E-commerce 2021: business. technology. society.

, 16e (Laudon/Traver)
Chapter 4 Building an E-commerce Presence: Websites, Mobile Sites, and Apps

1) Which of the following is a simple but powerful method for describing a firm’s strengths and
weaknesses?
A) benchmarking
B) SLDC
C) SWOT analysis
D) DevOps
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you
should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

2) The cost of hardware, software, and telecommunications services needed to build a website
have ________ over the last decade.
A) increased dramatically
B) increased moderately
C) decreased dramatically
D) decreased slightly
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you
should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

3) Which of the following types of e-commerce presence is best suited for creating an ongoing
conversation with one's customers?
A) website
B) e-mail
C) social media
D) offline media
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you
should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

4) In developing an e-commerce presence, what questions must be asked and answered about the
firm's target audience?
Answer: Without a clear understanding of a firm's target audience, it is difficult to develop a
successful e-commerce presence. There are two primary questions: who is the target audience
and where can they best be reached? A target audience can be described in several ways:
demographics, behavior patterns (lifestyle), current consumption patterns (online vs. offline
purchasing), digital usage patterns, content creation preferences (blogs, social networks, sites
like Pinterest), and buyer personas (profiles of your customer). Understanding the demographics

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of the firm's target audience is usually the first step. Demographic information includes age,
income, gender, and location.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you
should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

5) What are the phases, activities, and milestones for developing an e-commerce presence for a
typical start-up website over a one-year period?
Answer: A one-year e-commerce presence timeline might include the following phases,
activities, and milestones. Phase 1/Planning, in which an e-commerce presence would be
envisaged and personnel developed, with a milestone of creating a mission statement; Phase
2/Website development, in which content would be acquired, a site design developed, and
hosting arranged for the site, with a milestone of creating a website plan; Phase 3/Web
implementation, in which keywords and metatags would be developed, search engine
optimization strategies deployed, and potential sponsors identified, with a creation of a
functional website as the milestone; Phase 4/Social media plan, in which appropriate social
platforms and content for products and services would be identified, with the creation of a social
media plan as the milestone; Phase 5/Social media implementation, in which a Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest and other social media presence would be developed, with a functioning social
media presence as the milestone; and Phase 6/Mobile plan, in which a mobile plan would be
developed with options for porting the website to the mobile platform considered, and with a
mobile media plan as the relevant milestone. Phase 6/Mobile plan might also be the first phase
for a firm that wanted to employ mobile first design. It is important to note that it is possible to
launch an e-commerce presence in a much shorter timeframe, by being pragmatic and launching
with a more limited offering.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you
should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

6) Your e-commerce design company has received an RFP to help create an e-commerce
presence for Tucci's, a renowned gourmet and specialty butcher that now wishes to sell goods
over the Internet. Describe the elements you will include in your proposal to Tucci's.
Answer: Student answers will vary, but should include the following:
Elements that will be in the proposal include the (1) business goals, or vision, or mission
statement, (2) identification of the target audience, (3) description of the marketspace, (4) a
strategic analysis or SWOT analysis, (5) the content to be included, (6) a development timeline,
and (7) a budget. Other recommendations that the student should mention include using social,
local, or mobile marketing.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you
should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

7) What are the two most important management challenges in building a successful e-commerce
presence?

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A) developing a clear understanding of business objectives and knowing how to choose the right
technology to achieve those objectives
B) having an accurate understanding of your business environment and an achievable business
plan
C) building a team with the right skill sets and closely managing the development process
D) identifying the key components of your business plan and selecting the right software,
hardware, and infrastructure for your site
Answer: A
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

8) In order from beginning to end, the major steps in the SDLC are:
A) systems analysis/planning; systems design; building the system; testing; and implementation.
B) systems design; testing; building the system; and implementation.
C) systems analysis/planning; systems design; building the system; implementation; and testing.
D) systems analysis/planning; implementation; building the system; and testing.
Answer: A
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

9) ________ are the types of information systems capabilities needed to meet business
objectives.
A) Information requirements
B) System functionalities
C) System design specifications
D) Physical design specifications
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

10) Which of the following basic system functionalities is used to display goods on a website?
A) product database
B) digital catalog
C) shopping cart system
D) customer database system
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

11) Which system functionality must your website have to be able to personalize or customize a
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product for a client?
A) an ad server
B) a site tracking and reporting system
C) an inventory management system
D) customer on-site tracking
Answer: D
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

