B2B Forward Auction Creator v1.0 User & Admin Guides

System Requirements:

Local computer testing needed Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS, downloadable from Microsoft.com or found in Windows 98 Installer CD) or Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS, pre-built in Windows NT).
ISP’s Web hosting site on NT web server (with ODBC and ASP enabled.) for actual B2B Auction system running.
Disk space of 3MB or above.
Internet Explorer or Netscape 4.0 or above.

Installations:

Double click on the EXE installer to begin the program installation.
Type in Installer Password as provided by the supplier (normally inside email).
This will continue the program installation.
If you have Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS, downloadable from Microsoft.com or found inside Windows 98 Installer CD) or Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS, pre-built in Windows NT) preinstalled in your computer, you can copy all files and folders, from the installed folder to its web server root directory: InetPub\wwwRoot\
You must then MOVE the MS ACCESS database file ‘ForwardAuction.MDB’ from the folder to the web server root directory: InetPub\wwwRoot\

Please make sure that your local or remote web server allows you to execute Active Server Page (ASP) program and allows you to write to MS ACCESS database file from the client side (so that database can be updated directly from the web browser).

Move your mouse over the Personal Web Server icon as displayed in the right bottom corner of your Windows screen. If PWS has been successfully installed and set to run, it should displayed the hint message as below:

Microsoft Personal Web Server:

The following screen is the Personal Web Manager of PWS. You will be able to change or keep the web server root directory:

To test running it locally, please launch the Internet Explorer or Netscape 4.0 or above and type in web address: http://localhost/b2bForwardAuction/auction/

or http://term6/b2bForwardAuction/auction/
if your computer system name is, for example, term6 (see the Main Publishing section as shown above).

Assuming that the DEFAULT home page name is ‘default.asp’.

This will launch the B2B Auction system.
If you have your own NT web hosting site, you can upload the [B2BforwardAauction] folder and the database file to your website, and then use web browser to go to http://www.yourwebsite.com/b2bForwardAuction/

Note to Administrator:

Assuming that the DEFAULT home page name is ‘default.asp’.

Please upload the [b2bForwardAuction] folder to your website’s root directory. Also MOVE the database file ‘b2bForwardAuction.MDB’ from the uploaded folder to the Root Directory.

wwwroot : [b2bForwardAuction] folder
wwwroot : b2bForwardAuction.MDB’
(both folder and the database file are at the same root directory.)

Putting database file in the root directory will improve the security and avoid the sensitive data from been viewed unauthorized person.

Make sure that remote web server in your Internet Service Provider (ISP) side allows you to execute Active Server Page (ASP) program and allows you to write to MS ACCESS database file from the client side (so that database can be updated directly from the web browser). Normally these features can be set inside ISP’s Internet Information Server (IIS) with the ISP’s assistance.

Business-To-Business Forward Auction System

Auction Home

Business-To-Business (B2B) Auction System is a web-based e-commerce system designed for Suppliers and Corporate Purchasers to conduct corporate-level trading activities directly over the Internet.

Launch your web browser, and go to

http://localhost/b2bForwardAuction/auction/

or http://www.yourwebsite.com/B2BForwardAuction/auction/

while the first URL is the web location of the B2B auction system on your computer, and the latter will be the web address of your B2B auction system.

Your auction users will be able to read about your auction site and company, and also click on ‘contact us’ button to contact you (the auction site owner) via email or telephone number (all source codes are customizable, depended on your needs.) Click on ‘join now’ will allow new user to register to you as a new member.

In Part 2, user will be able to go to system sections through the auction menu bar which are described as below.

Auction Home: Click this link to go to Auction home page

New User Registration: Register to assign user name and password for new user

Post New Item: Allow registered user to post new item or service on auction

Feature Auctions: Display a list of paid feature auctions which is also on home page

Going, Going, Gone: All auctions that are ending today

Today’s New Auctions: All new auctions posted by users at today’s date

About This B2B Auction: Telling users about the user agreement

Logout: Registered user can log out this auction. Need to log in on next session

Bidder Service: Bidder can log in to check all bidding history

Seller Service: Seller can log in to check and re-list all auctions

Contact Support: Customer service site for all register users to contact administrator

Admin: Administrator can log in to monitor or control all auctions and system

Note: If Auction Administrator wishes to edit this auction menu bar at the heading, please use FrontPage program, WordPad, or other HTML editors to modify the file ‘bhead.inc’ inside [auction] directory.

