TVET CERTIFICATE IV in SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

BASICS AND FUNDAMENTALS OF DATABASE

SFDSFD401 Develop a basic database

Credits: 9 Learning hours: 90

Sector: ICT
Sub-sector: Software Development

Module Note Issue date: June, 2020

Purpose statement

This module describes the skills, knowledge and attitudes to be acquired by the learner to Analyze database
requirements design and build simple database.

At the end of this module the learner will be able to describe basics and fundamentals of database and building a
simple database.

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 Table of Contents

Elements of competence and performance criteria Page No.

Learning Unit Performance Criteria

1. Analyze database 1.1. Proper definitions of database key terms, 2
requirements types of database models, and relationships

1.2. Proper review of organizational and task

requirements to identify user requirements

1.3. Proper determination of the information that

the database is required to hold

2. Design database 2.1. Adequate design of an entity relationship 13

diagram(ERD)

2.2. Proper identification of constraints

2.3. Adequate Development of data dictionary

3. Create database 3.1. Proper creation of tables and attributes 53

3.2. Proper creation of Views

3.3. Proper management of access control of

database

Total Number of Pages: 77

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Learning Unit 1 – Analyze database requirement

LO 1.1 – Define database key terms, models, types and relationships

● Topic 1 : Database definition
A. Data
Data, in the context of databases, refers to all the single items that are stored in a database, either
individually or as a set. Data in a database is primarily stored in database tables, which are
organized into columns that dictate the data types stored therein.
B. Database
A database is simply a collection of related data that is organized. This may come in the form of a
set of index cards (e.g. a recipe collection), an ordered list (e.g. a phone book), or a set of tables in
the computer (e.g. student records at a certain school).
The database is a collection of tables, relationships and queries which enable to store data with less
redundancy. Those data should be used into programs by different users.
C. Entities
An entity is an object that exists. It doesn't have to do anything; it just has to exist. In database
administration, an entity can be a single thing, person, place, or object. Data can be stored about
such entities. A design tool that allows database administrators to view the relationships between
several entities is called the entity relationship diagram (ERD).

In database administration, only those things about which data will be captured or stored is
considered an entity. If you aren't going to capture data about something, there's no point in
creating an entity in a database.

If you're creating a database of your employees, examples of entities you may have include
employees and health plan enrollment.
D. Attributes
An attribute defines the information about the entity that needs to be stored. If the entity is an
employee, attributes could include name, employee ID, health plan enrollment, and work location.
An entity will have zero or more attributes, and each of those attributes apply only to that entity.
For example, the employee ID of 123456 belongs to that employee entity alone.
Attributes also have further refinements, such as domain and key. The domain of an entity
describes the possible values of attributes. In the entity, each attribute will have only one value,
which could be blank or it could be a number, text, a date, or a time.
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 E. Records
Data is stored in records. A record is composed of fields and contains all the data about one particular
person, company, or item in a database. In this database, a record contains the data for one day of testing
COVID_19 in Rwanda.

Figure: Records appear as rows in a database table.

● Topic 2: Types of database models

A. Relational database

Relational Model: This is the model that we will use and the most used one. Data
are stored into tables of two dimensions. Manipulations are made using
mathematical theory of relationship. DBMS or this model are usually called
RDBMS, R for Relational

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B. Hierarchical database

Data are arranged hierarchically in a descending arborescence. This model uses

pointers between different records. It was the first model of DBMS.

C. Network database

Network Model: It also used pointers between different records as the

hierarchical one, but the structure of the arborescence is not only a descending
one.

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 D. Object Oriented model

Object Model: This model is the recent one. Data are stored into classes. A class
has fields and methods. The DBMS of this model are often called ODBMS, O for
Object. But it is important to note that, even if ODBMS are the recent ones, they
have not yet shown their proof. From the last two passed decades and up to now,
RDBMS remain the most popular and used ones. Some authors are even saying
Relational Object DBMS: It is remaining difficult to forget the old but still
powerful relational model

● Topic 3:Database relationships

More details LO.2.1: B
Using foreign keys, or other candidate keys, you can implement three types of relationships between
tables:
A: One-to-one: This type of relationship allows only one record on each side of the relationship. The
primary key relates to only one record – or none – in another table. For example, in a marriage, each
spouse has only one other spouse. This kind of relationship can be implemented in a single table and
therefore does not use a foreign key.
B: One-to-many/many-to-one: A one-to-many relationship allows a single record in one table to be
related to multiple records in another table. Consider a business with a database that has Customers
and Orders tables.
A single customer can purchase multiple orders, but a single order could not be linked to multiple
customers. Therefore, the Orders table would contain a foreign key that matched the primary key of
the Customers table, while the Customers table would have no foreign key pointing to the Orders
table.
C: Many-to-many: This is a complex relationship in which many records in a table can link to many
records in another table. For example, our business probably needs not only Customers and Orders
tables, but likely also needs a Products table.

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 Again, the relationship between the Customers and Orders table is one-to-many, but consider the
relationship between the Orders and Products table. An order can contain multiple products, and a
product could be linked to multiple orders: several customers might submit an order that contains
some of the same products. This kind of relationship requires a minimum three tables.

Figure: Type of relationships

LO 1.2 – Review organizational and task requirements to identify user requirement

● Topic 1:Techniques and Methods to collect data

A. Interview

It is probably the most used and efficient one. The designer holds a conversation with the employees of
the organization who can provide the right information. He asks questions to the employees who answer
them. He has to prepare these questions before he meets the employees. Those questions should be clear,
objective and simple. The questions are asked one by one and he notes progressively the responses.
B. Documentation

Data can be found in documents. The documentation represents the biggest source of information in a
given organization. The designer has to request all the documents that are related to the processes to
computerize. Hard and soft documents as well as web pages should be used.
Here we mean: Existing manual reports, books and e-books, Articles and journals, websites etc.The
designer has to present the reports of the software almost like the manual documents used before the
computerization. This will help the users to quickly tame the new system.
C. Questionnaire
This technique is almost like interview, but the only difference is that the designer doesn’t have to meet
employees. He prepares his questionnaire before and submits it to the employees who fill it. He collects it
later after being filled. The importance of this technique is that you can get many data in a short time.
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 D. Observation

Some data can just be collected by making carefully an observation on the processes to comprise. The
designer has to visit therefore the places where processes are made.

● Topic 2:Types of requirements

Functional and non-functional requirements

Statements of services the system should provide how the system should react to particular inputs and
how the system should behave in particular situations.

A. Functional requirements

Describe functionality or system services. They depend on the type of software, expected users and the
type of system where the software is used Functional user requirements may be high-level statements of
what the system should do BUT functional system requirements should describe the system services in
detail.

Example
The user shall be able to search either all of the initial set of databases or select a subset from it. The
system shall provide appropriate viewers for the user to read documents in the document store. Every
order shall be allocated a unique identifier (ORDER_ID) which the user shall be able to copy to the
account’s permanent storage area.

B. Non-functional requirements

Define system properties and constraints. e.g. reliability, response time and storage requirements.
Constraints are I/O device capability, system representations, etc.
Process requirements may also be specified mandating a particular CASE system, programming language or
development method
Non-functional requirements may be more critical than functional requirements. If these are not met, the
system is useless.
LO 1.3 – Determine the information that the database is required to hold
● Topic 1:Determination of database elements

A. Tables

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 A database table is composed of records and fields that hold data. Tables are also called
datasheets. Each table in a database holds data about a different, but related, subject.

Table: COVID_RECORDS
B. Properties

Properties (= attributes and relationships)

C. Records

Data is stored in records. A record is composed of fields and contains all the data about one
particular person, company, or item in a database. In this database, a record contains the data for
one customer support incident report. Records appear as rows in the database table. A record for
Log ID 1201242 is highlighted in Figure.

D. Fields
A field is part of a record and contains a single piece of data for the subject of the record. A field or article
or attribute is a propriety which characterizes an object.

OBJECT STUDENTS

Field 1 StudentID

.. Surname

.. FirstName

Field n Sex

Field n Faculty
Note: When you are naming your fields you should:
Department

 Give short and simple names

 Give explicit names

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  Avoidspaces and accents
 Avoid dash (-), if yes use underscore ( _ )
● Topic 2:Determination of data types

A. Character
Character String Data Types

This section of the article will talk about the character data types. These data types allow characters of
fixed and variable length. Refer to the below table.

Data Type Description / Maximum Size Storage

Description Maximum Size
text Allows a variable length character 2GB of text data 4 bytes + number of
string chars
varchar(max) Allows a variable length character 2E + 31 characters 2 bytes + number of
string chars
varchar Allows a variable length character 8,000 characters 2 bytes + number of
string chars
char Allows a fixed length character 8,000 characters Defined width
string

Unicode Character Strings Data Types

Data Type Description / Maximum Size Storage
Description Maximum Size
ntext Allows a variable length Unicode 2GB of text data 4 bytes + number of
string chars
nvarchar(max) Allows a variable length Unicode 2E + 31 characters 2 bytes + number of
string chars
nvarchar Allows a variable length Unicode 4,000 characters 2 bytes + number of
string chars
nchar Allows a fixed length Unicode 4,000 characters Defined width * 2
string

Binary Data Types

This section of the article will talk about binary data types. These data types allow binary values of fixed
and variable length. Refer to the below table.

Data Type Description / Maximum Size

Description Maximum Size
image Allows a variable length binary data 2,147,483,647 bytes
varbinary(max) Allows a variable length binary data 2E + 31 bytes

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 varbinary[(length)] Allows a variable length binary data 8,000 bytes
binary[(length)] Allows a fixed length binary data 8,000 bytes

B. Number

SQL Data Type is an attribute that specifies the type of data of any object. Each column, variable and
expression has a related data type in SQL. You can use these data types while creating your tables. You can
choose a data type for a table column based on your requirement.
Number types:
Numeric Data Types
This section of the article will talk about the numeric data types. These data types allow both signed and unsigned
integers. I have divided the numeric data types into the following two sections:

 Exact Numeric Data Types

 Approximate Numeric Data Types

Exact Numeric Data Types

Data Type Description / Range Storage

Description FROM TO
bit Integers which can either be 0, 1, or NULL. –
tinyint Allows whole 0 255 1 byte
numbers
smallint Allows whole -32,768 32,767 2 bytes
numbers
int Allows whole -2,147,483,648 2,147,483,647 4 bytes
numbers
bigint Allows whole -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 8 bytes
numbers
numeric(p,s) Allows a numeric -10^38 +1 10^38 -1 5-17
value. Where ‘p‘ bytes
is precision value
and ‘s‘ is scale
value
decimal(p,s) Allows a decimal -10^38 +1 10^38 -1 5-17
value. Where ‘p‘ bytes
is precision value
and ‘s‘ is scale
value
smallmoney Allows data as -214,748.3648 +214,748.3647 4 bytes
currency
money Allows data as -922,337,203,685,477.5808 922,337,203,685,477.5807 8 bytes
currency

Now, let us look into Approximate Numeric Data Types.