12) Which of the following are the two main components of a systems design?
A) logical design and physical design
B) behavioral design and technological design
C) business objectives and technology requirements
D) front-end systems and back-end systems
Answer: A
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

13) Which of the following helps you engage your customers in a conversation?
A) shopping cart
B) product database
C) on-site blog
D) site tracking and reporting system
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

14) Which of the following is not one of the basic business objectives for an e-commerce site?
A) display goods
B) execute a transaction
C) provide production and supplier links
D) optimize system architecture
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

15) All of the following are basic information requirements for a product database except:
A) product descriptions.
B) stock numbers.
C) customer ID numbers.
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D) inventory levels.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

16) Which of the following typically includes a data flow diagram to describe the flow of
information for an e-commerce site?
A) physical design
B) logical design
C) testing plan
D) co-location plan
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

17) Which of the following details the actual hardware components to be used in a system?
A) architecture plan
B) system functionalities plan
C) logical design
D) physical design
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

18) Which of the following verifies that the business objectives of the system are in fact
working?
A) system testing
B) acceptance testing
C) unit testing
D) implementation testing
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

19) Which of the following involves testing a site's program modules one at a time?
A) system testing
B) acceptance testing
C) unit testing
D) implementation testing
Answer: C
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Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

20) Most of the time required to maintain an e-commerce site is spent on:
A) debugging code.
B) responding to emergency situations.
C) general administration and making changes and enhancements to the system.
D) changes in reports, data files, and links to backend databases.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

21) All of the following are simple steps for optimizing web page content except:
A) reducing unnecessary HTML comments.
B) segmenting computer servers to perform dedicated functions.
C) using more efficient graphics.
D) avoiding unnecessary links to other pages on the site.
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

22) Which of the following is the minimum system architecture requirement for an e-commerce
website that processes orders?
A) single-tier architecture
B) two-tier architecture
C) three-tier architecture
D) multi-tier architecture
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

23) The concept of a “sprint” is related to which of the following development methodologies?
A) prototyping
B) Scrum
C) component-based development
D) DevOps
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
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presence.

24) Which of the following involves creating a skeleton version that focuses on functionality
rather than design?
A) web services
B) wireframing
C) Scrum
D) DevOps
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

25) Which of the following is the preferred method of implementing a service-oriented

architecture?
A) prototyping
B) Scrum
C) web services
D) DevOps
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

26) Which form of testing compares a control page with one that is very different?
A) template test
B) new concept test
C) funnel test
D) system test
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

27) A template test is a form of which type of testing?

A) unit testing
B) system testing
C) acceptance testing
D) A/B testing
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

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28) When using multivariate testing, if you wish to test three elements, such as an image, a
button, and a piece of text, each with two different versions, how many combinations will you
need to test?
A) 2
B) 4
C) 6
D) 8
Answer: D
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

29) The process of comparing a website with that of its competitors in terms of response speed,
quality of layout, and design is known as:
A) split testing.
B) funnel testing.
C) benchmarking.
D) system testing.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

30) The SDLC methodology helps developers to understand the business objectives of a system
and design an appropriate solution.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

31) Scrum is a type of agile development.

Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

32) Using prebuilt templates is typically one of the most inexpensive options when building an e-
commerce site.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Easy
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.
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33) In general, the annual system maintenance cost will roughly parallel the development cost.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

34) A multi-tier architecture includes a web and database server.

Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

35) Microservices are a very granular implementation of SOA.

Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

36) Describe the major issues surrounding the decision to build and/or host your own e-
commerce site or to outsource some aspects of site development. Include the advantages and
disadvantages of each decision.
Answer: If you decide to build an e-commerce site in-house, you will need a multi-skilled staff
including programmers, graphic artists, web designers, and project managers. You will also have
to select and purchase software and hardware. Building a site from scratch involves a great deal
of risk, and the costs can be high because many of the required elements of an e-commerce site
such as shopping carts, credit card authentication and processing, inventory management, and
order processing are quite complex. Specialized firms have already perfected these tools and
your staff will often have to learn to build these features themselves. The advantage is that you
and your staff may be able to build a site that exactly suits the specific needs of your company.
Another advantage is that you will be developing a skilled staff and consequently acquiring an
invaluable supply of in-house knowledge that will enable your firm to change the site if
necessary due to the rapidly changing business environment.

