Date: 18th May 1998
By: Wally Ripper
For: Australian Delphi User Group
1995 2000 2005
High estimate $500M $32Billion $186Billion
Low estimate $500M $7Billion $76Billion
May 1997 October 1997
Average online purchase $162 $191
Percentage of repeat customers 26% 33%
Average income of shopper $75,000 $65,000
What is Intouch?
Predicted areas of growth are travel and financial services (Fund Choice)
Needed to create our own interactive site.
Financial site
Needed something unique to get free press
Interactive
Calculations real time
High transactions
Reliable
Commerce engine ultimately
1. Show Intouch site, and each area
2. Tools used in it's creation:
3. MS Front Page $150
4. Delphi $350 Client Server Not Required
5. CGI Expert $175 Pro Version with source (needed for thin clients)
6. Graphics Editor (Adobe Photoshop or Photo Impact from Ulead)
Visual Inter Dev from Microsoft
Web Hub
Web Application Builder for Delphi (claims a site in 5 minutes)
Intra Builder
CGI Expert
Java 1.1 (good for intranet, browsers need plugin)
J Builder (Strong developers interface)
Visual Age (Strong data models)
Selection:
Initially Intrabuilder because CGI Expert wasn't around.
Had problems with programmer so I took over.
Needed something that I could get running quickly and use existing
Delphi code
Didn't want to learn a new language.
1. Doesn't need a plugin
2. Best to be able to run on both WinNT and Unix platforms
3. If can't, I have selected NT platforms
4. Using Intra Builder, maybe even Web Hub may need "Agents" running for state
control which limits you if you aren't running an intranet. ie.
You really need a NT server dedicated. Web Central prices this at $500 setup and $1,200
per month, $500 if you supply the hardware and NT license.
1. Has state control built in without using cookies
2. Scalable, Standard, Pro, Client Server
3. Quick to develop basic database screens
4. Good developers interface (draw screens, place object and has object inspector like
Delphi)
5. Strong database tools
1. First installation, demos didn't work out of the box
2. Intrabuilder required it own hardware because of agents
3. Price of buying new software
4. Support was OK but had to go back to USA using credit card
5. Slow on Web, almost like the difference between interpreted and compiled programs
6. Had to learn something new "Javascript"
7. I found reliability was a problem (losing data)
8. Screen layout under different browsers mis-aligned
1. It's Delphi
2. Cheap $75 for standard $175 for Pro (recommended for thinnest client)
3. Uses external editor (Frontpage) for creating screens by cutting and
pasting
4. Works better with different browsers, alignment is good, watch the
fonts (DHTML fixes it)
5. Native tool developeed in Delphi (not ActiveX control)
6. Fast, thin clients around the 50K mark
7. Realiable in comparison, 3 crash in 3 weeks (could have been NT)
1. Support is woeful
2. Better explanation of "Sessions Variables" was needed
3. Better explanation of "Post" and "Action" integration with CGI
Expert was needed
4. More samples, not just "Single Screen" samples
5. Does graphs, excellent !
6. A lot of trail and error because of no support
7. A lot of manual coding which is expected when you want control
1. Browsers will need to support more options
2. Java
3. HTML
4. Active server pages
5. DHTML for accurate CSS screen positioning and changing appearance (all client side
saving band width)
6. XML has more than HTML but is a subset of SGML, the international
standard for defining descriptions of the structure and content of
electronic documents.