DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE TRADING COMMUNITY WEBSITE

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The Internet has been a commonly accepted means of technology to conduct daily activities, the growth of the Internet since the starting of a new millennium has been extra ordinary and it has created a new type of commerce: Trading on the internet.
An online trading system is an electronic marketplace where clients can connect and post orders to trade goods and services they can also buy and sell specified products.The trading system deploys a gateway for clients to connect to the trading server and send and receive messages.The trading server, or trading engine, is responsible for processing new orders received, placing them in an order book and executing a matching function on the order book. These functions occur whenever the trading server receives a new order.  The trading system accepts orders from clients, sending acknowledgements, ACK’s, or negative acknowledgements NACK’s, in response to communicate receipt of the order or rejection of the order to a given client.If the match function results in actual matches of buyers and sellers, the trading engine will communicate fill messages back to the parties involved in the transaction. Normally this would be a secure communication between the server and the individual clients involved in the transaction, but this specification only requires that the fill message contain unique identifiers for the buyer and seller (and that the buyer and seller client programs process only the fill information that is related to their unique identity).
Online trading communities often have forums and chart rooms designed to facilitate communication between the members.
An online trading community provides people with a structured method for trading, bartering, or selling goods and services. These communities often have forums and chart rooms designed to facilitate communication between the members.
Project Review
This project provides people with a structured method for trading, bartering, or selling goods and services. The major modules of the project are:
Registration/Login System
This system allows new users to register so as to join the online community. After the registration, an email confirmation is sent to the email address provided where verification by email is required. The Login identifies and authenticates the user through the credentials provided by the user i.e. it allows registered user to login. After a user is logged in, the user can add any item for trading to the website. After login, the logout system allows the user to logout to prevent unauthorized access to a users account.
Username and password recovery
Forgotten username or password can be recovered through this system. The username or temporary password will be sent to the users email address.
Messaging system
This system is designed to facilitate communication between traders. A user that needs more information about a product can easily send a message to request for more information. Users can also check received and sent messages.
Multi-level User Authorization system
User groups allow you to control how registered users interact with the site. A page on the site can be restricted to one or more groups. It permits simultaneous access by users with different security clearances and prevents users from obtaining access to information for which they lack authorization, this grants different users with different access levels i.e. an anonymous (someone not logged on) user or a logged on user who is not a member of a group a page is restricted to, will be denied access to the page.
Content Management System (CMS)
The content management system is included in the admin area, it allows an administrator with little or no knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages add new categories and easily edit categories.
Report Module
Even after the moderator has approved a product the owner can edit the product to provide false information. If a customer notices this the product can be reported.
Feedback system
Incorporating customer feedback is an effective approach in building confidence and trust to new customers. This system allows a user leave a positive, neutral or negative feedback plus a short comment after a trade. Positive feedback from other users will increase the level of trust among new customers.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The major problems faced by the online trading community:
Poor transport/ logistics
Transport infrastructure develops simultaneously with transport services such as trucking services, transport connections, trains, passenger and cargo flights, postal services and parcel delivery, etc. It is these services related to the transport infrastructure that will support online trade and e-commerce. Poor transport systems will act the delivery of items to their destination.
Lack of trust
One of the major problems faced by the online trading community is the lack of trust. Most people fear the theft of electronic payment details or not receiving traded items. This is one of the reasons why people prefer to trade physically than online.
Proving a user is right when a complaint is made that the wrong item was sent or the item received was damaged.
Providing a way to return a user’s item if the wrong item was sent or the item was damaged.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this project are as follows:
1. To provide a structured method for people to be able to trade their goods for other peoples goods.
2. To develop a community where people can easily find other people willing to accept their trade with convenience.
3. To developed a platform where trading can be done anywhere, at any time and at the convenience of the traders.
4. To have a large community, so that users to choose the best offer out of several offers.
5. To make easy for traders to send and receive their traded items.
6. To provide a customer feedback to help boost confidence and trust among traders.
1.4 Scope of the Study
This project research will cover these following areas:
* This project covers trading of goods or services online.
* It must give users convenient and effective ways to trade items.
* Friendly interfaces are also necessary in this project.
* Focused on providing a secure system for trading.
* Make easy to manage the content of the website.
* This project covers online advertisement, allowing people to advertise their products online.

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