If, on the other hand, you decide to purchase an expensive site-building package, you will have
to evaluate different packages to decide which one will be best suited to your firm's needs. This
can be a lengthy process and some packages may have to be modified. Additional vendors may
have to be hired to execute the modifications, and this can cause the costs to mount rapidly.

You can also purchase less expensive, prebuilt templates, but you will be limited to the
functionality already built into the template. You can choose templates from merchant-solution
vendors such as Shopify or from a site-building tool such as Weebly, Wix, or WordPress. Bricks-
and-mortar retailers can generally design a site themselves because they have a skilled staff in
place and have made large investments in information technology, such as databases and
telecommunications. They will usually use outside vendors to build the e-commerce applications
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for the site. Medium-size startups will often purchase a prepackaged site-building tool and make
modifications as necessary. Small startups that only require a simple virtual storefront will
usually use a template.

The hosting decision is independent from the building decision, but the two are usually
considered at the same time. Most businesses choose to outsource hosting because it is generally
less expensive than it would be for them to purchase the hardware and the physical space, lease
the communications lines, and hire the staff. Large hosting firms can build the
telecommunication links and emergency power supplies and achieve economies of scale by
establishing huge "server farms" in strategic locations around the country. If you host your own
site, you must also build the security and backup capabilities yourself.

Another option is co-location in which a firm purchases or leases a web server and has total
control over its operation, but the server is located in the vendor's physical facility. In a co-
location agreement, the vendor maintains the facility, the machinery, and the communication
lines. Small ISPs may not be able to provide service that is as reliable as the large providers. The
disadvantage of outsourcing hosting is that as your business grows, you may need more power or
services than the hosting company can provide. This is the main reason that firms will decide to
host their own sites, but the costs will almost always be higher than if they had chosen an
outsourcing firm.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce
presence.

37) All of the following might be part of a website's middle-tier layer except:
A) a database server.
B) an ad server.
C) legacy corporate applications.
D) a mail server.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

38) The leading web server software is:

A) Apache.
B) Microsoft Internet Information Server.
C) Sun Solaris.
D) Google Enterprise Server.
Answer: A
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

39) All of the following are basic functionality provided by web servers except:
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A) site management tools.
B) data capture tools.
C) security services.
D) a shopping cart.
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

40) Which of the following would you use to verify that links on web pages are valid?
A) HTTP
B) FTP
C) data capture tools
D) site management tools
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

41) All of the following are examples of an open source content management system (CMS)
except:
A) Joomla.
B) Drupal.
C) Dreamweaver CC.
D) WordPress.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

42) Advantages of dynamic page generation include all of the following except:
A) lowered menu costs.
B) market segmentation.
C) nearly cost-free price discrimination.
D) client-side execution of programming.
Answer: D
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

43) Which of the following cannot be used to retrieve objects from a database?
A) Node.js
B) ASP.NET

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C) JSP
D) HTML
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

44) Which of the following monitors and controls access to a main web server, and implements
firewall protection?
A) proxy server
B) list server
C) groupware server
D) mail server
Answer: A
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

45) Which of the following technologies is used to separate the design and presentation of
content from the content creation process?
A) SOA
B) proxy server
C) shopping cart
D) CMS
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

46) MySQL is which of the following?

A) open source database software
B) scripting language embedded in HTML documents
C) web server software
D) website analytics software
Answer: A
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

47) All of the following are basic functionality provided by e-commerce merchant server
software except:
A) a product catalog.
B) marketing analytics.
C) a shopping cart.
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D) credit card processing.
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

48) ________ are a kind of middleware software that provides the glue connecting traditional
corporate systems to the customer as well as all the functionality needed to conduct e-commerce.
A) Application servers
B) Web page servers
C) Database servers
D) Content management servers
Answer: A
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

49) Which of the following is a standard that makes it possible to access data from any
application regardless of the database and operating system software being used?
A) CGI
B) ODBC
C) MySQL
D) HTTP
Answer: B
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

50) The web server software used has a significant impact on how a website's web pages look on
a user's computer.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Easy
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

51) DHMTL is used to generate dynamic web pages.

Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

52) Dynamic page generation enables price discrimination.

