient the 
application is. 
The efficiency indicator, IE, is given by the following relation: 
 
IE = NOU/NOR 
 
where: 
NOU  -  number of useful operations; 
NOR  -  total number of operations; 
 
 
Classification of distributed applications regarding the value of the efficiency indicator 
   
IE value  Application’s efficiency 356 
 
IE>0,75  Very efficient 
0,5<IE<0,75  Efficient 
0,25<IE<0,5  Somewhat efficient 
IE<0,25  Inefficient 
 
 
 
Correctness of the distributed application supposes a correct processing of the input data for right outputs. 
Data processing also supposes that it is thoroughly cheked. For correct data input the application’s reply 
will be the data processing result, and for incorrect data input the application’s reply will consist in 
messages regarding incorrect data and their flaws. 
 
Maintainability is the quality characteristic regarding the effort of modifying the application to reflect the 
real world changes. If the effort needed for modifying is greater than the effort required for the 
application’s total development process, the maintaining process is suspended. The maintainable 
application must allow modifications with minimum effort so that, during running time the updates are 
not an impediment. 
 
3.  Applications generator 
 
Applications generator is a software product that automatically develops applications starting 
from the problem’s description and not through traditional programming. Based on the problem’s 
description, using an adequate programming language, the software product creates instruction sequences 
and modules used in the source texts needed for solving the problem. The generator is software that 
develops software with a certain fixed structure. The complexity level of the created software is below the 
generator’s complexity level. The applications generator is easier to use than the high level programming 
languages. 
A great disadvantage is the fact that the resulting application is very slow or some of the functions 
can’t be implemented. 
Applications generators are characterised by: 
-  generated products have a lower complexity than the generator; 
-  for the same input it is always generated the same output; 
-  generation algorithms depend of those projecting the generator. 
 
As users vary so do the reports that they need and the input data they supply. 
The acquirement of a very complex application generates a high level of uselessness of the components 
leading to the idea that for every user,  the distributed application’s version he needs,must be generated . 
Even though the effort for the development of this product is greater than for developing a single 
application, it is by far smaller than the effort needed for developing all  the applications that are 
afterwards generated. 
If more than one application is written for solving the same problem, each of them having to be tested, the 
cumulated effort is greater than the effort of testing the applications generator. 
 
4.  Application for contracts 
 
The objective of the application is to facilitate the contract’s signing between the contracting 
parts through Internet. The need of developing a signing method that is fast, secure and easy to use is 
given by the increasing number of contracts companies sign as they grow stronger and stronger. Using the 
Internet network assures the rapidity, security and the ease of use of the application. 
The application allows: 357 
 
•  the visualization of the transactions participants; 
•  signing contracts; 
•  the visualization of the contracts signed on an anterior date; 
•  signing in into the database in order to be able to use the system; 
 
 
Fig. 1 - Application generates contract 
 
The target group consists of companies that want to minimize the time and costs allocated to 
signing contracts with the partner companies. The number of users will be of thousands order and daily 
using. 
 
The steps in developing the application are: 
-  specification requests supposes the description of the input data, the operations that are to be 
applied and the results for each request; 
-  database projecting supposes defining the tables, their structure and the relations between them, 
setting the domain and integrity restrictions; 
-  developing the user interface that must be friendly, intuitive and easy to use. The interface will 
not be overcrowded only necessary info being displayed. 
-  operations implementation supposes besides the data processing procedures, building data input 
validation procedures and procedures for displaying messages. 
-  application testing bases on input datasets for witch the results are already known; If differences 
occur between the final results from the specifications and the processed results, corrections are 
made and then the testing is repeated. 
The contracts are generated according to the chosen parts and the user supplied parameters. 
 
5.  Experimental results 
 
Testing is done by using as input the SD1, SD2, …, datasets, for witch results exists in 
specifications and comparing the results obtained with those in the specifications. 
Each dataset has the contracting parts, the contract’s elements (goods, quantities), the prices of the 
contracted goods or services and the decisions that are taken during negotiations. 
After using all available input test datasets and following the specified decisions, no errors were 
found, neither correctness errors, nor errors in the validation procedures. The generated results were 
totally correct. 
The tests, that the application was subject to, revealed that the application meets the described 
quality characteristics, being an application with a high degree of correctness and maintainability.  358 
 
The further development of the application will maintain or possibly improve the quality 
characteristics of the B2B applications. 
 