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 Approximate Numeric Data Types
Data Type Description / Range Storage
Description FROM TO
float(n) Allows Floating precision -1.79E + 308 1.79E + 308 4 or 8
number data bytes
real Allows Floating precision -3.40E + 38 3.40E + 38 4 bytes
number data

C. Date

Date & Time Data Types

This section of the article will talk about the date and time data types. These data types allow different
formats of date and time. Refer to the below table.

Data Type Description / Range Storage

Description FROM TO
date Stores date in the format of January 1, December 31, 3 bytes
Year, Month & Days. 0001 9999
time Stores time in the format of Hours, Minutes & Seconds. 3-5 bytes
datetime Stores both date and time(with January 1, 1753 December 31, 8 bytes
an accuracy of 3.33 milliseconds) 9999
datetime2 Stores both date and time(with January 1, 0001 December 31, 6-8 bytes
an accuracy of 100 nanoseconds) 9999
smalldatetime Stores both date and time(with January 1, 1900 June 6, 2079 4 bytes
an accuracy of 1 minute)
datetimeoffset The same as datetime2 with the addition of a time zone offset 8-10 bytes
timestamp Stores a unique number which gets updated every time a row gets
created or modified.

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Learning Unit 2 – Design database

LO 2.1 – Design an entity relationship diagram (ERD)

● Topic 1: Database relationship description
A. ER Diagrams
What is an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)?
An entity relationship diagram (ERD) shows the relationships of entity sets stored in a database. An entity
in this context is an object, a component of data. An entity set is a collection of similar entities. These
entities can have attributes that define its properties.
By defining the entities, their attributes, and showing the relationships between them, an ER diagram
illustrates the logical structure of databases.
ER diagrams are used to sketch out the design of a database.

Common Entity Relationship Diagram Symbols

An ER diagram is a means of visualizing how the information a system produces is related. There are five
main components of an ERD:
 Entities, which are represented by rectangles. An entity is an object or concept about which you
want to store information. A weak entity is an entity that must defined by a foreign key relationship
with another entity as it cannot be uniquely identified by its own attributes alone.

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 Actions, which are represented by diamond shapes, show how two entities share information in the
database.

In some cases, entities can be self-linked. For example, employees can supervise other employees.

 Attributes, which are represented by ovals. A key attribute is the unique, distinguishing
characteristic of the entity. For example, an employee's social security number might be the
employee's key attribute.
A multivalued attribute can have more than one value. For example, an employee entity can have
multiple skill values. A derived attribute is based on another attribute. For example, an employee's
monthly salary is based on the employee's annual salary.

 Connecting lines, solid lines that connect attributes to show the relationships of entities in the
diagram.
 Cardinality specifies how many instances of an entity relate to one instance of another entity.
Ordinality is also closely linked to cardinality. While cardinality specifies the occurrences of a
relationship, ordinality describes the relationship as either mandatory or optional. In other words,
cardinality specifies the maximum number of relationships and ordinality specifies the absolute
minimum number of relationships.

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 There are many notation styles that express cardinality.
Information Engineering Style

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Chen Style

Bachman Style

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 Martin Style

Cardinalities :

 The minimum cardinality which is the minimum number of times that an occurrence participates in
a relationship
 The maximum cardinality which is the maximum number of times that an occurrence participates in
a relationship.
Example:

 There are many notation styles that express cardinality.

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Chen Style

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Bachman Style

Martin Style

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 B. Types of Relationships:

B.1: one to one

A row in table A can have only one matching row in table B, and vice versa.

Figure: Example of a one-to-one relationship

This is not a common relationship type, as the data stored in table B could just have easily been stored in
table A. However, there are some valid reasons for using this relationship type. A one-to-one
relationship can be used for security purposes, to divide a large table, and various other specific purposes.
In the above example, we could just as easily have put an Hourly Rate field straight into the Employee table
and not bothered with the Pay table. However, hourly rate could be sensitive data that only certain
database users should see. So, by putting the hourly rate into a separate table, we can provide extra
security around the Pay table so that only certain users can access the data in that table.
B.2: One-to-Many (or Many-to-One)

This is the most common relationship type. In this type of relationship, a row in table A can have many
matching rows in table B, but a row in table B can have only one matching row in table A.

Figure: Example of one-to-many relationship

One-to-Many relationships can also be viewed as Many-to-One relationships, depending on which way you
look at it.
In the above example, the Customer table is the “many” and the City table is the “one”. Each customer can
only be assigned one city. One city can be assigned to many customers.

B.3: Many -to- many

In a many-to-many relationship, a row in table A can have many matching rows in table B, and vice versa.
A many-to-many relationship could be thought of as two one-to-many relationships, linked by an
intermediary table.

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The intermediary table is typically referred to as a “junction table” (also as a “cross-reference table”). This
table is used to link the other two tables together. It does this by having two fields that reference
the primary key of each of the other two tables.
The following is an example of a many-to-many relationship:

This is the Relationships tab that is displayed when you create a relationship Microsoft Access. In this case,
a many-to-many relationship has just been created. The Orders table is a junction table that cross-
references the Customers table with the Products table.

So in order to create a many-to-many relationship between the Customers table and the Products table,
we created a new table called Orders.

In the Orders table, we have a field called CustomerId and another called ProductId. The values that these
fields contain should correspond with a value in the corresponding field in the referenced table. So any
given value in Orders.CustomerId should also exist in the Customer.CustomerId field. If this wasn’t the
case, then we could have orders for customers that don’t actually exist. We could also have orders for
products that don’t exist. Not good referential integrity.
Most database systems allow you to specify whether the database should enforce referential integrity. So,
when a user (or a process) attempts to insert a foreign key value that doesn’t exist in the primary key field,
an error will occur.
In our example, Orders.CustomerId field is a foreign key to the Customers.CustomerId (which is the
primary key of that table). And the Orders.ProductId field is a foreign key to the Products.ProductId field
(which is the primary key of that table).

A relationship is established between two database tables when one table has a foreign key that
references the primary key of another table. This is the basic concept behind the term relational database.

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How a Foreign Key Works to Establish a Relationship?

Let's review the basics of primary and foreign keys. A primary key uniquely identifies each record in the
table. It is a type of candidate key that is usually the first column in a table and can be automatically
generated by the database to ensure that it is unique.

A foreign key is another candidate key (not the primary key) used to link a record to data in another table.
For example, consider these two tables that identify which teacher teaches which course.
Here, the Courses table's primary key is Course_ID. Its foreign key is Teacher_ID:
Course_ID Course_Name Teacher_ID

Course_001 Biology Teacher_001

Course_002 Math Teacher_001

Course_003 English Teacher_003

Courses

You can see that the foreign key in Courses matches a primary key in Teachers:

Teacher_ID Teacher_Name

Teacher_001 Carmen

Teacher_002 Veronica

Teacher_003 Jorge

Teachers
We can say that the Teacher_ID foreign key has helped to establish a relationship between the Courses and
the Teachers tables.

C. Entity – Attributes definition (click this link below to learn them) we have already seen their
definitions at LO 1.1 – Define database key terms.
Topic 2: Description of database design abstraction levels

Data Abstraction in DBMS

Database systems are made-up of complex data structures. To ease the user interaction with database, the
developers hide internal irrelevant details from users. This process of hiding irrelevant details from user is
called data abstraction.

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We have three levels of abstraction:

1. Physical level: This is the lowest level of data abstraction. It describes how data is actually stored in
database. You can get the complex data structure details at this level.
2. Logical level: This is the middle level of 3-level data abstraction architecture. It describes what data
is stored in database.
3. View level: Highest level of data abstraction. This level describes the user interaction with database
system.
Example: Let’s say we are storing customer information in a customer table. At physical level these
records can be described as blocks of storage (bytes, gigabytes, terabytes etc.) in memory. These details
are often hidden from the programmers.
At the logical level these records can be described as fields and attributes along with their data types, their
relationship among each other can be logically implemented. The programmers generally work at this level
because they are aware of such things about database systems.
At view level, user just interact with system with the help of GUI and enter the details at the screen, they
are not aware of how the data is stored and what data is stored; such details are hidden from them.
DBMS Methodology
 A structured approach that uses procedures, techniques, tools, and documentation help to support
and make possible the process of design is called Design Methodology.
 A design methodology encapsulates various phases, each containing some stages, which guide the
designer in the techniques suitable at each stage of the project. A design methodology also helps
the designer to plan, manage, control, and evaluate database development and managing projects.

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 Furthermore, it is a planned approach for analyzing and modeling a group of requirements for a
database in a standardized and ordered manner.

The methodology is depicted in three main phases of database design, namely: conceptual, logical, and
physical design.
The primary aim of each phase is as follows:
 Conceptual database design: to build the conceptual representation of the database that has the

identification of the important entities, relationships, and attributes.

 Logical database design: to convert the conceptual representation to the logical structure of the
database that includes designing the relations.
 Physical database design: to decide how the logical structure is to be physically implemented (as base
relations) in the target Database Management System (DBMS).
I. CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF DATA (CMD)
1. Concepts
1.1. Object
An object is an entity which exists inside the studying information system and which has an interest for the
system to be designed.

An object should have fields which characterize it.

Representation

OBJECT

Examples

STUDENTS CLIENTS BILLS

1.2. Field

A field or article or attribute is a propriety which characterizes an object.

Representation

OBJECT

Field 1

..

..
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..

Field n
Examples

STUDENTS CLIENTS BILLS

StudentID ClientID BillID

Surname Surname Date

FirstName FirstName Wording

Sex Telephone Amount

Faculty Address VAT

Note: When you are naming your fields you should:
Department Net

 Give short and simple names

 Give explicit names
 Avoid spaces and accents
 Avoid dash (-), if yes use underscore ( _ )
1.3. Identifier
An identifier is a specific field which enables to identify an object’s occurrence individually.

An identifier should always be underlined.

Examples

STUDENTS CLIENTS BILLS

StudentID ClientID BillID

Surname Surname Date

FirstName FirstName Wording

Sex Telephone Amount

A given student can just be Address

Faculty identified by his student number
VAT (studentID) because we can find many
students with the same name, the same birthday andNet
Department even in the same promotion.