User will be provided with the auction and seller search engines, which will search out the results based on the keywords of seller and item name, directly from Microsoft Access database (through open database connection). This database connection is customizable to upgrade to Microsoft SQL server database connection.

User can search for current, completed or all auctions, based on the keywords typed on the provided search field.

At least four featured auction items will be displayed on the auction home page, with pictures and links to the respective auction pages.

Users will be able to click on the main category name as listed below and then click on their respective subcategories in the following page in order to view all relevant auctions. All categories are general available categories and are pre-selected. To edit the category list, auction administrator can click on ‘admin’ link on the auction menu bar to continue to category updating section.

New User Registration

Clicking on “New User Registration’ will bring you to the registration page.

New user will need to create your unique User ID, email address and Password. Please note that email address must be valid since all auction activity info will be emailed to user’s email (by default, the mail sending service is disabled. To activate the email service, you must first open all ASP source codes, and enable the JMAIL service codes as instructed in the source scripts. You will need to install JMAIL program into your computer or website’s web server, which should require the assistance from their respective webmasters. JMAIL program can be downloaded from http://tech.dimac.net/ ) Also type in your Name, Street Address, City Name, State, Zip Code, Country Name and user’s Phone number for contact purpose.

Note:

' JMAIL - EMAIL SENDING SERVICE FOR ASP PROGRAM

' Install JMail.EXE (please download from http://tech.dimac.net/)to computer if you want to have an email sending service.

' You must install it in ISP's NT web server in order to use it online.

' Or install it in local computer if you want to test running locally.

' Then, remove the MARKS  at the beginning of the following lines to enable the JMail service.

' You can change the email and server setting in the following lines.

Note: If Auction Administrator wishes to edit the registration page, please use FrontPage program, WordPad, or other HTML editors to modify the file ‘registration.asp’ inside [asp] directory.

Post New Item

To post a new auction item or service, click on the link ‘Post New item’ as in the auction menu bar.

Seller will see a category list, where you can select the appropriate category for his new item.

Select one category from the list above. In this example, assuming that seller has a computer item to be auctioned. Click on category ‘Computer’.

Seller will then see an auction posting form for submitting a new item. Fill out all required fields as listed below.

Please note that incomplete auction posting form will be rejected by the auction system. Once seller has submitted the new item auction form, he cannot change it (unless user contact Auction Administrator to modify or remove the unwanted auction from the auction list).

Please type in valid User ID and Password. Add Item Name to the field provided. No more than 50 characters should be used as the Item Name. Select an appropriate subcategory from the drop down box that is under the selected main category: Computer.

In the Description box, you can add plain text or HTML text. Please make sure that user will describe the item as clear as possible, such as its conditions, specifications, payment types and shipping methods.

Type in picture web URL of the item, such as http://www.mywebsite.com/image/abc.gif. This image will be displayed at the top of item description inside the auction page.

Let bidders know where the location of the item is. User can type in City, State and Country name inside the Item Location field, such as Los Angeles, CA, USA. This will allow bidders to estimate the approximate shipping and handling costs, as well as the shipping period, before placing their bids on this auction item.

Fill in how many Lots that the seller has for this item. If the seller has multiple lots he wishes to sell to multiple bidders, please type in the number of lots in the field provided.

Please provide the information of the number of Packs is inside your item. For example, if seller has 10 floppy disks in a single pack or box, please type in Packs field as 10. If seller has 20 lots of the 10-pack floppy disks, then this will be 10-pack in 20 lots.

In Starting Bid field, please type in the desired starting price of the auction item which is also the lowest price that you want to sell this item or to offer to bidders.

Seller must set an Increment Bid price, such as $2, which will be added to the auction price as the next auction bid amount (if met the maximum quantity of the item).