Answer: TRUE
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Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

53) Objects can be retrieved from a database using Java Server Pages.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

54) Explain the main functionalities included in e-commerce merchant server software and the
decision-making process for a manager choosing from among the various e-commerce merchant
server software packages.
Answer: E-commerce merchant server software includes an online catalog, order taking
capabilities using an online shopping cart, and online credit card processing. Merchant server
software typically includes a database and the capability to post lists, product descriptions,
product photographs, and in larger sites even sound, animations, videos, or interactivities with
product demonstrations and customer service representatives.

Online shopping carts enable customers to set aside items they wish to purchase while they
continue to shop at the site. Online shopping cart capabilities must also include the ability for
consumers to review the items they have set aside and delete or edit items as necessary. Finally,
the customer must be able to click a button to begin the order processing system. Credit card
processing must work in conjunction with the shopping cart so that the customer's credit card can
be verified, the charge can be debited to the card, and a credit to the firm's account can be made.
Merchant server software/e-commerce suites offer an integrated environment that promises to
provide most, or all, of the functionality and capabilities you will need to develop a
sophisticated, customer-centric site. E-commerce suites come in three general ranges of price and
functionality: basic, mid-range, and high-end.

Key factors to consider when selecting a package include functionality, support for different
business models, business process modeling tools, visual site management tools and reporting,
performance and scalability, connectivity to existing business systems, compliance with
standards, global and multicultural capability, and local sales tax and shipping rules.

For instance, although e-commerce suites promise to do everything, your business may require
special functionality. You will need a list of business functionality requirements. Your business
may involve several different business models. Be sure the package can support all of your
business models. You may wish to change your business processes, such as order taking and
order fulfillment. Does the suite contain tools for modeling business process and work flows?

Understanding how your site works will require visual reporting tools that make its operation
transparent to many different people in your business. A poorly designed software package will
drop off significantly in performance as visitors and transactions increase. Check for
performance and scalability by stress testing a pilot edition or obtaining data from the vendor
about performance under load. You will have to connect the e-commerce suite to your traditional
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business systems. How will this connection to existing systems be made, and is your staff skilled
in making the connection? Because of the changing technical environment — in particular,
changes in mobile commerce platforms — it is important to document exactly what standards the
suite supports now, and what the migration path will be toward the future. Finally, your e-
commerce site may have to work both globally and locally. You may need a foreign language
edition using foreign currency denominations. And you will have to collect sales taxes across
many local, regional, and national tax systems. Does the e-commerce suite support this level of
globalization and localization?
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing
web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

55) The term stateless refers to the fact that:

A) no one government entity controls the Internet.
B) the server does not have to maintain an ongoing dedicated interaction with the client
computer.
C) system performance degrades as more simultaneous users require service.
D) web servers may maintain multiple instances of server software to handle requests.
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate
hardware for an e-commerce site.

56) Which of the following types of sites typically require a high percentage of secure pages?
A) web services
B) customer self-service
C) trading
D) publishing/subscription
Answer: C
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate
hardware for an e-commerce site.

57) Which of the following is not a main factor in determining the overall demand on an e-
commerce site?
A) file sizes of web pages being served
B) number of simultaneous users in peak periods
C) speed of legacy applications that are needed to supply data to web pages
D) whether content is dynamic or static
Answer: A
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate
hardware for an e-commerce site.

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58) All of the following are steps one can take to right-size a website's hardware platform and
meet demands for service except:
A) scaling hardware vertically.
B) scaling hardware horizontally.
C) replacing static pages with dynamically generated pages.
D) improving processing architecture.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate
hardware for an e-commerce site.

59) All of the following are methods of improving the processing architecture of a website
except:
A) separating static content from dynamic content.
B) optimizing ASP code.
C) optimizing the database schema.
D) adding web servers.
Answer: D
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate
hardware for an e-commerce site.

60) Upgrading a server from a single processor to multiple processors is an example of scaling a
site vertically.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate
hardware for an e-commerce site.

61) Storing HTML pages in RAM rather than on a server's hard drive is an expensive way to
fine-tune the processing architecture of a website.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate
hardware for an e-commerce site.