1.4. Occurrence
An occurrence is an individualized object
Exemple :
 KEZA Martine who has the ID number 13254 is an occurrence of the object students
 The bill number 12544562 is an occurrence of the object bills
1.5. Relationship or Association

A relationship or an association is a link which materializes a linkage between occurrences of two or more
than two objects.

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Example
Relationship wed

MEN WOMEN
Wed

ManID WomanID

ManName WomanName

ManBirthDate WomanBirthDate
Remember that :

 We differentiate ManName and WomanName to avoid the confusion during programming

1.6. Cardinalities
We have :

 The minimum cardinality which is the minimum number of times that an occurrence participates in
a relationship.
 The maximum cardinality which is the maximum number of times that an occurrence participates in
a relationship.
Example

Minimum Card

MEN WOMEN
1, Wed 1,
n 1
ManID WomanID

ManName WomanName
Maximum Card
ManBirthDate WomanBirthDate

2. Management Rule
A management rule is a functional constraint in the studying Information System. The overall functions,
processes and procedures of a given enterprise are driven by management rules. The most important
management rules are stated by the decisional system.

Therefore, during a computerization process the software engineers should be driven in their assessment
by management rules. They do not need to create any management rule. They just use existing rules.

2.1. Examples of management rules

 A student cannot take more than 18 credits during one semester at AUCA
 Student who paid his school fees in one time must have a reduction of 3% on his payment.
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Management rules can even be simple things: « Students are not allowed to use this WC »

II. LOGICAL MODEL OF DATA (LMD)

The LMD is the database architecture. It is obtained using the CMD. It is the LMD which is implemented to
have the database.

1. Concepts
1.1. Table
In the LMD, the object of the CMD always becomes a table and the relationship can also become a table in
certain cases.

CMD LMD

OBject Becomes (always) Table

Becomes (In certain cases)

1.2.Relationship
Primary Key

In the LMD, the identifier of the CMD always becomes a primary key
CMD LMD

Identifier Becomes (Always) Primary Key

1.2. Secondary or Foreign Key

The foreign key is the parent table primary key inherited by the child table.

Parent table

Primary Key
Always becomes

Child Table

Foreign Key #
2. Translation of CMD to LMD
2.1. Case of Parent-Child Relationship
In this case, the child table inherits the primary key of the parent table to become its foreign key.

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Ex: Translate the following CMD to LMD
Parent Child

CLIENTS 1,n 1,1 CARS

Buy

ClientID CarID

Surname Manufacturer

FirstName Model
NB: We are driven by the cardinalities:
Telephone Power

Price
 (1, n) in parent side
 (1,1) in child side
Solution
This is the LMD :

Rememberthat:

 The primary key is always underlined

 The foreign key is always underlined using dashes followed by #
 A child table can have several foreign keys
2.2. Case of Parent-Parent Relationship
In this case, the tables remain with their fields, but the relationship becomes a table which will get the
primary keys of tables as its primary key: It is a concatenated primary key.

Ex: Translate the following CMD to LMD:

Parent Parent

CLIENTS 1,n 1,n CARS

Command

ClientID CarID

Surname Manufacturer

FirstName Model
Remember that :
Telephone Power
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Price
  The cardinality in CARS side has changed: Several Clients can indeed command the same Car, but
just one of them will buy it.
Solution
This is the LMD:

EXERCISES OF APPLICATION FOR CMD AND LMD

EXAMPLE 1:

RWANDA MOTORS needs to have an IT based sales system. During the interview the following
management rules were collected:
 A car can be commanded by several customers
 A car can be bought just by one client
 A bill can contain several cars
Design the CMD and the LMD.
Solution
1. CMD
CLIENTS 1,n 1,1 COMMANDS

ClientID Submit CommandID

Surname ComDate
FirstName
Telephone

1,n

Command

1,n

BILLS
1,n 1,1 CARS
BillID
Bill CarID
BillDate
Manufacturer
AmountHT Model
VAT Power
ComQty
Total SellQty

Price

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 2. LMD

CLIENTS (ClientID, Surname, FirstName, Telephone)

COMMANDS (CommandID, ComDate, ClientID#)
COMMAND (CommandID, CardID)
CARS (CardID, Manufacturer, Model, Power, ComQty, SellQty, Price, BillID#)
BILLS (BillID, BillDate, AmountHT, VAT, Total)

III. PHYSICAL DATABASE DESIGN

 Physical database design - to decide how the logical structure is to be physically implemented (as base
relations) in the target Database Management System (DBMS).
We have the LMD above and MySQL as a DBMS, now let’s go on to create a database.
I am to create the database RWANDAMOTOR
Create database RWANDAMOTOR;
CREATE TABLE CLIENTS(
ClientID varchar(10) primary key not null,
Surname Varchar(50),
FirstName varchar(30),
Telephone varchar(20));

CREATE TABLE COMMANDS(

CommandID varchar(20) primary key not null,
ComDate date,
ClientID varchar(10),
FOREIGN KEY (ClientID) REFERENCES CLIENTS (ClientID)
);
CREATE TABLE COMMAND(
CarID varchar(20),
CommandID varchar(20),
PRIMARY KEY (CarID, CommandID)
FOREIGN KEY (CarID) REFERENCES CARS(CarID),
FOREIGN KEY (CommandID) REFERENCES COMMANDS(CommandID));

CREATE TABLE BILLS(

BillID varchar (10) primary key not null,
BillDate date,
AmountHT decimal(10,2) ,
VAT decimal(10,2),
Total decimal(10,2));

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 CREATE TABLE CARS(
CarID varchar(20) primary key not null,
Manufacturer varchar (50),
Model varchar(30),
Power varchar(30),
ComQty varchar(20),
SellQty varchar (20),
Price decimal(10,2),
BillID varchar(20),
FOREIGN key (BillID) REFERENCES BILLS(BillID));

Figure: RWANDAMOTOR designer view

Figure: Structure view

Now you can go ahead and insert some records
Let’s insert records in table client
Syntax of inserting data into the database table is as follows-
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INSERTINTO table_name(column1,column2,column3,...)
VALUES (value1,value2,value3,...)
This form is recommended!

INSERT INTO CLIENTS(ClientID,FirstName,Surname,Telephone)

values('C0001','Alice','UWERA','0785979270');
INSERT INTO CLIENTS(ClientID,FirstName,Surname,Telephone)
values('C0002','Theogene','BAHIGIRORA','0785999271');
Verify if the records have been inserted
Syntax: SELECT* FROM Table_name;
Type:
SELECT* FROM clients;
Output:

Topic 2: Description of system metadata

 Types of metadata

What is Metadata?

Metadata is critically important for website and database management

Metadata is "data [information] that provides information about other data."

Metadata is data about data. In other words, it's information that's used to describe the data that's
contained in something like a web page, document, or file. Another way to think of metadata is as a short
explanation or summary of what the data is.
A simple example of metadata for a document might include a collection of information like the author, file
size, the date the document was created, and keywords to describe the document. Metadata for a music
file might include the artist's name, the album, and the year it was released.
Metadata represents behind-the-scenes information that's used everywhere, by every industry, in multiple
ways. It's ubiquitous in information systems, social media, websites, software, music services, and online
retailing. Metadata can be created manually to pick and choose what's included, but it can also be
generated automatically based on the data.

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Meta-data - "Data about data." In a DBMS context, data stored in columns of a table have certain
attributes, such as the type, length, description or other characteristics that allow the DBMS to process the
data meaningfully, or allow the users to understand it better.

Metadata in DBMS – Overview and Types

Metadata in DBMS is the data (details/schema) of any other data. It can also be defined as data about
data. The word ‘Meta’ is the prefix that is generally the technical term for self-referential. In other words,
we can say that Metadata is the summarized data for the contextual data.

For example, consider the index of any book or novel; it serves as the metadata that leads us to the
detailed data inside the book.

For instance, Metadata in DBMS has the following definitions:

 Metadata is the value that leads us to the actual data;
 The Metadata is an acronym for the detailed data;
 Metadata is the index of a library in the data warehouse;
 Metadata is a description or schema of the actual data
In a database, information is organized and stored in a structure. This data is arranged in tabular form
(rows and columns) so that it can be accessed and reorganized quickly. After the structural arrangement of
data, each part has its metadata as an index number in a book for each chapter. This index number is
known as the metadata that defines the schema for other data.
 Types of metadata and their uses
There are several types of metadata according to their uses and domain.
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  Technical Metadata
This type of metadata defines database system names, tables names, table size, data types, values, and
attributes. Further technical metadata also includes some constraints such as foreign key, primary key, and
indices.
 Business Metadata

It consists of the ownership of data, changing policies, business rules and regulations, and other business
details. This type of metadata is related to a particular business.

 Operational Metadata
This type includes the data which is currently under any operation. Besides, it represents the data that is
used by executive-level managers to perform any task. Also, this type of metadata can be purged, archived,
or activated and can also be migrated.
 Descriptive Metadata
Descriptive metadata describes any file, folder, book, image, or video. It may include details of data such as
title, author, date, size, author name, published on, and similarly others.

 Metadata in DBMS

Figure: Metadata in DBMS

Metadata in DBMS refers to the information that describes the schema and other information related to
the stored data in the database, including storage, programs, data elements, usage, and additional related
information. Let’s check the following types of metadata in DBMS.

Schema
 Tables
 Columns
 Constraints
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  Indexes
 Sequences
Physical Execution
 Backup files
 Partitions
 Restored files
Storage
 Table size
 Data type size
 Variable size
 Program size
 Number of rows and columns

Also, Metadata has a significant role in the database. Besides, it acts as a directory in the database for
accessing the different files. Further, metadata can also be useful in many ways, like database reporting,
auditing, querying, and transforming. It plays a crucial role in DBMS.

Metadata is also essential for interpreting the contents in the database. For example, a set of data with
their schema, such as dates and names will get you confused. It becomes hard to identify the data you are
interpreting. Besides, if there’s metadata for that existing data, you get an idea of the database you are
interpreting with.

Basic metadata including rows and columns names that helps a user to easily identify the data being
described. And if there’s a list of data with no metadata, it could be hard to say what the data is about.
Now suppose, there’s a column with name ‘Expired domains’ will let you know that these domains have
been expired. Additionally, if there’s another column of ‘Date’, it will let you know the date when it got
expired.

An Example of Metadata in DBMS

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As you can see in the above image, a relational database stores the data as well as metadata in a
structured way. The data stored in a structured way is called the Data Dictionary or System Catalog. The
above metadata holds the following information:

 Tables (rows and columns)

 Data types
 Values
 Table relationships
 Constraints
 and others

Further, through this information, it’s easier to access or identify any database.

