Portals

Portals have become common ``sights'' on the Internet and related domains. Portals provide a service which is aggregated from many different sources. For instance, a shopping portal allows different vendors to advertise and sell their wares through a single site. The buyer can select and purchase goods using a single shopping basket and payment for all vendors.

From a Jtrix perspective, this could work in two ways. Both approaches may be combined freely to find the best solution.

The first approach is for each vendor to be treated as a resource by the portal. The portal is given the ``right,'' under contract, to sell goods provided by the vendor. The service provided by the vendor to the portal includes the ability to inspect inventory, place orders, and track delivery status.

The second approach, subtly different, is for the portal to be treated as a resource by the vendor. The vendor is given the ``right,'' under contract, to advertise goods through the portal. The basic services provided by the interface are the same, the difference is the party driving the formation of the contract.

Implementing the full portal interface may be quite complicated. Shipping, inventory tracking, e-commerce, and such all have ``offline'' aspects to their implementations. Jtrix resources are dynamic and may be aggregated. Vendors (or portals) may subcontract some of the functionality from more specialised services in order to provide the full portal interface. This may be done with varying degrees of transparency to the end user of the service.

Consider a ``wholesaler'' who maintains a small inventory, requesting more stock as required, and handles delivery to purchasers. Such a service might be sub contracted by vendors who wish to supply the whole portal interface. This subcontract would be invisible to the portals with which the vendor deals. Alternatively, the ``wholesaler'' might act as an aggregated vendor, making its own deals with portals and providing a value added service.

In all cases there exists a contractual framework to define the responsibilities and risks incurred by all parties.