For example, if the price of 1 lot of the 10-pack floppy disks is started at $8. The next bidding price for this item will be $10 if the increment bid price is $2.

Reserve price is the price that the seller will accept as the selling price. For the bidding prices lower than this reserve price, the seller has no obligation to sell it, even though the auction has ended with bids. Please note that no all bidders will bid on the auction with reserve price. Seller can leave it as $0 if no reserve price is set. Auction with no reserve price will draw more bids from bidders than reserve price auction.

In Duration field, please indicate how many days that you want to run the auction, such as 3 days, 5 days, 7 days or 10 days.

Also check the boxes of payment types that the user (seller) will accept from the winning bidders, such as Money Order, Cashier Check, Personal Check, Visa or Master, or as written in the item description. Check all that applied.

For shipping charge information, please let bidders know that if Seller Pays, Buyer Pays Actual Shipping Cost, Buyer Pays Fixed Amount, or See Item Description for more shipping charge information.

If seller will ship the auction item internationally (please indicate the international shipping and handling charges clearly on the item description), check the appropriate ‘Shipping Terms’ box. Otherwise, just ship to your own home country.

The Feature List will allow sellers to post their auction items and displays at the first home page of the auction site. Note that the Feature Auction List will be displayed in the first home page when there are four or more featured auction items posted by the sellers.

Auction Administrator can check the auction database and bill the sellers for their features listing fees (which fee can be modified in the system codes).

After seller completed the auction posting form, simply click on ‘Post Now’ button to continue. Note that once clicking on the button, the auction will not be able to modify by the seller, unless informing Auction Administrator to edit the auction database or remove it from the Admin panel.

Note: If Auction Administrator wishes to edit the registration page, please use FrontPage program, WordPad, or other HTML editors to modify the file ‘protype.asp’ inside [asp] directory.

Featured Auctions

Featured auctions list displays all current featured auctions posted by the registered sellers. Note that only four or more featured auction items will be displayed at the home page.

Bidders can select any auction item posted by the registered suppliers and submit their bids on the featured item.

Going, Going, Gone

‘Going, Going, Gone’ displays all auctions that are going to end at today’s date. Some bidders may look up and bid those auctions that are going to close shortly. Therefore, some bidders may find that they are outbidded by other users near the closing time of the auctions.

Today’s New Auctions

‘Today’s New Auctions’ displays today’s new posting auction items in a neat table.

About This B2B Auction

This section will inform auction users regarding the auction site and its user agreement.

Note: Auction Administrator can edit the content in the file ‘auction.asp’ under [asp] directory inside auction system folder.

Logout

Click on ‘Logout’ link to end the member login session. The registered member will be required to log in again when he wants to access some restricted services inside the auction system, such as using bidder/seller services, posting auction feedbacks, etc.

Bidder Service

In Bidder Service, a registered bidder will be able to view all auction activities that he has been involved in and has successfully won. Bidder will be required to log in to access the bidder service.

The table displays auction item number, item name, auction seller ID, bid price and seller’s contact email. Note that the auctions have ended with successful bid from this bidder. Bidder will be able to contact the auction seller to arrange payment in according to the auction description.

Seller Service

In Seller Service, a registered seller will be able to view his all current and completed auctions. For verification and security purposes, the seller will be required to log in.

The Current Auction table displays all current auctions posted by this seller. Completed Auction table displays all closed auctions.

To re-list or re-submit single or multiple completed auctions, seller can check the box of relevant auctions and click on ‘Re-Submit Auctions’ button.

Note that once clicking on the button, the auctions will become ‘live’ and cannot be modified or removed, unless with the assistance from the Auction Administrator. Seller can contact the administrator in ‘Contact Support’ section.

To remove the completed auctions permanently from the auction database, please contact the administrator for his assistance in ‘Admin’ section.

Contact Support

Seller or bidder can write email to Auction Administrator or Member Support Team by clicking on the email hyperlink at the page. The Auction Administrator will be able to help solving any dispute in between seller and bidder, remove or update auctions, edit user registration information in database, maintain auction feedback system (through database directly), and other administration tasks.