Final Words on Metadata

Metadata is data about the data and not the actual context of data. Hence, it can be made publically
available as it only describes the raw data and doesn’t provide any access to it. Metadata gives the idea
and summary details about any database which is enough to understand what the file is but does not give
the complete instance of that file.
LO 2.2 – Identify the constraints
● Topic 1:Description of database constraints
Constraints are the rules enforced on data columns on a table. These are used to limit the type of data that
can go into a table. This ensures the accuracy and reliability of the data in the database. Constraints can
either be column level or table level. Column level constraints are applied only to one column whereas
table level constraints are applied to the entire table.
Constraints in General
 Think of constraints as database rules.
 All constraint definitions are stored in the data dictionary.

 Constraints prevent the deletion of a table if there are dependencies from other tables.
 Constraints enforce rules on the data whenever a row is inserted, updated, or deleted from a table.
 Constraints are important and naming them is also important.
Creating constraints

 Recall the SQL syntax for creating a table.

 In the CREATE TABLE statement shown, each column and its data type is defined.
 You use the CREATE TABLE statement to establish constraints for each column in the table.
 There are two different places in the CREATE TABLE statement that you can specify the constraint
details

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  At the column level next to the name and data type
 At the table level after all the column names are listed

Constraints can be specified when the table is created with the CREATE TABLE statement, or after the table
is created with the ALTER TABLE statement.

Syntax

CREATE TABLE table_name (

column1 datatype constraint,
column2 datatype constraint,
column3 datatype constraint,
....
);
CREATE TABLE clients
(client_number NUMBER,
first_name VARCHAR (14),
last_name VARCHAR(13));

 Note that the column-level simply refers to the area in the CREATE TABLE statement where the columns
are defined.
 The table level refers to the last line in the statement below the list of individual column names.

The five types of CONSTRAINTS are:

NO Constraint Description
1. Primary key constraint constraint uniquely identifies each record in a table
Primary keys must contain UNIQUE values, and cannot contain NULL
values.
A table can have only ONE primary key; and in the table, this primary
key can consist of single or multiple columns (fields).
2. Foreign key constraint Uniquely identifies a row/record in any another database table
3. Unique key constraint Ensures that all the values in a column are different.
4. Not null constraint Ensures that a column cannot have a NULL value.
5. Check constraint The CHECK constraint ensures that all values in a column satisfy
certain conditions.

The syntax to create a foreign key is as follows:

alter table yourSecondTableName ADD CONSTRAINT yourConstraintname FOREIGN

KEY(yourForeignKeyColumnName)
references yourFirstTableName (yourPrimaryKeyColumnName);

To understand the above syntax, let us create two tables. The query to create the first table is as follows −

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create table Department_Table
(
Department_Id int not null auto_increment primary key,
Department_Name varchar(30)
);
The query to create the second table is as follows:
create table Employee_Table
(
EmployeeID int not null auto_increment primary key,
EmployeeName varchar(80),
Job varchar(30),
Department_Id int not null references department (departmentID)
);
The above Department_Id int, not null references department (departmentID) does not create a foreign
key. Now follow the above syntax to create a foreign key.

Figure: tables without constraint

The query is as follows:

alter table Employee_Table ADD CONSTRAINT fk_Department_Id FOREIGN KEY(Department_Id) references

Department_Table(Department_Id);

Figure: Tables with constraints

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 ● Topic 1: Description of database constraints rule

 Constraints that refer to more than one column (a composite key) must be defined at the table
level
 The NOT NULL constraint can be specified only at the column level, not the table level
 UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, and CHECK constraints can be defined at either the column
or table level
 If the word CONSTRAINT is used in a CREATE TABLE statement, you must give the constraint a
name.

A constraint which refers to two columns cannot be defined as part of a column definition. Which of the
two column definitions would we put it alongside? It couldn’t be both!
A table level constraint must be user-named, because table level constraints must include the keyword
CONSTRAINT.

NOT NULL constraints cannot be defined at the table level because the ANSI/ISO SQL standard forbids it

LO 2.3 – Develop data dictionary

● Topic 1:Description of DBMS

Database management system is a collection of interrelated data and set of programs to access those
data. Collection of data is called database. Database contains information related to an enterprise. Primary
goal of database management system is to provide a way to store and retrieve database information that
is convenient and efficient.

Top Database Management Systems

1. Oracle
2. Microsoft SQL Server
3. MySQL

Popular DBMS Software

Here, is the list of some popular DBMS system:

 MySQL
 Microsoft Access
 Oracle
 PostgreSQL

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  dBASE
 FoxPro
 SQLite
 IBM DB2
 LibreOffice Base
 MariaDB
 Microsoft SQL Server etc.

A. DBMS key terms

Basic Terminologies/terms used in DBMS

Here, we are going to learn about the some of the basic terms / terminologies which are used in the
database management system (DBMS).

1) What is Data?

The raw information (facts and figures) input by the user is called Data. Raw means data isn’t been
processed yet. It has no significance beyond its existence and simply exists. Data means which has no
meaning of itself.

For e.g. – {1} is a raw data.

2) What is Information?

Processed Data is termed as Information, i.e., data been contextualized, calculated, categorized and
condensed. Information means meaningful data by relational connection.

For e.g. – {Roll No: 1} is an information.

What is the difference between Data and Information?

Data Information

Raw Data Processed Data

It doesn’t help in decision making It helps in decision making

It doesn’t required any prerequisite It require prerequisite as Data

Unorganized Organized

3) What is Knowledge?
A processed data, i.e. Information when coming into practical use, an understanding of the information
through senses, is termed as knowledge. It refers to the practical use of information and involves personal

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experience. Knowledge is a deterministic process. Learning numbers and alphabets, memorizing key points
in a chapter, etc. are considered to be as knowledgeable.

For example

Primary school children memorize knowledge of the time table. They can tell you that "3 x 3 = 9" because
they have memorized it. But when asked what is "1580 x 337", they cannot respond correctly because that
entry is not in their time table. To correctly answer such a question requires reasoning and logical aptitude
that is only included in the next level understanding.

 Database

A database is a named collection of tables. A database can also contain views, indexes, sequences,
data types, operators, and functions. Other relational database products use the term catalog.

 Command

A command is a string that you send to the server in hopes of having the server do something
useful. Some people use the word statement to mean command. The two words are very similar in
meaning and, in practice, are interchangeable.

 Query

A query is a type of command that retrieves data from the server.

 Table (relation, file, class)

A table is a collection of rows. A table usually has a name, although some tables are temporary and
exist only to carry out a command. All the rows in a table have the same shape (in other words,
every row in a table contains the same set of columns). In other database systems, you may see the
terms relation, file, or even class. These are all equivalent to a table.

 Column (field, attribute)

A column is the smallest unit of storage in a relational database. A column represents one piece of
information about an object. Every column has a name and a data type. Columns are grouped into
rows, and rows are grouped into tables. In Figure 1.1, the shaded area depicts a single column.

The terms field and attribute have similar meanings.

 Row (record, tuple)

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A row is a collection of column values. Every row in a table has the same shape (in other words,
every row is composed of the same set of columns). If you are trying to model a real-world
application, a row represents a real-world object. For example, if you are running an auto
dealership, you might have a vehicles table. Each row in the vehicles table represents a car (or
truck, or motorcycle, and so on). The kinds of information that you store are the same for
all vehicles (that is, every car has a color, a vehicle ID, an engine, and so on). In Figure 1.2, the
shaded area depicts a row.

You may also see the terms record or tuple. These are equivalent to a row.

 View

A view is an alternative way to present a table (or tables). You might think of a view as a "virtual"
table. A view is (usually) defined in terms of one or more tables. When you create a view, you are
not storing more data; you are instead creating a different way of looking at existing data. A view is
a useful way to give a name to a complex query that you may have to use repeatedly.
 Client/server

In a client/server product, there are at least two programs involved. One is a client and the other is
a server. These programs may exist on the same host or on different hosts that are connected by
some sort of network.
 Client

A client is an application that makes requests. Before a client application can talk to a server, it
must connect to a postmaster (see postmaster) and establish its identity. Client applications
provide a user interface and can be written in many languages.
 Server

A server is a program that services commands coming from client applications.

 Postmaster

Postmaster listens for connection requests coming from a client application. When a connection
request arrives, the postmaster creates a new server process in the host operating system.

 Transaction

A transaction is a collection of database operations that are treated as a unit. MySQL guarantees
that all the operations within a transaction complete or that none of them complete. This is an
important property. It ensures that if something goes wrong in the middle of a transaction, changes
made before the point of failure will not be reflected in the database. A transaction usually starts
with a BEGIN command and ends with a COMMIT or ROLLBACK (see the next entries).

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  Commit

A commit marks the successful end of a transaction. When you perform a commit, you are telling
MySQL that you have completed a unit of operation and that all the changes that you made to the
database should become permanent.

 Rollback

A rollback marks the unsuccessful end of a transaction. When you roll back a transaction, you are
telling MySQL to discard any changes that you have made to the database (since the beginning of
the transaction).

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  Index

An index is a data structure that a database uses to reduce the amount of time it takes to perform
certain operations. An index can also be used to ensure that duplicate values don't appear where
they aren't wanted.

 Result set

When you issue a query to a database, you get back a result set. The result set contains all the rows
that satisfy your query. A result set may be empty.

B. Goals of DBMS

Goals of Database Management System are:

(1) To remove problem of data redundancy and inconsistency- Different programmers create files and
application programs over a long period and these files are likely to have different format and programs
are written in different languages. Same information may be duplicated in various files.

(2) Easy access of data- If a bank officer needs to find out names of all customer who live within a
particular postal- code area, the officer then ask the data processing department to generate such a list,
because the designers of original database system did not anticipate this request, there is no application
program on hand to meet it, there is however an application program to generate the list of all customer.
(3) To solve data isolation problem- As data are scattered in various files, and files may be in various
formats, writing new application programs to retrieve the appropriate data is difficult.

(4) To solve atomicity problem- A computer system may fail. In many applications it is crucial that, if a
failure occurs the data be restored to the consistent state that existed prior to the failure. E.g. let us having
a program to transfer $ 50 from account A to account B. If a system failure occur during the execution of
program, it is possible that the $ 50 was removed from account A bit was not clearly it is essential to data
consistency that either both the credit and debit occur or that neither occur. That is fund transfer must be
atomic- it must happen in it's entirely of not at all, it is difficult to ensure atomicity in a conventional file -
processing system.

(5) To solve problem of concurrent- access anomalies- For the sake of overall performance of the system
and faster response, many systems allow multiple users to update the data simultaneously.

