Patterns for e-Commerce Agent Architectures: Using Agents as Delegates
Michael A. Weiss · 2001
Introduction Agents are rapidly emerging as a new paradigm for developing software applications. They are being used in an increasing variety of applications, ranging from relatively small systems such as assistants to large, open, mission-critical systems like electronic marketplaces. One of the most promising areas of applications for agent technology is e-commerce [13, 20, 12]. In this paper we describe a group of architectural patterns for agent-based e-commerce systems, Agent as Delegate and its derivatives. These patterns relate to front-end e-commerce activities that involve interaction with the user, and delegation of tasks. They are part of a larger pattern language that will be described in a companion paper. Together, these patterns are just the beginnings of a pattern language for agent-based e-commerce system design. Consider it as the structural foundation on which more detailed pattern languages such as for the collection of user profiles, or maintaining persistence can be based. There is no universally accepted definition of the notion of agent. However, the following four properties are widely accepted to characterize agents: autonomy, social ability, reactivity and proactiveness [29]. Agents are autonomous computational entities (autonomy), which interact with their environment (reactivity) and other agents (social ability) in order to achieve their own goals (proactiveness). Agents typically represent different users, and there are thus