Design and Implementation of an Online Auctioning and Bidding System
Chapter One
Aims and Objectives of the Study
- To design and develop an online auction system that ensures the buyer’s on the sellers and the products that are being auctioned
- To computes the seller’s ratings using the feedback scores from the bid winners
- To generate reports for each completed bid in the auction system
- To notify the bidders of new bids made in the bids that they participate in.
- To computes the seller’s shill scores for each seller that sells products on the online auction system.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter basically looks at the current online auction systems that are in use and state their strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the evolution of auction systems, explain their general structure.
This chapter is going to look at the different kind of systems that are available and explain how the new system is different from the rest of the other systems and how it is of great benefit to develop such kind of system. The system that is developed addresses the different kind of weaknesses that exist in current system thus resulting in the development of a more effective online auction system.
An Overview of Auction Systems
Definition
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder. The open ascending price auction is arguably the most common form of auction in use today. Participants bid openly against one another, with each subsequent bid required to be higher than the previous bid (McAfee et al, 1987). An auctioneer may announce prices, bidders may call out their bids themselves (or have a proxy call out a bid on their behalf), or bids may be submitted electronically with the highest current bid publicly displayed (McAfee et al, 1987). In a Dutch auction, the auctioneer begins with a high asking price for some quantity of like items; the price is lowered until a participant is willing to accept the auctioneer’s price for some quantity of the goods in the lot or until the seller’s reserve price is met (McAfee et al, 1987). While auctions are most associated in the public imagination with the sale of antiques, paintings, rare collectibles and expensive wines, auctions are also used for commodities, livestock, radio spectrum and used cars. In economic theory, an auction may refer to any mechanism or set of trading rules for exchange.
History
The word “auction” is derived from the Latin augeō which means “I increase” or “I augment”. For most of history, auctions have been a relatively uncommon way to negotiate the exchange of goods and commodities. In practice, both haggling and sale by set-price have been significantly more common (The Economist, 2001). Indeed, before the seventeenth century the few auctions that were held were sporadic.
Nonetheless, auctions have a long history, having been recorded as early as 500 B.C. According to Herodotus, in Babylon auctions of women for marriage were held annually. The auctions began with the woman the auctioneer considered to be the most beautiful and progressed to the least. It was considered illegal to allow a daughter to be sold outside of the auction method (The Economist, 2001).
During the Roman Empire, following military victory, Roman soldiers would often drive a spear into the ground around which the spoils of war were left, to be auctioned off. Later slaves, often captured as the “spoils of war”, were auctioned in the forum under the sign of the spear, with the proceeds of sale going towards the war effort (The Economist, 2001).
The Romans also used auctions to liquidate the assets of debtors whose property had been confiscated. For example, Marcus Aurelius sold household furniture to pay off debts, the sales lasting for months (Doyle, 2002). One of the most significant historical auctions occurred in the year 193 A.D. when the entire Roman Empire was put on the auction block by the Praetorian Guard. On March 23 The Praetorian Guard first killed emperor Pertinax, then offered the empire to the highest bidder. Didius Julianus outbid everyone else for the price of 6,250 drachmas per guard, an act that initiated a brief civil war. Didius was then beheaded two months later when Septimius Severus conquered Rome.
From the end of the Roman Empire to the eighteenth century auctions lost favor in Europe, while they had never been widespread in Asia.
Electronic markets especially those based on the internet have become popular by providing platforms to conduct business transactions (Brien, 2001). In fact, it can be argued that the auction based electronic markets best represent the changes to business inherent in e-commerce. Auction systems are a major component of the electronic marketplace that allow users at any site to sell and buy products. The sellers set up auctions for their different products while the purchaser who bids the highest amount wins the right to purchase the product in an auction.
In general auction systems usually make use of different various agents, the commonly used kind of agents include Purchaser Agent, Seller Agent and Facilitator Agent. Whereas the Seller Agent provides the function of registering goods for an auction to the sellers. This design maximizes the probability that the product auctioned sells. The second agent is the Purchaser Agent that requires bidding to buy and it suggests a proper bidding price by analyzing the bidding history of the bidding competitor. The third agent is the Facilitator Agent that plays the role of an auctioneer and enables a bidder to look at the other person’s auction history while bidding for and buying a product.
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
This section of the project deliberates on System Analysis of the system, the problems of the existing system and description of the new system will be outlined carefully.
System Analysis
This system development can generally be thought of having two major components: systems analysis and systems design. In the system analysis of an Online Auction and biding system emphasis is given to understanding the details of the existing system. Thus, the system analysis is the process of investigating the old system, identifying problems, and using the information to recommend improvements to the system so as to design a suitable one.
Problems Associated with the Existing System
The following are problems associated with the existing system (old system).
- people will have to leave their various homes to auction and this is a big risk to which might lead to Arm robbing and other various attacks after biding.
- In the process of auctioning, at times dispute arises in the mist of the people which also leads to another problem in the house.
- People do not have enough time to sit for auctioning.
CHAPTER FOUR
The process of setting up a MySQL varies from host to host, however we will end up name and a password. Before using our database, we must create a table. A table is a section of the database for string related information. In a table we will set up the different fields which will be used in that table. Creating a table in PhpMyAdmin is simple; we just type the name, select the number of fields and click the “go “button we will then be taken to a set up screen where you must create the fields for the database. Another way of creating database’s and table in Php My Admin is by executing simple SQL statements. We have used this method in order to create our database and tables.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
Auction systems are a major component of the electronic marketplace that allow users at any site to sell and buy products. The sellers set up auctions for their different products while the purchaser who bids the highest amount wins the right to purchase the product in an auction.
In general auction systems usually make use of different various agents, the commonly used kind of agents include Purchaser Agent, Seller Agent and Facilitator Agent. Whereas the Seller Agent provides the function of registering goods for an auction to the sellers. This design maximizes the probability that the product auctioned sells. The second agent is the Purchaser Agent that requires bidding to buy and it suggests a proper bidding price by analyzing the bidding history of the bidding competitor. The third agent is the Facilitator Agent that plays the role of an auctioneer and enables a bidder to look at the other person’s auction history while bidding for and buying a product.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this is an auction system that deals with auctioning of product and bidding. It is a site that inculcates the new web technology in its full design. When this is will be hosted, it will be of great advantage to the populace at large.
Recommendations
Having presented all that is required for the successful implementation of this project research work, the following are suggested, aimed at improving and eliminating the problems associated with the manual of Auctioning. The measures are as follow;
- This website should be hosted for the advantage of the populace.
- The server should be managed by a database administrator who has undergone training on using MYSQL database.
- The administrator should be a trusted person for the sake of the safety of biddings.
- There should be no hesitation in attending to the needs of the new system designed.
References
- Brien (2001). “auction based electronic markets best represent the changes to business inherent in e-commerce.”.
- Dimoka, A.(2008), Understanding and Mitigating Product Uncertainty in Online Auction Marketplaces [accessed 18 November 2014].
- Dong (2007). “Every time a new bid item is registered, the auction time period is set, the auction closes the time-out expires”
- Doyle, Robert A.; Baska, Steve (2002), “History of Auctions: From ancient Rome to today’s high-tech auctions”, Auctioneer, archived from the original on 2008-05-17, retrieved 2008-06-22.
- Ghose (2006), “The online auction market provides the consumers with great advantages of low prices”.