(6) To solve security problem- Not every user of database system should be able to access all the data. For
example in a banking system, the payroll personnel is allowed to see only that part of the database that
has information about the various bank employees. They do not need access to information about
customer accounts.

(7) To solve integrity problems- The data values stored in database must satisfy certain consistency
constraints.

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 C. Objectives of DBMS

The objectives of DBMS can be narrated as follows:

1. Eliminate redundant data.
2. Make access to the data easy for the user.
3. Provide for mass storage of relevant data.
4. Protect the data from physical harm and un-authorised systems.
5. Allow for growth in the data base system.
6. Make the latest modifications to the data base available immediately.
7. Allow for multiple users to be active at one time.
8. Provide prompt response to user requests for data.

Let’s explain few of them:

 Mass Storage
DBMS can store a lot of data in it. So for all the big firms, DBMS is really ideal technology to use. It can
store thousands of records in it and one can fetch all that data whenever it is needed.
 Removes Duplicity
If you have lots of data then data duplicity will occur for sure at any instance. DBMS guarantee it that there
will be no data duplicity among all the records. While storing new records, DBMS makes sure that same
data was not inserted before.
 Multiple Users Access
No one handles the whole database alone. There are lots of users who are able to access database. So this
situation may happen that two or more users are accessing database. They can change whatever they
want, at that time DBMS makes it sure that they can work concurrently.
 Data Protection
Information such as bank details, employee’s salary details and sale purchase details should always be kept
secured. Also all the companies need their data secured from unauthorized use. DBMS gives a master level
security to their data. No one can alter or modify the information without the privilege of using that data.
 Data Backup and recovery
Sometimes database failure occurs so there is no option like one can say that all the data has been lost.
There should be a backup of database so that on database failure it can be recovered. DBMS has the ability
to backup and recover all the data in database
 Everyone can work on DBMS
There is no need to be a master of programming language if you want to work on DBMS. Any accountant
who is having less technical knowledge can work on DBMS. All the definitions and descriptions are given in
it so that even a non-technical background w=person can work on it.
 Integrity
Integrity means your data is authentic and consistent. DBMS has various validity checks that make your
data completely accurate and consistence.
 Platform Independent
One can run DBMS at any platform. No particular platform is required to work on database management
system.

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 D. Advantages of DBMS

As said above, the database is created, managed and administered using a Database Management
System (DBMS). The role of a DBMS is to:
 Create database;
 Create tables;
 Create supporting structures (e.g indexes);
 Read database data;
 Modify (insert, update, or delete) database data;
 Maintain database structures;
 Enforce rules;
 Control concurrency;
 Provide security;
 Perform backup and recovery
 Integrity
 Data Independence
 Shared Data
 Conflict Resolution
 Reduction of Redundancies
Let’s explain few of them:
1. Integrity:
Centralised control can also ensure that adequate checks are incorporated in the DBMS to provide data
integrity. Data integrity means that the data contained in the data base is both accurate and consistent.
Therefore, Data values being entered for storage could be checked to ensure that they fall within a
specified range and are of the correct format.

For example, the value for the age of an employee may be in the range of 16 and 75.

Another integrity check that should be incorporated in the data base is to ensure that if there is a
reference to certain object, that object must exist. In the case of an automatic teller machine, for example,
a user is not allowed to transfer funds from a non-existent savings account to a checking account.

2. Security:
Data is of vital importance to an organisation and may be confidential. Such confidential data must not be
accessed by un-authorised persons. The data base administrator (DBA) who has the ultimate responsibility
for the data in the DBMS can ensure that proper access procedures are followed, including proper
authentication schemes for access to the DBMS and additional checks before permitting access to sensitive
data.

3. Data Independence:

Data independence is usually considered from two points of view; physical data independence and logical
data independence. Physical data independence allows changes in the physical storage devices or
organisation of the files to be made without requiring changes in the conceptual view or any of the
external views and hence in the application programs using the database.
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Thus, the files may migrate from one type of physical media to another or the file structure may change
without any need for changes in the application programs. Logical data independence implies that
application programs need not be changed if fields are added to an existing record; nor do they have to be
changed if fields not used by application programs are deleted.

Logical data independence indicates that the conceptual schema can be changed without affecting the
existing external schemas. Data independence is advantageous in the data base environment since it
allows for changes at one level of the data base without affecting other levels. These changes are absorbed
by the mappings between the levels.

4. Shared Data:
A data base allows the sharing of data under its control by any number of application programs or users. In
the example discussed earlier, the applications for the public relations and payroll departments could
share the data contained for the record type employee.

5. Conflict Resolution:
Since the data base is under the control of the data base administrator (DBA), he should resolve the
conflicting requirements of various users and applications. In essence, the DBA chooses the best file
structure and access method to get optimal performance for the critical applications, while permitting less
critical applications to continue to use the database, albeit with the relative response.

6. Reduction of Redundancies:
Centralised control of data by the DBA avoids unnecessary duplication of data and effectively reduces the
total amount of data storage required. It also eliminates the extra processing necessary to trace the
required data in a large mass of data.

Another advantage of avoiding duplication is the elimination of the inconsistencies that tend to be present
in redundant data files. Any redundancies that exist in the DBMS are controlled and the system ensures
that these multiple copies are consistent.

E. Components of DBMS
As shown in the figure below, a database system consists of four components: users, the
database application, the database management system and the database.

• Database: The database is a collection of tables, relationships and queries which enable to store
data with less redundancy. Those data should be used into programs by different users.
• Database Management System: The DBMS is a computer program used to create process and
administer the database. The DBMS receives requests (queries) encoded in SQL and translates
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 those queries into actions on the database.
• Database Application: The database application or most often the Application is a set of one or
more computer programs that serves as an intermediary between the user and the database. The
application read or modifies database data by sending SQL statements to the DBMS.The application
also present data to users in the format of forms and reports. Application can be acquired from
software vendors, and they are also frequently written (developed) in-house. The
knowledge you will gain from this document you to write your own database applications.
• Users: The users employ a database application to keep track of things. They use forms to read,
enter and request data. They also produce reports (the real results of a software) to be printed.

F. Application of DBMS type

F.1: MySQL

MySQL: MySQL is open-source DBMS software which can be considered as an alternative to Microsoft SQL
Server. MySQL is used primarily for e-commerce websites or social networking sites. Popular sites and
companies using MySQL are Adobe, Google, Facebook, Alcatel, Lucent and Zappos.

F.2: Oracle

Oracle: Oracle is easily the best DBMS provider. Oracle is in the business of making and selling DBMS since
1979. It thus becomes one of the most popular DBMS makers across the world. One of the best features of
Oracle is that it has now included cloud storage feature in its latest release that is 12c. Now the enterprises
and the institutions can store even more data! However, Oracle is quite complicated to use, and it is
advisable to invest in some training to know how to get the best out of such DBMS.

Applications of Data base management system in general

(1) Banking- In bank database management system is used for storing customer information, account
information, and information about bank transactions.

(2) Airlines-Database management system is used for reservations and schedule information.

(3) Universities- In universities and colleges, database management system are used for having student
information, course information and about their results.

(4) Credit Card Transactions- Here database management system is used for purchase of credit cards and
generation of monthly statements.

(5) Telecommunication- Record of calls made, generating monthly bill, maintaining balances on prepaid
calling cards, and storing information about the communication networks.

(6) Finance- For storing information about holdings, sales, and purchases of financial instruments such s
stocks and bonds.

(7) Human resources- For information about employees, salaries, payroll taxes and benefits and for
generation of pay checks.

(8) Manufacturing- For information of supply chain, and for tracking production of items in factories,
inventories of items in factories, inventories of items in warehouses/stores and orders for items.
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(9) Sales - For customers, product, and purchase information.

● Topic2:Description of database organization

Database organization key terms

Term Definition

Association Refers to links between the various entities of an application. In an object-

oriented database, association is denoted as references between various
objects.

Database-management a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs to access those

system (DBMS) data

Database a collection of data

File-processing system a system which stores permanent records in various files, and needs
different application programs to extract records from, and add records
to, the appropriate files

Data inconsistency various copies of the same data may no longer agree

Consistency constraints adding boundaries to data fields to enforce them to be within a range of
allowable values

Physical data the user of the logical level does not need to be aware how the data is
independence actually stored

Physical level the lowest level of abstraction which describes how the data are actually
stored

Logical level the middle level of abstraction which describes what data are stored in
the database

View level the collection of information stored in the database at a particular

moment

Schema the overall design of the database

Instance the collection of information stored in the database at a particular

moment

Physical schema describes the database design at the physical level

Logical schema describes the database design at the logical level

Subschemas describe different views of the database

Data model a collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationships,
data semantics, and consistency constraints

Relational model uses a collection of tables to represent both data and the relationships

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 among those data relations tables in the relational model.

entity-relationship uses a collection of basic objects, called entities, and relationships among
model (E-R) these objects

Object-based data combines the object-oriented data model and relational data model;
model extends the entity-relationship model with notions of encapsulation,
methods, and object identity

Semi-structured data permits the specification of data where individual data items of the same
model type may have different sets of attributes

Extensible markup widely used to represent semi-structured data

language (XML)

Network data model outdated predecessor to the relational data model

Hierarchical data model outdated predecessor to the relational data model

Data-definition language a language used to specify a database schema by a set of definition

(DDL)

Data-manipulation a language that enables user to access or manipulate data as organized by

language (DML) the appropriate data model

Procedural DMLs require a user to specify what data are needed and how to get those data

Declarative DMLs require a user to specify what data are needed without specifying how to
get those data (nonprocedural DMLs)

Query a statement requesting the retrieval of information

Query language the portion of a DML that involves information retrieval

Data storage and a set of statements in a special type of DDL that specifies the storage
definition structure and access methods used by the database system

Domain constraints a certain data type can act as a restraint on the values in that domain

Referential integrity ensuring that a value in one relation for a given set of attributes also
appears in a certain set of attributes in another relation

Assertions any condition that the database must always satisfy

Authorization differentiate among users to change the type of access they are permitted

Read authorization allows reading, but not modification, of data

Insert authorization allows modification, but not deletion, or data

Delete authorization allows deletion of data

Data dictionary The output of the DDL stores metadata about the structure of the
database, in particular the schema of the database.

