System Functionalities

All of functionalities work under the condition that a user is login successfully.

After user has login with their OpenID and the web server has get the authentication correctly, then all functionalities will ready to work. Figure 4 - 1 shows the functionalities of the system. And in the following sections, we describe the functionalities of the system in details.

Figure 4 - 1 the functionalities of P2P auction system

Shopping arcade search

25

4.1.1 Auction System

Auction system consists of three parts. First is some basic operations to manage a store. Second is three kind of lists to let user easy to memorize information about products. Third is the bidding part which handles all bidding for products.

There are four basic store operations to deal with selling product. First, adding a new selling product and put it on P2P network for other users to search. Second, modifying the content of products, this operation will store the modified data on P2P network. Third, user can delete a selling product. Finally setting a selling product due which means the selling procedure is ended. Moreover, there are three types of lists in the auction system which are chasing list, bidding list, and ending bid list. Chasing list let user add some products into the list that user wants to keep track of, this make user easy to memorize all products. Bidding list records all products that user has bid for, this make user keep stay in touch with the latest information of products. Ending bid list will refresh every time a new data is published, it will analysis products in the bidding list, if any product is due and the highest bidder matches user’s OpenID, then the product is move to ending bid list.

4.1.2 Bid System

The bidding part is an important feature of auction system. User can bid for what user wants. Finally the highest bidder of products must complete the transaction.

The bid system in P2P architecture is just like the one in server based architecture. User bid for products and the one who own highest price will get the transaction. The only difference between server based and P2P based auction system

26

is where user sends request to. When someone has bid for a product, in server based architecture what we need to do is just modify the data on server. But in P2P based architecture, information of products is on P2P network, user needs to retrieve product information from P2P network and modify the data then put it back to P2P network.

Finally publish the data to all subscribers and let the product owner retrieve the newly update product information and set to his profile.

4.1.3 Search System

Like server based auction system, searching is an important part for auction system. Users can find products by searching in the system. The difference between server based and P2P based auction system is that the way to store data. Server based auction system stores data in a centralize way, but P2P based auction system stores data in a distributed way.

The P2P auction system support two types of search, one is text based search which user need to key in terms to search for matching results and the other is shopping arcade. User doesn’t need to input anything, just click the shopping arcade button in system and get the list of all the stores on P2P network. There are three kinds of text based search. The first is OpenID search; user can type OpenID of seller to search for seller’s products. Second is keyword search; user can search for some specific keyword. Third is price range search; user can type an upper bound of affordable price and getting results back. The search system will not display products which are due, this will make user searching more easily.

27

4.1.4 Evaluation System

No matter what architecture the auction system is based on, users need to deal with a strange person. A successful transaction needs both seller and buyer trusts each other. As a result, evaluation system is very important, it build a fast and reliable way to inspect the one user transact with. The evaluation is given by other people. From the evaluation system, user can judge a transaction is safe or not.

The evaluating way in P2P auction system is special, unlike the server based auction system, user can decide to evaluate others or not. P2P auction system makes evaluation actively. Three days apart from product due date, the system will actively ask user about the transaction they made. User can give four kinds of evaluation, which are positive, negative, none and evaluate later. If user choose evaluate later, the evaluating frame will appear the next time when user login. By this way user is forced to give evaluation to every transaction. The work flow of evaluation system is shown in Figure 4 - 3, and the work flow of evaluating process is described in the next section.

The reason for three days is to leave enough time for seller and buyer to make a transaction deal. If user hasn’t got the product three days after they made a transaction, user can choose evaluation later or gives a negative evaluation in the evaluating process. And if user chooses to evaluate later, every next time user login, P2P auction system will ask the user to complete the evaluating process. So our evaluation system takes a positive way to do evaluate and it always asking user to give a evaluation.

This will decrease the rate of not giving evaluation after a transaction.

28

4.1.5 Message System

Most sever based auction systems don’t support instant message; instead they support message leaving system. To implement instant message is nature P2P technology because it is born for peer to peer communication. The advantage of leaving a message is to save personal space for both seller and buyer. On the other hand the disadvantage is that transaction process becomes longer, user must wait for a reply. This will make bad feeling for user who is eager to buy something.

In P2P auction system we support both instant message and message leaving system. User can choose the way suitable for them to contact to each other. The message leaving system let user choose to leave message with OpenID or nickname.

Using instant message user just clicks the OpenID user wants to talk to, and a talking window will pop out. When finish talking, no matter which side of user close the talking window, the other side of user will get a leaving message indicate the other is leaving.