62) Explain both demand and supply-side considerations when choosing the hardware platform
for an e-commerce site. Include a discussion of I/O-intensive vs. CPU-intensive operations and
scalability.
Answer: The hardware platform refers to the underlying computing equipment that a system will
need to perform all of the necessary e-commerce functions. You must have enough platform
capacity to meet peak demand, without overinvesting in unnecessary and expensive equipment.
The question is: How much computing and telecommunications capacity will be enough to meet
that peak demand?
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On the demand side, the first factor to consider is the maximum number of simultaneous users
your site experiences. System performance will degrade as more simultaneous users request
service. Processing HTTP requests for static pages is an I/O or input/output intensive operation,
meaning that it does not require heavy-duty processing power. However, as customers request
more advanced services such as searching the site, registering with the site, filling a shopping
cart and checking out, and particularly downloading large multimedia files, much more
processing power is required, and site performance can deteriorate rapidly. The user profile on
your site will help to determine the necessary hardware platform.

What types of requests will users on your site make, for how many pages, and for what kind of
service? Another factor to consider is the nature of the content on your site. If your site uses
dynamic page generation and business logic, as does the shopping cart, the load on the processor
increases rapidly. These types of requests are CPU-intensive operations, meaning that they
require a great deal of processing power. Any user interactions that require interfacing with a
database, such as filling out forms, adding items to the shopping cart, making purchases, or
filling out customer questionnaires, require lots of processing power. The final factor to consider
on the demand side is the telecommunication link your site has to the Web. The number of hits
your site can handle per second depends on the bandwidth connections between your server and
the Web. The larger the available bandwidth, the more simultaneous users your site can handle.
The connection to the client is also a consideration. As consumers embrace broadband
connections, they will be able to make far more frequent requests and will demand richer content
from your site. This increased demand will mean that additional capacity requirements may be
needed.

After you have estimated the present and future demands you expect your site to have, you will
have to look at supply side considerations. First and foremost is scalability. How will your site be
able to increase in size as demand warrants? You can scale your site vertically by upgrading the
servers from single processor to multiple processors. The drawbacks are that this can become
expensive with each growth cycle and that the site becomes overly dependent on just a small
number of powerful machines. You can also scale your site horizontally by adding multiple
single processor servers and balancing the load among many servers.

Scaling horizontally can be less expensive since you can use older PCs that would otherwise be
discarded. In addition, you will have to purchase special load-balancing software. The main
drawbacks of scaling horizontally are that the size of the physical facility will have to increase,
and that there is added management complexity. Perhaps the best method for meeting the
demands for service on your site is to improve the processing architecture of your site by
splitting the workload up into I/O-intensive and CPU-intensive operations. Then you can fine-
tune the servers to handle each type of workload. You can add RAM to servers that will store the
HTML pages, reducing the load on the hard drives, and move the CPU-intensive activities to
high-end multiple processor servers that are dedicated to handling a particular task, such as order
processing and accessing the necessary databases. These steps will enable you to reduce the
number of servers required to handle your peak demand.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate

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hardware for an e-commerce site.

63) Django is based on which of the following?

A) PHP
B) Python
C) Perl
D) Ruby on Rails
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

64) Ruby on Rails is based on which of the following philosophies?

A) SLDC
B) CoC
C) LAMP
D) Ajax
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

65) Which of the following is the most commonly used server-side scripting language?
A) Ruby on Rails
B) Django
C) PHP
D) Perl
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

66) All of the following are website design features that annoy customers except:
A) slow-loading pages.
B) pop-under ads.
C) splash pages.
D) multi-browser functionality.
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

67) All of the following are important factors in search engine optimization except:
A) selecting keywords and page titles.
B) encouraging other sites to link to your site.
C) buying search engine ads.
D) adhering to privacy policies.
Answer: D
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Difficulty: Easy
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

68) ________ scripts have become obsolete, due to security and other concerns and have been
replaced by more modern and secure methods.
A) CGI
B) ColdFusion
C) JavaScript
D) ASP.NET
Answer: A
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

69) ________ is a programming language invented by Netscape used to control the objects on an
HTML page and handle interactions with the browser.
A) Python
B) ASP
C) ColdFusion
D) JavaScript
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

70) The primary way a website is able to personalize the content presented to a visitor is through
the use of:
A) privacy policies.
B) cookies.
C) accessibility rules.
D) site management tools.
Answer: B
Difficulty: Easy
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

71) Which of the following is not part of the LAMP open source web development model?
A) Linux
B) Apache
C) Microsoft IIS
D) PHP
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

72) Django follows the ________ programming principle.