Metadata data about data

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Relational database based on the relational model and uses a collection of tables to represent
both data and the relationships among those data

Application programs programs that are used to interact with the database in this fashion

Database design the design of the database schema

Conceptual-design phase laying out a detailed overview of the conceptual schema of the database
specification of functional requirements users describe the kinds of
operations (or transactions) that will be performed on the data

Logical-design phase the designer maps the high-level conceptual schema onto the
implementation data model of the database system that will be used

Physical-design phase the physical features of the database are specified

Attributes the description of entities

Relationship an association among several entities

Entity set the set of all entities of the same type

Relationship set the set of all relationships of the same type

● Topic 3: Description of data dictionary

A. Definition

Data Dictionary consists of database metadata. It has records about objects in the database.
What Data Dictionary consists of?
Data Dictionary consists of the following information −

 Name of the tables in the database

 Constraints of a table i.e. keys, relationships, etc.
 Columns of the tables that related to each other
 Owner of the table
 Last accessed information of the object
 Last updated information of the object

During a computerization project (most for wide projects), the team in charge of the software design
is not the same with the one in charge of programming.

To enable the team of programmers to be in phase with the LMD produced by the designing team, it’s
essential to make a data dictionary which will help them to easily implement the database.

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 The data dictionary takes the fields of LMD and describes and organizes them into table. These are
the examples of data dictionary.
Example1: personal details of a student

<StudentPersonalDetails>
Student_ID Student_Name Student_Address Student_City

The following is the data dictionary for the above fields:

Example 2:

FIELDS DESCRIPTION TYPE SIZE CONSTRAINT

ClientID Client’s Identifier Varchar 5 Not Null

CliSurname Client Surname Varchar 30 Not Null

CliFirstName Client First Name Varchar 40

ComNum Command Number Varchar 10 Not Null

ComDate Command Date Date 10 = Day Date [Date()]

BillID Bill’s Identifier Varchar 10 Not Null

CarID Car’s Identifier Varchar 15 Not Null

CarPrice Car Price Number 10 Not Null

B. Templates

FIELDS DESCRIPTION TYPE SIZE CONSTRAINT

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Learning Unit 3 – Create Database

LO 3.1 – Create tables and attributes

● Topic 1:Selection of DBMS tools

Definition of the abbreviation “Structured Query Language (SQL)”
SQL is Structured Query Language, which is a database computer language for storing, manipulating and
retrieving data stored in a relational database.

SQL is the standard language for Relational Database System. All Relational Database Management
Systems (RDMS) like MySQL, MS Access, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Postgres and SQL Server use SQL as
their standard database language.SQL is widely popular because it can execute queries against a database,
retrieve data, insert records, update records, delete records from a database, create new databases, create
new tables in a database, create stored procedures in a database, create views in a database and set
permissions on tables, procedures, and views.

SQL Editor

When you interact with MySQL databases, you mostly do it by writing, editing, and executing SQL queries,
statements, stored procedures, and scripts. A good SQL editor will help with database interaction by
providing syntax highlighting, robust code completion functionality, the ability to get information about
function parameters, and other features that make your coding experience more efficient.

Note: We are going to use MySQL as a Database Management System (DBMS).

Download XAMPP for Windows on this websitehttp://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html

and use MySQL SQL Editor which contains MariaDB. There are many other SQL editors that you can use like
MySQL workbench, dbForge, Studio, DBeaver.

Using XAMPP on Your Own Computer

The XAMPP package is free and is preconfigured so that the components will talk to each other. This
eliminates
the hassle of the usual practice of downloading several individual components and then configuring them
to work together.

Download and Install XAMPP

XAMP is free and needs no configuring. To download the package, go to:
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
After installing, If XAMPP is running, you will see an icon in the Notification area like the one shown in
Figure below

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 Figure: The XAMPP icon

Create a shortcut on your Desktop for XAMPP

Figure: Time-saving shortcuts

If a desktop icon was not created during the installation, I recommend that you go to the C:\xampp folder,
and then create a Desktop shortcut for the xampp-control.exe file.
One common problem is that Skype uses the same port as Apache. So if users have Skype running, Apache
won’t start. You can change the ports in Skype’s advanced options screen. If you have web deployment
Agent Services running, you will have to stop that to enable Apache to run.
Starting XAMPP

From here onward, to test your pages in XAMPP, double-click the desktop icon and check that Apache and
MySQL have started. If they have not started, click the start buttons for each and then minimize the control
panel.
The XAMPP control panel is shown in Figure

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Figure: The XAMPP control panel

Note that, under Service, I have shown that the first two modules are running as services, as indicated by
the green color. This ensures that those modules will run as soon as you start XAMPP.
Always minimize the control panel so that you have a clear desktop for starting work on your databases.
After starting Apache and MySQL, you can test your installation and examine all of the XAMPP examples
and tools; to do this, enter the following address in your browser.
http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1/
Accessing phpMyAdmin Using XAMPP
Using the address field of any browser, enter the following URL:
http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ or http://127.0.01/phpmyadmin/
Be sure to include the http://; otherwise, a browser like Chrome will treat it as a search string.

Note the sections describing the use of phpMyadmin apply to any of the development platforms:
XaMpp, WaMpserver, and easy php.

Note that open source programs are continually being improved and upgraded, and you may find that you
have a newer version of phpMyAdmin in your XAMPP package than that used in this note. You may also
see upgrade messages alerting you to a new version in the phpMyAdmin main window. Where personal
data is concerned, security is paramount, so these incremental updates are a good thing for you, though
they do mean that some of the screenshots in the book no longer accurately reflect what you see on
screen. Don’t worry if an interface looks a little different from the ones shown in this note, the usage will
normally be similar.

The Familiar Bits

Within the XAMPP package, the structure of the folders and files will be familiar to Windows users,
although their names may not be recognizable.
The XAMPP folders are shown in Figure

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Figure: XAMPP folders

Within the XAMPP folder, you will find a folder called MySQL. This folder contains a folder called data
where the databases and tables will reside. Regard a database as a folder; a database must have a unique
name. A file within the data folder contains all the information about the database, and it has the file type
*.opt.

Tables are files; when you have created any tables, these will also live inside the folder named data and
they will have the file type *.frm.

Now that you’re familiar with the look and feel of the tools you’ll be using, you’re ready to move ahead.
The next section will take you nearer to creating your first database and table.

Create a Database using phpMyAdmin

There is no need to start XAMPP to access phpMyAdmin, although you can if you wish. Note that you will
need to have MySQL running, though. If, for some reason, you previously stopped this service, you will
need to open up XAMPP to start it again. Open a browser, and then access phpMyAdmin by typing the
following in the address field: http://localhost/phpmyadmin
Click the Databases tab in the top menu. You will then see the interface shown in Figure.

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Figure: The phpMyAdmin interface for creating the database
Type a name for the database. For this example, it will be simpleIdb, all in lowercase except for the
uppercase letter I in the last three letters. Then click the Create button (ignore the Collation field). After
you click the Create button, the top part of the interface does not change. However, lower down you will
see a list of items with check boxes. Figure shows the lower part of the page and a list with check boxes.

Figure: In the lower part of the page, select the box next to the name of your new database
When you select the box next to your new database as shown in Figure, click Check Privileges and you will
be taken to a screen where you will see a list of users that have access to the database. To make the
database secure, you must add a username and password. Click the words Add User as shown in Figure.

Figure: The Add user icon is circled in this screenshot

Clicking Add User will load the Add a new User screen, shown next in Figure.

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Figure 1-14: This screen enables you to add a user and a password
Caution adding a username and password is absolutely essential; otherwise, your database will be insecure
and vulnerable to attack by unscrupulous individuals or their robots. This is the most important habit to
cultivate. be sure to record the user and password details in your note book. Keeping a detailed record will
save you hours of frustration later.

Using the pull-down menus, accept the default Use text field in the first field and enter the username in
the field to right of it. In the second field labelled Host, select local. The word localhost will appear in the
field on the right.

Localhost is the default name for the server on your computer. Enter a password in the third field, and
confirm your password by retyping it in the lower field. The Generate Password button will create a
random strong password if you want something unique.

Scroll down, and where it says Global privileges (Check All/Uncheck All), click Check All. You need to be able
to deal with every aspect of the database; therefore, you need all the privileges. If you add other users, you
need to restrict their privileges by deselecting boxes such as Drop, Delete, and Shutdown.
Scroll down to the bottom of the form, and click the Add User button (or the Go button on some versions).
You have now created the database and secured it against attack. The database can be regarded as an
empty folder that will eventually contain one or more tables.

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Note If you get lost when using phpMyadmin and can’t see what you should do next, always click the little
house at the top of the left panel. Hover over the icon to ensure that it is the home button.

Now we will create our first table.

 Topic 2: Application of "Create table" command

Syntax
CREATE TABLE table_name(
column1 datatype,
column2 datatype,
column3 datatype,
.....
columnN datatype,
PRIMARY KEY( one or more columns )
);
Now we will create a table named users in the simpleIdb database using the SQL window.
Click the simpleIdb database in the left panel of phpMyAdmin. If the simpleIdb database does not show,
refresh the page so that it does appear. Open the SQL window, and enter this:

CREATE TABLE users (

user_id MEDIUMINT (6) UNSIGNED
AUTO_INCREMENT,
fname VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
lname VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
email VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
psword CHAR(40) NOT NULL,
registration_date DATETIME,
PRIMARY KEY (user_id)
);
Figure shows the details entered into the SQL window.

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Figure: Creating a table in the SQL window of phpMyAdmin
Note that the brackets are all normal brackets, not curly brackets. Press the Enter key after each line,
and remember to put the closing bracket and the semicolon at the end of the last line. Each item is
separated by a closing comma (lines 3 through 8); if your table has six columns, you should have six
commas. Click the Go button, and the table will be created.

Tip: I encourage you to explore the SQL topic just described. The ability to work with SQL will be a
very useful alternative. You may wish to refer to the tutorial on:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/tutorial.html.

● Topic 3: Application of data type on fields

Table: The attributes for the users table

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Accept all the default settings for each item except for the user_id. Here, you will need to select
UNSIGNED, PRIMARY, and the type; also select the A_I box.
The various categories under the heading Type will be explained later; the heading Length/Values
refers to the maximum number of characters. The Length/Values for the registration_date is left
blank because the length is predetermined. Do not enter anything under the headings Default and
NULL. The attribute UNSIGNED means that the user_id integer cannot be a negative quantity. The
Index for the user_id is the primary index, and A_I means Automatically Increment the id number; as
each user is registered to the database, he or she is given a unique number. The number is increased
by one as each new user is added. The screen for specifying the attributes is shown in Figure.

Figure: This screen allows you to specify column titles and the type of content

The rows represent columns and they are very wide; you may have to scroll horizontally to enter
some of the information. You will find more options as you scroll right, but we will not need them for
this tutorial.