 
6.  Conclusions 
 
The  information and communications 
technology  development has been the 
support on  witch distributed applications 
were  developed. As the nature of 
certain  problems imposes a data or users 
distribution,  the distributed applications meet 
a fast  development and great interest 
from software  developers. 
Even  though the distributed 
applications’  development level of complexity 
is greater  than the one of the local 
applications,  the distributed applications have 
great  advantages: 
-  support a great number 
of  simultaneously users; 
-  solves problems 
impossible to solve by local 
applications; 
-  risk  of losing data provided an error 
occurs drops significantly; 
-  updating distributed 
applications affects all the users 
regardless of their geographical 
location; 
-  generally the requested 
resources from the user side are 
smaller compared to the local 
applications; 
-  scalability; 
-  lower costs for companies; 
-  many users use the same data leading to saving space; 
-  used data is frequently updated.  
 
Taking into consideration the great variety of applications requested by users, the generator 
proves its utility by generating a great part of them. The generator has many advantages: 
-  it allows the rapid development of applications; 
-  it is used by users without advanced knowledge; 
-  functionality is easily extendable; 
 
In the future, the development of the generator seeks a greater variability of the results obtained 
through its use. For attaining this, the increase of the input parameters number is required. 
As with the development of the information and communications technologies a tendency of 
giving up the local applications and heading towards the distributed applications is becoming visible.  
 
Bibliography 
STAR
T 
Test datasets input 
Results analysis 
Different 
results 
from the 
ones in 
specificati
 
Modify application 
STOP 
YES 
NO 
Fig. 2 
 
Application testing 359 
 
 
[MACD03]  Matthew MACDONALD  –  Microsoft® .NET 
Distributed Applications: Integrating XML Web 
Services and .NET Remoting, Editura Microsoft 
Press, 2003, ISBN 0-7356-1933-6, 752pg. 
[TANE95]  A.S. TANENBAUM –  Distributed Operating 
Systems, Editura Prentice Hall, New York, 1995 
[IVAN99]  Ion IVAN, Paul POCATILU –  Testarea Software 
Orientat Obiect, Editura INFOREC, București, 1999, 
ISBN 973-98508-0-4 
[IVAN00]  Ion IVAN, Paul POCATILU, Panagiotis SINIOROS 
–  Testarea  aplicațiilor  e-business, SIMPEC 2000  – 
BRAȘOV:  Lucrările  Simpozionului  de  Științe 
Economice  organizat  de  Facultatea  de  Științe 
Economice Vol. 2 , Universitatea Transilvania din 
Brașov,  Editura  Infomarket,  2000,  ISBN  973-8204-
00-3 ISBN 973-8204-02-X (Vol.2), pp. 172-176 
[ȘOAV00]  Georgeta  ȘOAVĂ  –  Arhitecturi client/server, 
SIMPEC 2000, BRAȘOV Vol. 2, Editura Infomarket, 
2000, ISBN 973-8204-00-3 ISBN 973-8204-02-X 
(Vol.2), pp. 224-227 
[ROȘC03]  Ion  Gh.  ROȘCA,  Floarea  NĂSTASE,  Cristina 
BUCUR,  Mirela  VIȘEAN,  Carmen  TIMOFTE, 
Octavian PAIU –  Cercetări  privind  proiectarea  și 
realizarea aplicațiilor de e-business. Sisteme de plată 
în  tranzacțiile  generale  de  e-business, Economia, 
Seria  Management,  Editura  ASE,  București,  2003, 
ISSN 1454-0320, pp. 11-18 
[IVAN03]  Ion IVAN, Marius POPA, Bogdan FLORESCU, 
Doru UNGUREANU –  Juridical Aspects of the 
Program Generators Cloning, The 34th International 
Scientific Symposium –  Military Equipment and 
Technologies Research Agency, Proceedings, vol.1, 
București, 29-30 mai 2003, pg 283 - 288 
[CONE08]  http://en.csharp-online.net/Glossary:Definition_-
_Distributed_application, 05.04.2008 
[SUND08]  http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/glossary.html, 
09.04.2008 
[IBMX08]  http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/adiehelp/ind
ex.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wsinted.glossary.doc/topics/gl
ossary.html, 09.04.2008 
  http://www.ici.ro/ici/revista/ria2008_1/art07.html, 
05.04.2008 
  http://www.ici.ro/ici/revista/ria2007_4/art03.html, 
05.04.2008 
  http://jaqm.ro/issues/volume-2,issue-
1/pdfs/dumitrascu_popa.pdf,  05.04.2008 
  http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=
application+generator&i=37909,00.asp, 05.04.2008 
 
 

B2B oriented on-line applications generator

http://www.rebe.rau.ro/RePEc/rau/jisomg/FA08/JISOM-FA08-A3.pdf

B2B oriented on-line applications generator

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Research Papers in Economics