What is the mechanism behind processing credit card payment on net?

Question

Excuse my ignorance, i just completely dont have any knowledge about it. Here is what i thought: when a customer submit his/her credit card information on a e-commerce site, the site's server will make remote request to Bank's(?) server, which would verify the information user has provided, payment would be proceeded if those information is correct and sends message back to the e-commerce site's server. Or if the payment cant not be proceeded,the e-commerce site's server receives error message possibly saying the user's credit card info can not by verified. someone plz correct me if there are any mistake.
So, how can i simulate this mechanism on a single pc? What i thought was i need to set up a db on mysql which simulates the bank's db, stores people's credit card info. For the e-commerce site i run on Tomcat, i may set up db connection(JDBC) to this db and verify user's credit card info. But i dont think this is how it works in reality, isn it? It would be possibly using java RMI(i am just guessing, havent digged into this area yet) to complete the task. So, if this is the case, can i simulate it on a single pc? Or do i have to phycially have two PCs, have both of them connected to my house's LAN, one runs e-commerce website on tomcat, the other runs mysql db server, then i can start simulating it by using java RMI? This is just something i've been wondering these day. As the uni's long holiday getting closer, i am thinking of giving myself a project gotta be something like this, so i would not get bored during the holidays. I really wish someone would explain me some ideas. Many many thanks...

Answer 1

If you're asking if you can run the database server on
the same machine as Tomcat, yes you can. (Although in
a real e-commerce site, that would be less secure than
having the database server behind a firewall.)
yes, i am runing both mysql db and Tomcat on my pc. So, i am wondering that i could possibly set up two separate databases, one holds data for whatever e-commerce site i am going to build, and the other simulates the bank's database that stores peope's credit card information, which can be accessed by the e-commerce site's JSP pages thru RMI for the purpose of validating credit card information. On the other hand, honestly, i am even asking myself what's the point or purpose of doing it in such a way? In fact, this is one of my subjects' project, that we've been given much flexibility about the way we simulate/implement the interaction between e-commerce site and bank's database. The goal is just trying to make it as close to what's happening in reality as possible. I was thinking of just creating a table that holds users' credit card information and put it with other e-commerce's site db tables altogether. But that just sounds like too far away from how it is done in reality, doesnt it? That's why i came up with the above ideas, what still not sure if it's proper way of doing it. Jesus, i am missed....
If you are asking how an e-commerce site really
interacts with a bank for credit card validation, I
have no idea. But you could simulate that with a
database, although I'm pretty sure the real method
doesn't involve JDBC or RMI or any Java-specific
technology.so, does anyone have ideas about how it is implemented in real life?
many many thanks...