So how do you fill out the fields? Enter the six column titles in the fields on the left under the heading
Name.
Enter the type of column in the second column of fields under the heading Type. Select them from
the Pull-down menus. The types used in this table are as follows:

• MEDIUMINT can store integers ranging from minus 8,388,608 to plus 8,388,607. You could choose
the next smallest category SMALLINT if the number of users will never exceed 65,535.
•VARCHAR specifies a variable-length string of characters from 1 to 255 long.

• CHAR is a string of characters traditionally used for passwords. Be sure to give this 40 characters so
that your database is able to encrypt the password using the function SHA1('$p').

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MySQL then converts a password into an encrypted string of 40 characters. A user’s password can be,
say, 6 to 12 characters long, but it will still be stored in the database as an encrypted40-character
string. Incidentally, SHA stands for Secure Hash Algorithm.

•DATETIME stores the date and time in the format YYYY-MM-DD-HH:MM:SS.

Enter the number of characters in the fourth column of fields under the heading Length/Values.
Under the heading Default, accept the default None. This field is where you can enter a default value
if you wish.

Now scroll right. Under the heading Attributes, use the drop-down menu to select UNSIGNED for
user_id. This ensures that the integer range becomes zero to 16,777,215. This is because a negative
quantity is not applicable for the user_id.

The next two entries concern only the user_id. Scroll right so that you can see the headings shown in
Figure below.

Figure: Two extra entries for the user_id column

For the user_id, under the heading Index, click the drop-down menu to enter PRIMARY. The user_id
should always be a primary index.

Under the heading A_I, select the topmost check box so that the user_id number is automatically
incremented when each new record is added to the database.
Now scroll to the bottom and click the SAVE button.

Caution If you forget to select the a_I box for user_id, you will receive an error message when you
later try to enter the second record. the message will say that you are trying to create a duplicate
value “0” for id_user.

Some people prefer a blend of GUI and command-line for programming a table, phpMyAdmin allows
you to do this by means of SQL. However, this book will mainly use the phpMyAdmin GUI. The SQL
alternative is described next. You can skip this section if you wish, but I recommend that you come
back to it at some future date because you will undoubtedly come across SQL in other more advanced
manuals.

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The SQL Alternative

Figure: SQL table

creation commands
● Topic3: Modification of tables using commands

Every table should be contained in a database that is why before looking at modification of table we
should create database. Let’s see some the commands that can be used to create and manipulate the
database.

No Command &description

1 CREATE: Creates a new table, a view of a table, or other object in the database.

2 ALTER: Modifies an existing database object, such as a table.

3 DROP: Deletes an entire table, a view of a table or other objects in the database

4 RENAME: Renames a database or a tableby giving another name.

5 TRUNCATE: Is used to delete complete data from an existing table.

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 No Command syntax

1 Create a database CREATE database database_name;

2 Rename a database Note: there is no single command to rename a database

3 Drop a database DROP database database_name;

Examples:

Command Example
CREATE database CREATE database CUSTOMERS;
DROP database DROP database CUSTOMERS;
RENAME database USE master;
GO
ALTERDATABASE CUSTOMERS SET SINGLE_USER
WITHROLLBACKIMMEDIATE
GO
ALTERDATABASE CUSTOMERS MODIFYNAME = CLIENTS;
GO
ALTERDATABASE CLIENTS SET MULTI_USER
GO

 Alter

The MySQL ALTER command is very useful when you want to change a name of your table, any table field
or if you want to add or delete an existing column in a table.

Let us begin with the creation of a table called testalter_tbl.

create table testalter_tbl

(
i INT,
c CHAR(1)
);
SHOW COLUMNS FROM testalter_tbl;

 Dropping, Adding or Repositioning a Column

If you want to drop an existing column i from the above MySQL table, then you will use the DROP clause
along with the ALTER command as shown below –
Syntax: ALTER TABLE table_name DROP column_name;
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl DROP i;

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A DROP clause will not work if the column is the only one left in the table.
To add a column, use ADD and specify the column definition. The following statement restores
the i column to the testalter_tbl–
Syntax:
ALTER TABLE table_name ADD column_name datatype;
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl ADD i INT;
After issuing this statement, testalter will contain the same two columns that it had when you first
created the table, but will not have the same structure. This is because there are new columns that are
added to the end of the table by default. So even though i originally was the first column in mytbl, now it
is the last one.

SHOW COLUMNS FROM testalter_tbl;

To indicate that you want a column at a specific position within the table, either use FIRST to make it the
first column or AFTER col_name to indicate that the new column should be placed after the col_name.
Try the following ALTER TABLE statements, using SHOW COLUMNS after each one to see what effect each
one has −
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl DROP i;
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl ADD i INT FIRST;
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl DROP i;
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl ADD i INT AFTER c;
The FIRST and AFTER specifiers work only with the ADD clause. This means that if you want to reposition
an existing column within a table, you first must DROP it and then ADD it at the new position.
 Altering (Changing) a Column Definition or a Name
To change a column's definition, use MODIFY or CHANGE clause along with the ALTER command.
For example, to change column c from CHAR (1) to CHAR (10), you can use the following command:
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl MODIFY c CHAR(10);

With CHANGE, the syntax is a bit different. After the CHANGE keyword, you name the column you want to
change, and then specify the new definition, which includes the new name.
Try out the following example −
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl CHANGE i j BIGINT;

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If you now use CHANGE to convert j from BIGINT back to INT without changing the column name, the
statement will be as shown below –

ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl CHANGE j j INT;

The Effect of ALTER TABLE on Null and Default Value Attributes − When you MODIFY or CHANGE a
column, you can also specify whether or not the column can contain NULL values and what its default
value is. In fact, if you don't do this, MySQL automatically assigns values for these attributes.

The following code block is an example, where the NOT NULL column will have the value as 100 by
default.
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl
MODIFY j BIGINT NOT NULL DEFAULT 100;
If you don't use the above command, then MySQL will fill up NULL values in all the columns.
 Altering (Changing) a Column's Default Value
You can change a default value for any column by using the ALTER command.
Try out the following example.
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl ALTER i SET DEFAULT 1000;
SHOW COLUMNS FROM testalter_tbl;

You can remove the default constraint from any column by using DROP clause along with
the ALTER command.
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl ALTER i DROP DEFAULT;
SHOW COLUMNS FROM testalter_tbl;

 Renaming (Altering) a Table

To rename a table, use the RENAME option of the ALTER TABLE statement.
Syntax:
ALTER TABLE old table_name RENAME TO new table_name.
Try out the following example to rename testalter_tbl to alter_tbl.
ALTER TABLE testalter_tbl RENAME TO alter_tbl;
You can use the ALTER command to create and drop the INDEX command on a MySQL file.
 The TRUNCATE TABLE Statement

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What if we only want to delete the data inside the table, and not the table itself?
Then, use the TRUNCATE TABLE statement:
TRUNCATE TABLE table_name;
Example /try it by yourself to see the result
TRUNCATETABLECUSTOMER;

You can also use DROP TABLE command to delete complete table but it would remove complete table
structure form the database and you would need to re-create this table once again if you wish you store
some data.
SQL - ALTER TABLE Command with constraints
The SQL ALTER TABLE command is used to add, delete or modify columns in an existing table. You should
also use the ALTER TABLE command to add and drop various constraints on an existing table.
Below is table of some syntax for SQL ALTER TABLE:
Constraint ADD DROP
Primary key constraint ALTER TABLE table_name ALTER TABLE table_name
ADD CONSTRAINT MyPrimaryKey DROP CONSTRAINT MyPrimaryKey;
PRIMARY KEY (column1, Or in MySQL
column2...); ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP PRIMARY KEY;
Unique key constraint ALTER TABLE table_name ALTERTABLE tablename
ADD CONSTRAINT DROPCONSTRAINT UC_tablename;
MyUniqueConstraint
UNIQUE(column1, column2...);
Not null constraint ALTER TABLE table_name
MODIFY column_name datatype
NOT NULL;
Check constraint ALTER TABLE table_name ALTERTABLE table_name
ADD CONSTRAINT DROPCONSTRAINT CHK_Columnname;
MyUniqueConstraint CHECK
(CONDITION);
column ALTER TABLE table_name ADD ALTER TABLE table_name DROP
column_name datatype; COLUMN column_name;
Data type ALTER TABLE table_name NOT APPLICABLE
MODIFY COLUMN column_name
datatype;

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LO 3.2 – Create views
 Topic 1: Creation of views

Design Views

Means of accessing a subset of database as if it were a table, the view may be:

 Restricted to named columns, change column names, derive new columns, give access to a
combination of related tables.
 Evaluate table de-normalization.

SQL - Using Views-

A view is nothing more than a SQL statement that is stored in the database with an associated name.
A view is actually a composition of a table in the form of a predefined SQL query. A view can contain
all rows of a table or select rows from a table. A view can be created from one or many tables which
depend on the written SQL query to create a view.
Views, which are a type of virtual tables allow users to do the following:

 Structure data in a way that users or classes of users find natural or intuitive.
 Restrict access to the data in such a way that a user can see and (sometimes) modify exactly
what they need and no more.
 Summarize data from various tables which can be used to generate reports.

Creating Views

Database views are created using the CREATE VIEW statement. Views can be created from a single
table, multiple tables or another view. To create a view, a user must have the appropriate system
privilege according to the specific implementation.

The basic CREATE VIEW syntax is as follows –

CREATE VIEW view_name AS

SELECT column1, column2.....
FROM table_name
WHERE [condition];

You can include multiple tables in your SELECT statement in a similar way as you use them in a normal
SQL SELECT query.
Example
Consider the CUSTOMERS table having the following records –

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 Following is an example to create a view from the CUSTOMERS table. This view would be used to have
customer name and age from the CUSTOMERS table.
CREATE VIEW CUSTOMERS_VIEW AS
SELECT name, age
FROM CUSTOMERS;
Now, you can query CUSTOMERS_VIEW in a similar way as you query an
actual table. Following is an example for the same.
SELECT * FROM CUSTOMERS_VIEW;
This would produce the following result.

 Queries
CREATE VIEW view_name AS
SELECT column1, column2.....
FROM table_name
WHERE [condition];

 Website forms

Building forms:

Handling forms is a multipart process. First a form is created, into which a user can enter the
required details. This data is then sent to the web server, where it is interpreted, often with some
error checking. If the PHP code identifies one or more fields that require re-entering, the form may
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 be redisplayed with an error message. When the code is satisfied with the accuracy of the input, it
takes some action that usually involves the database, such as entering details about a purchase.