Note: Auction Administrator can edit the support email address and hyperlink name inside the ‘Change Setting’ link after log in as administrator in ‘Admin’ section.

Other contact pages:

About Us – You can edit the ‘About.asp’ file in [asp] directory and add your own company profile and description.

Contact Us – You can edit the ‘Contact.asp’ file in [asp] directory and add your own contact information and mailing address.

To remove the ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact Us’ icons from the main page, just edit the javascript source codes in ‘bleft.inc’ file under [auction] directory.

Special Note To Auction Administrator:

You can publish this User Guide on your Customer Service site, and allow your users to access the online user manual directly from their web browser. You can edit the online manual guide and upload it to your auction Customer Service site. Then make appropriate hyperlink from the site to the online manual guide.

Editing or customizing existing auction system source codes requires the in-depth knowledge of HTML, ASP, Javascript, Microsoft database, and web server configuration.

Placing A Bid In B2B Auction

Click on the category name on the auction home page. This will be linked to sub-category page of the selected category. Notice the number displayed at the side of each sub-category. It is the total number of current auctions that are posted under this sub-category.

The featured auction items will always be listed at the top of each sub-category page.

Click on the link of auction item on the sub-category page (sub-category with number of ‘0’ at its side will display no auction in listing). User will be directed to the current auction listing page as shown below.

Click on the auction item name hyperlink and user will be directed to its auction web page as shown below.

Below is an example of auction: 1 lot (piece) of Windows 2000 software. 1-pack means that only one software in a box.

Current price is incremented by the auction system from its first bid price, based on the number of bids that this auction item received.

The auction starting date and ending date are counted by the system when a seller posted this item as auction. The seller indicated the duration period inside the auction posting form.

Location is the physical location of the auction item. This will allow the potential bidders to estimate the cost of delivery and shipping days from its physical location to the bidder’s location.

Seller’s name will be displayed at the auction page, and the potential bidders will be able to check his past online trading experiences with other members through the ‘Seller Setting’ system. Higher number of rating (could be negative, depending on the seller’s creditability and reliability) on the past trading history will improve bidder’s confidence on dealing with the seller.

Payment type, shipping methods and shipping regions are displayed accordingly in order to allow bidders to understand more about this auction item before placing their bids on it.

Current highest bidder’s name will be displayed at the same auction page, with his number of rating displayed beneath the user name.

Of course, the past sellers who have trading activities with this buyer will be able to post relevant feedbacks for the past trading experiences with this bidder, by clicking on the ‘rate bidder’ link. His past trading experiences with other members will be recorded inside ‘bidder’s rating’ link.

The auction description posted by the seller is displayed on the auction as below.

Sellers are encouraged to post auction description with HTML in order to make the auction lively and attractive. Of course plain text is allowed in the description.

The following informs users regarding the general bidding information for this auction item.

Registration is required as only member is allowed to place the auction bid. New user can click on the ‘Registration’ link to register as member in a few steps.

To place an auction bid, the user will need to type in his User ID and Password. Please type in a maximum bid price. This price should be larger than the current incremented bid price by other bidders.

If you have any comment or special instruction for this auction item, please type in the Comment box. This comment will be posted in the auction bidding history site, together with bidder’s auction bid price and user ID, after submitted the auction bid.

Auction Bidding History

Bidders and seller will be able to view the current auction activities, as well as the comments posted by the individual bidders. The comment will allow seller to fulfill the special instruction requested by the bidders, even though this is not an obligation. Seller can communicate with the bidders through the email address. All bid prices by bidders are protected until the auction closed. The current highest bidder will be marked as shown in the screen below. For those interested users who are outbidded by the current highest bidder can go back to the auction site again and place a higher bid price. The auction system will notify them whether their new bid prices have become the highest bid price among other bidders.

Use Feedback Rating System

Feedback rating system is designed to ensure that this auction site is safe to trade among the registered users.

Please rate users carefully as it will result in a negative or positive rating. A complaint will add one negative point to the user and a compliment vice versa. General comments are neutral.