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A) CoC
B) WYSIWYG
C) DRY
D) LAMP
Answer: C
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

73) The current versions of most web browsers no longer support Java applets.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

74) What are widgets and how are they used? How do they differ from mashups?
Answer: A widget is a small, prebuilt chunk of code that executes automatically in an HTML
web page to perform a specific task. Many are free. Social networks and blogs use widgets to
present users with content drawn from around the Web including news headlines,
announcements, press releases, calendars, clocks, weather, live TV, games, and other
functionality. Mashups are a little more complicated and involve pulling functionality and data
from one program and including it in another. The most common mashup involves using Google
Maps data and software and combining it with other data.
Difficulty: Easy
AACSB: Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

75) List and briefly describe the eight most important factors in successful e-commerce site
design.
Answer: The eight most important factors in successful e-commerce site design include
functionality (pages that work, load quickly, and point the customer toward product offerings);
being informational (including links that customers can easily find to discover more about the
firm and its products); ease of use (simple foolproof navigation); providing redundant navigation
(alternative navigation to the same content); ease of purchase (one or two clicks to purchase);
multi-browser functionality (site works with most popular browsers); simple graphics (avoiding
distracting graphics and sounds that the user cannot control); and legible text (avoiding
backgrounds that distort text or make it illegible).
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

76) What tools or technologies are available for providing interactivity and active content on a
website and what functionality do they add? Briefly describe at least five.
Answer: Among the tools that are available for providing interactivity on a website are Java,
Java Server Pages, JavaScript, Node.js, and other tools based on JavaScript, Active Server Pages
(ASP) and ASP.Net, Cold Fusion, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and Django, as well as widgets and
mashups.

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Java is a programming language that allows programmers to create interactivity on the user's
client computer. Today, Java remains one of the most popular programming languages, with
many critical technologies, such as the Google Android mobile platform, leveraging aspects of
the language.

Java Server Pages (JSP) is a web page coding standard. Developers use a combination of HTML,
JSP scripts, and Java to dynamically generate web pages. Java servlets (small programs) are
specified in the web page and run on the web server to modify pages before they are sent to the
user. JSP is supported by most of the popular application servers on the market today.

JavaScript is a programming language invented by Netscape that is used to control objects on

HTML pages as well as the interactions with the browser. It is much more acceptable to
corporations because it is more stable than Java and it is restricted to the operation of requested
web pages. It is used for many common, yet crucial functions such as verifying and validating
customer input. For example, it is used to verify that a valid phone number or e-mail address has
been entered. JavaScript is also used as part of Node.js, a cross-platform environment for server-
side applications (including mobile).
Node.js has become one of the most popular server-side developer frameworks, resulting in
JavaScript remaining a vital language not just for web development, but also for platform-as-a-
service (PaaS).
There are also a number of other tools based on JavaScript that help automate the process of
creating web applications. React and Vue are open source JavaScript libraries for building user
interfaces. AngularJS (sometimes also referred to as Angular.js) is another popular tool.
AngularJS is a JavaScript-based open source front-end web application framework that extends
the functionality of HTML. D3.js (short for Data Driven Documents) is a JavaScript library for
visualizing data with HTML, SVG, and CSS. jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library
designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript and
XML) uses a variety of different tools, including JavaScript, to allow web pages to be updated
asynchronously (i.e., updating only parts of the page rather than having to reload the entire page
to change just part of the content). TypeScript is an open-source programming language
developed and maintained by Microsoft, designed for the development of large applications. It is
included in Microsoft’s Visual Studio software development package. Typescript is a superset of
JavaScript, building on JavaScript, but with extra development tools. Existing JavaScript
programs are also valid TypeScript programs. TypeScript can be used to develop both client-side
and server-side Java applications.
Active Server Pages (ASP) and its successor, ASP.NET, are Microsoft's versions of server-side
programming. ASP and ASP.NET enable web developers to easily create and open records from
a database and execute programs within an HTML page. They also handle all forms of
interactivity found on e-commerce sites.

ColdFusion is an integrated server-side environment for developing interactive web applications.

It combines an intuitive tag-based scripting language and a tag-based server scripting language
(CFML) that lowers the cost of creating interactive features. It provides visual design,
debugging, and deployment tools that make it a complete web application development platform.

