| Abstract: | Flexible retrieval of configurable products is one of the mos t challenging task for e-commerce applications, since user requirements are usually imprecise or approximate, in order to be interpreted in the right w ay by the application, and in such a way that a set of relevant products is finally retrieved.
In many cases products are stored as a database of components and an automatic configuration process has to be provided. In the pres ent paper, we propose an approach to intelligent retrieval and configurat ion of component-based products, starting from a set of possibly fuzzy user re quirements provided at different levels of detail. A conceptual product model is introduced
and its use during the configuration process is discussed. The proposed approach exploits a fuzzy generalization of SQL and a bottom-up (from basic to complex components) configuration process. Finally, a 3-tier system architecture based on J2EE and standard RDBMS technology is presented and its use for on-line fuzzy configuration is illustrated through a simple example
based on a PC assembly task. |