After logged in as a member, user can select the appropriate rating, based on the past trading experience with the seller or bidder. Type in comments inside the box and this will be permanently displayed in the user’s rating site. Therefore please be very careful while leaving feedback to others. Leaving unrelated or inappropriate feedbacks left on an user will result in the cancellation of membership by the Auction Administrator.

Below is the feedback rating history for a user:

Rating point will be calculated by the auction system and each user will have his own rating point while participating in any auction activity.

To report any unrelated or questionable feedback ratings on the registered user, please contact the auction support team or the Auction Administrator.

Admin

‘Admin’ is the administration panel for the Auction Administrator. This administration panel allows administrator to:

Remove User | Change Setting | Logout

Please note that administrator can edit the original auction system source codes to meet his specific needs. This required certain knowledge of web programming that involved HTML, Javascript, ASP, Microsoft database and web server configuration.

Please type in the appropriate admin ID and password to enter the administration site.

Close Item – Auctions will end after reaching the duration period, possibly every time and everyday. To avoid the closed items from being possibly bidded by the auction bidders (even though bidders will receive an error message that the auction has closed and will not accept any bid after the auction ending time), Auction Administrator will need to close single or multiple auctions, by checking on the relevant box and click on ‘Close Item’ box, on daily basis. It is very important for Auction Administrator to come to this ‘Close Item’ section frequently and close all items that have ended so that they will not be displayed on the current auction list.

Add Categories – You can add Main Category or Sub Category.

Main Category has the following formats:

Please always click on ‘Delete Categories’ link to see the current category status, ID and number. Then go back to the ‘Add Categories’ link to add new category to the database.

Main Category sample data to be typed in:

Category Name: Office Supplies

Category Status: a

Category ID: 200000

Main Category Number: 200

In category status, ‘a’ is the only symbol (status) for ‘Main Category’. Category ID is the number system starting at 200000 (all sub-categories will be numbered from 200001 and so on). The main category number is the three starting digit of the category ID.

Sub-category has the following formats:

Sub-category sample data to be typed in:

Category Name: Printing Paper

Category Status: 200

Category ID: 200001

Main Category Number: 0

In category status, ‘200’ will tell the system that this sub=category is under main category: Office Supplies, in this example (Its main category number is 200). Category ID is the number system starting at 200001 (which means the first item ‘001’ under main category ‘200’). The main category number is ‘0’ while making a sub-category.

Delete Categories – Select the unwanted main or sub categories and click on ‘delete’ button at the bottom to remove them from the database. Please note that by removing the main category, all its sub-categories and the related records will be deleted.

Delete Item – Auction Administrator can delete unwanted current and closed auction items from the current and closed auction item list. Click on ‘delete’ button after checking on the auction boxes.

Deleted History – Deleted History displays those current and closed auction items that are deleted by the administrator in ‘Delete Item’ section. Administrator can check the boxes and click ‘Clear History’ to remove the deleted items permanently from the auction database.

Remove User – Administrator can remove user permanently from the database. Select the user that want to remove, and then click on the ‘Remove user’ button at the bottom page.

Change Setting – Administrator can change his user name and password in this section. Simply fill out ‘Admin Name’, ‘Current Password’, ‘New Admin Name’ and ‘New Password’. Click ‘Change’ to update to the database.

To change the company banner, company name or customer support email (which will be displayed in Customer Support link), administrator must type in ‘Admin Name’ and ‘Current Password’. Then type in company banner web URL, company name and support email address. Click ‘Change’ to update to the database.

Note that to make any change to the setting, administrator must type in ‘Admin Name’ and ‘Current Password’.

Logout - Click on ‘logout’ link to end the login session. When a user log in, the session will begin to count the system access time. If no activity happened within 10 minutes (be default), the session will automatically expire, and the user will be prompted to log in again when he decides to access a system web page after 10 minutes.

To change the session expiration period, Auction Administrator can open the file ‘checking.asp’ inside the root directory (at the same directory level as the AuctionCreator.mdb database file), and change this line:

session.timeout= 10

while ‘10’ is 10 minutes of session duration.

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Editor Note: All contents in these guides may not actually reflect any new or latest updated features in the program. Please pardon for any program description error found on this document.