PHP is an open source, general purpose scripting language that is most frequently used in server-
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side web applications to generate dynamic web page content, although it can also be used for
client-side graphical user interface applications. PHP is also a part of many web application
development frameworks, such as CakePHP, CodeIgniter, and others, and is also part of the
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) open source web development model for building
dynamic websites and web applications (Perl and Python are sometimes substituted for PHP in
some LAMP projects).

Ruby on Rails (RoR or Rails) is an open source web application framework based on the Ruby
programming language. RoR is based on a philosophy known as convention over configuration,
or coding by convention (CoC), which means that the framework provides a structured layout
that minimizes the number of decisions that the programmer needs to make, thereby simplifying
and speeding development. JavaScript and Ajax are highly integrated into RoR, which makes it
easy to handle Ajax requests for page updates.

Django is also an open source web application framework based on the Python programming
language. Django is optimized for the creation of complex, database-driven websites. It allows
for fast development, focuses on automating as much as possible, emphasizes the reusability of
various components, and follows the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) programming principle.

Widgets are small chunks of code that execute automatically in your HTML web page. They
typically present users with dynamic content such as news headlines, calendars, clocks, weather,
live TV, games, and other functionality. Mashups pull functionality from one website and
include it in another, such as a real-estate agent incorporating Google Maps data in her own
website.
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Application of knowledge; Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve website performance.

77) All of the following are key design principles of responsive web design except:
A) flexible grid-based layouts.
B) media queries.
C) coding by convention.
D) flexible images and media.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

78) Which of the following is a server-side technique that detects the attributes of the device
making the request, and using predefined templates, loads a version of a site optimized for the
device?
A) LAMP
B) AWD
C) mobile first design
D) RoR
Answer: B

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Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

79) Which of the following statements about responsive web design (RWD) is not true?
A) RWD works best for sites that have complex functionality.
B) RWD tools include HTML5 and CSS3.
C) RWD makes it possible to design a website that automatically adjusts its layout and display
according to the screen resolution of the device on which it is being viewed.
D) RWD can be costly.
Answer: A
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

80) Building which of the following is the least expensive path to creating a mobile presence?
A) native app
B) mobile website
C) mobile web app
D) hybrid HTTP
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

81) Which of the following statements about mobile websites is not true?
A) Mobile websites run on a firm's servers, just like a traditional website.
B) Mobile websites can be built using standard web tools such as server-side HTML, Linux,
PHP and SQL.
C) Generally, mobile websites operate more quickly than traditional websites viewed on a
desktop computer connected to a broadband office network.
D) Most large firms today have mobile websites.
Answer: C
Difficulty: Difficult
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

82) Beginning the e-commerce development process with a mobile presence rather than a
desktop website is referred to as which of the following?
A) RWD
B) AWD
C) mobile first design
D) RESS
Answer: C
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Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Application of knowledge
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

83) An HTML5 app is one designed to specifically operate using a mobile device's hardware and
operating system.
Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

84) Native web apps need to be developed for different mobile platforms.
Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

85) Discuss some of the unique features that must be considered when designing a mobile web
presence.
Answer: Designing a mobile web presence is somewhat different from designing a website that
will be accessed via a traditional desktop computer. For instance, mobile hardware is smaller,
and there are more resource constraints on data storage and processing power. The mobile
platform is also constrained by slower connection speeds than provided by traditional desktop
computers. As a result, file sizes should be kept smaller, and the number of files sent to the user
reduced. Mobile displays are much smaller and require simplification, and some screens are not
as easily visible in sunlight. Touch screen technology also introduces new interaction routines
that are different from the traditional mouse and keyboard. The mobile platform is not as easy to
use as a data entry tool, and therefore choice boxes and lists should be used more frequently so
that the user can easily scroll and touch-select options, rather than type them in. You will also
want to determine whether to create a mobile-friendly version of your e-commerce site or
implement responsive web design or adaptive web design, or create an entirely new mobile app.

You can choose to build a mobile web app, a native app, or a hybrid app. Building a mobile web
app that uses the mobile device's browser requires more effort and cost than developing a mobile
website, suffers from the same limitations as any browser-based application, but does offer some
advantages such as better graphics, more interactivity, and faster local calculations. Building a
native app, which is programmed for specific mobile operating systems, requires much more
programming; however, it will allow you much greater creative rein in making a unique
customer experience. You can also choose to create a hybrid, cross-platform mobile app with
various low-cost or open source app development toolkits.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a
mobile website and building mobile applications.

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