The E Extensions to Java:

Distributed Commerce Demo


For commerce to flourish on the Internet, it's becoming clear that developers need efficient tools to build secure commercial applications. This demo, while simple in design, is a metaphor for the larger picture of how to implement distributed commerce on the Internet using E. The E Extensions to Java from Electric Communities provide essential resources for writing secure, distributed applications.

Elements of the Demo

This demo implements a secure, distributed, commercial environment that is easy to create using the E Extensions to Java. There are several main components of this demo:

Where to obtain E and this demo code

All the code for this demo will be made available online at the Electric Communities web site at http://www.communities.com, along with the E extensions themselves and documentation. The objects in this demo are fully inheritable, and you can use them as a foundation for building your own applications.

Demo overview

In this demo, a single virtual space (representing a commercial environment) has a representation on three machines, each running a different platform. The machines can communicate with each other, yet each is fully independent of the others.

A machine can create an object to be shared in this virtual space. It creates an object by choosing it from a pulldown menu. Any machine creating an object owns that object. When a machine creates an object, a presence, or representation of that object, is also instantiated on the other machines. Any action taken by the object (for example, moving it around) is mirrored by the presences on the other machines. A window at the bottom of the screen shows what objects the machine owns. This window is updated each time the machine either creates or trades an object.

To trade an object, the machines use the Trading Table dialog. The Trading Table is an object itself that is independent of the machines; none of the machines own it. Any machine can propose a trade. For example, assume machine A wants to buy a red dot from Machine B. Machine A can see the red dot, since it appears as a presence on its workspace. However, to have actual ownership, it proposes a trade with Machine B.

To do this, Machine A brings up the Trading Table and drags its presence of the red dot to it, and any objects it offers to trade in turn (for example, a green square). The Trading Table with this proposed trade then appears on Machine B. Machine B can either ignore this trade proposal, or counter it by offering other objects to exchange (for example, it can propose that Machine A trade 2 green squares in exchange for the red dot). When both machines are satisfied by the offer, they click the Trade button. The objects then exchange ownership, which is reflected in the bottom window.

Note that in order to trade an object, the machine must actually have ownership of that object. Machine A could not have traded its two green squares if it did not own them.

The benefits of a decentralized commercial environment

Building commercial applications is nothing new. Many programmers today are coding programs similar to the one modeled by this demo. However, these applications generally operate on a strict client/server model--there is one central server machine, and multiple client machines. The server owns all the objects, and must ``approve'' all transactions among the clients.

Using a client/server approach can work for many situations. However, a major advantage to a decentralized commercial environment is its scalability. It's much easier to scale a decentralized environment to a larger community because processing can be distributed among the various machines; you don't have the problem of a central server eventually overloading as your system grows larger.

Using E to build decentralized applications

The E Extensions to Java are ideal for creating distributed applications such as the decentralized commercial environment in this demo. This is because E has built-in functionality for secure remote object communications. Any Java or E-object (which is a Java object with added E functionality) can send a message to another E-object, even if that E-object is on a different machine on the network; the objects do not need to know anything about underlying network protocols.

Because many of the communications details are already built into E, you don't have to manually code things like:

For example, in some systems, if different nodes on a network need to communicate, you must explicitly include the addresses of those nodes and their communications protocols in the code. E, on the other hand, does this automatically.

And E lets you do things that are very difficult to program in other languages. For example, consider some these technical highlights of this demo (for more information on E concepts, see the E Programmer's Guide):

In addition to this distributed application functionality, E is built on Java. You can take full advantage of E's distributed communication functionality and easily integrate it with your Java code.


(C) 1996 Electric Communities
10101 North De Anza Boulevard, Suite 100
Cupertino, California 95014
(408) 342-9500
http://www.communities.com

Electric Communities and the E logo are trademarks of Electric Communities. Use of the E logo for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Electric Communities may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws.

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Last Modified: 5/24/96