Accessing MySQL Using PHP

It first checks for any inputs that may have been made and then inserts new data into the classics
table of the publications database row from it, according to the input supplied. Regardless of
whether there was input, the program then outputs all the rows in the table to the browser.

LO 3.3 – Proper management of access control of database

 Topic 1:Types of database users

What are the different types of database users?

1) Application Programmer:
A technical person who writes database application programs. They are also known as Software Developer
or Software Engineer. They write programs by using computer programming languages and development
tools.

Languages: Java, COBOL, PASAL, PL/SQL etc are used.

Development tools: Eclipse, JDeveloper, SQL Developer etc are used.

Application programs that interact with database are developed as per the user requirements and include
functionalities of creating, reading, updating and deleting data from the database. These are commonly
known as CRUD operations.

2) Naive Users:

Naive users use application programs written by application programmer for interacting with the database.
These users don't have much knowledge about database but thy use predefined applications to access
required data from the database.

Clerk working at the LIC office to maintain customer policy data is a naive user.

Student filling information for online university registration is a naive user.

Operator doing a railway reservation is a naive user.

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3) Sophisticated users:

These users interact with database by using some query language or by some analytical tool. System
Analyst or Data Analysts are sophisticated users. Commonly use SQL and MS Excel for data analysis.

4) Specialized Users:

These are scientist or engineers who can create their own application programs for some specific needs
and is different from the programs written by application programmers. They are comfortably familiar with
database systems.

5) Database Administrator:

Also known as DBA. They perform the complete administration of database systems.
Database Administrators

The life cycle of database starts from designing, implementing to administration of it. A database for any
kind of requirement needs to be designed perfectly so that it should work without any issues. Once all the
design is complete, it needs to be installed. Once this step is complete, users start using the database. The
database grows as the data grows in the database. When the database becomes huge, its performance
comes down. Also accessing the data from the database becomes challenge. There will be unused memory
in database, making the memory inevitably huge. These administration and maintenance of database is
taken care by database Administrator – DBA. A DBA has many responsibilities. A good performing database
is in the hands of DBA.

 Installing and upgrading the DBMS Servers: – DBA is responsible for installing a new DBMS server
for the new projects. He is also responsible for upgrading these servers as there are new versions
comes in the market or requirement. If there is any failure in upgradation of the existing servers, he
should be able revert the new changes back to the older version, thus maintaining the DBMS
working. He is also responsible for updating the service packs/ hot fixes/ patches to the DBMS
servers.
 Design and implementation: – Designing the database and implementing is also DBA’s
responsibility. He should be able to decide proper memory management, file organizations, error
handling, log maintenance etc for the database.
 Performance tuning: – Since database is huge and it will have lots of tables, data, constraints and
indices, there will be variations in the performance from time to time. Also, because of some
designing issues or data growth, the database will not work as expected. It is responsibility of the
DBA to tune the database performance. He is responsible to make sure all the queries and
programs works in fraction of seconds.
 Migrate database servers: – Sometimes, users using oracle would like to shift to SQL server or
Netezza. It is the responsibility of DBA to make sure that migration happens without any failure,
and there is no data loss.
 Backup and Recovery: – Proper backup and recovery programs needs to be developed by DBA and
has to be maintained him. This is one of the main responsibilities of DBA. Data/objects should be

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 backed up regularly so that if there is any crash, it should be recovered without much effort and
data loss.
 Security: – DBA is responsible for creating various database users and roles, and giving them
different levels of access rights.
 Documentation: – DBA should be properly documenting all his activities so that if he quits or any
new DBA comes in, he should be able to understand the database without any effort. He should
basically maintain all his installation, backup, recovery, security methods. He should keep various
reports about database performance.

 Topic 2:User authentication and authorization

Database Authentication

Definition - What does Database Authentication mean?

Database authentication is the process or act of confirming that a user who is attempting to log in to a
database is authorized to do so, and is only accorded the rights to perform activities that he or she has
been authorized to do.
The concept of authentication is familiar to almost everyone. For example, a mobile phone performs
authentication by asking for a PIN. Similarly, a computer authenticates a username by asking for the
corresponding password.
In the context of databases, however, authentication acquires one more dimension because it may happen
at different levels. It may be performed by the database itself, or the setup may be changed to allow either
the operating system, or some other external method, to authenticate users.
For example, while creating a database in Microsoft’s SQL Server, a user is required to define whether to
use database authentication, operating system authentication, or both (the so-called mixed-mode
authentication). Other databases in which security is paramount employ near-foolproof authentication
modes like fingerprint recognition and retinal scans.

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 A. Security issues

Security authentication vs. authorization

Authentication and authorization are often discussed in tandem. However, it’s important to recognize key
distinctions between the two. In the login process as a whole, one step can’t be completed without the
other. Still, authentication must always come first.
How are authentication and authorization different?

The easiest way to understand this relationship is by asking yourself the questions, “Who are you?” and
“What are you allowed to do?”
Just like it would be impossible to determine what an individual is allowed to do if you’re not sure who
they are, your registration and login systems cannot authorize users if they’ve yet to be authenticated.
In other words, authentication identifies users while authorization determines their permissions. While
they’re entirely different processes, they work together to ensure a seamless login experience for users
and neither one can be completed without the other!
How do authentication and authorization work together?

Security authentication and authorization should be incorporated into any website or application, although
it’s especially vital for those that process online transactions or personal information.

Since anyone with the “key” can gain access, it’s vital that companies implement a strong authentication
strategy to keep unauthorized users from accessing accounts without permission.

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Boosting security authentication and authorization

Authentication and authorization keep internal accounts organized and help catch unauthorized activity
before it becomes a serious threat. One of the main steps we recommend to protect against breaches is
to make sure every account has only the permissions they need. That way, your team can spot any
unusual behavior early on and take the necessary steps to correct or shut it down.
Strong security authentication protocols prevent cybercriminals from gaining access to your accounts.
Having a secure authentication method will make it more difficult for hackers to crack a users’ key and gain
access to their information.

B. Preventions from unauthorized users’ access.

There is couple of ways that you can restrict access to a database:

1. Using LOGON Trigger - but only temporarily (enables before upgrade and then disables it).You
can shutdown IIS on the webservers so that no connections are made using the application. This is
called "Application downtime"
2. Keep database in single user mode using (Note this will be risky as if there is any other connection to
the database then you might end up waiting or refused connection.)
Alter database database_name set single_user with rollback immediately

Seven (7) Database Security Best Practices

Databases - by definition - contain data, and data such as credit card information is valuable to criminals.
That means databases are an attractive target to hackers, and it's why database security is vitally
important.
Useful database security best practices that can help keep your databases safe from attackers:

 Ensure physical database security: In the traditional sense this means keeping your database
server in a secure, locked environment with access controls in place to keep unauthorized people
out.
 Use web application and database firewalls: Your database server should be protected from
database security threats by a firewall, which denies access to traffic by default.
 Harden your database to the fullest extent possible: Clearly it's important to ensure that the
database you are using is still supported by the vendor or open source project responsible for it,
and that you are running the most up-to-date version of the database software with all database
security patches installed to remove known vulnerabilities.
 Encrypt your data: It is standard procedure in many organizations to encrypt stored data, but it's
important to ensure that backup data is also encrypted and stored separately from the decryption
keys. (Not, for example, stored in encrypted form but alongside the keys in plaintext.) As well as
encrypting data at rest, it's also important to ensure confidential data is encrypted in motion over
your network to protect against database security threats.
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  Minimize value of databases: Attackers can only get their hands on what is stored in a database, so
ensure that you are not storing any confidential information that doesn't need to be there.
 Manage database access tightly: You should aim for the least number of people possible to have
access to the database. Administrators should have only the bare minimum privileges they need to
do their job, and only during periods while they need access by using grant and revoke.
 Audit and monitor database activity: This includes monitoring logins (and attempted logins) to the
operating system and database and reviewing logs regularly to detect anomalous activity.

 Topic3:Various access methods

Five (5) kinds of data structure and 16 kinds of data access method

So I’m going to explain a bit about data access methods, as well as the sub-topic of data structures. First,
let’s define the concept of data access method in three steps:
1. The basic mission of a database management system is to, upon request, return part of the
database to the requester. In a relational database, what’s returned will be a record or set of
records; in an object-oriented database it will be an object or set of objects; and so on.
2. In a few major brands of data warehouse appliance, the DBMS may call pretty much the whole
database into memory, then find what it wants from there. Most other DBMS are more finicky, and
try to retrieve from disk only the data requested. More precisely, they usually retrieve data blocks
of a fixed size, and try to bring back only the blocks that may contain the information being looked
for.
3. How they make these selections is their data access method. More precisely, it’s the part of the
data access method that deals with getting data off of disk. Often, there will be other parts that
govern what happens to the data once it’s in memory.
At their core, most data access methods consist of two things:
 A data structure.
 (In some cases) A design for indexes that point into that data structure.
There are many kinds of data structure, with some of the most important being:
 Simple files. A single file can be stored as, well, a file. Or maybe as a BLOB or CLOB
(Binary/Character Large object) managed by a DBMS. This used to be the way all data was
managed, but now it’s mainly used in three contexts:
 For surviving old-style legacy applications.
 For single documents, images, videos, sound files, and the like.
 To hold something whose contents will be indexed by a DBMS or similar technology.
 Arrays with fixed-length entries. There’s nothing faster than getting data from a completely
regular array. Just calculate the address and you’re there. But lack of compression is a huge issue,
unless you’re dealing with purely numeric data that can’t be compressed anyway.
 Tables with variable-length entries. The bread-and-butter data structure of modern database
management is the table, storing numeric, date, or character-string data. By default, entries take
up however many bytes are needed to express them, but various kinds of compression are
increasingly used on top of that.
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  Linked list (hierarchy or network). Before there were relational or other index-based database
management systems, there were linked-list products. Each data value would be accompanied by
a pointer to the next one you were likely to want. Specifically, you were linked to parents,
children, and next-records. These systems were called hierarchical if there only was one parent
(e.g., IBM’s IMS and it’s cousins), or network if there could be more (e.g., Cullinet’s IDMS). The
CODASYL standard covered network DBMS, but people soon stopped caring, as index-based DBMS
obsoleted linked-list ones.
 “It’s all in the index.” In some cases, data is wholly copied into the index used to find it, and the
underlying data isn’t really managed at all. This is particularly common in text search, data
federation, and columnar RDBMS.
We have a huge number of possible data access methods, and each major kind can have a broad variety of
tweaks.
1. Simple file manager.
2. Classic relational b-tree.
3. Hash index.
4. Bitmap.
5. Other columnar.
6. Star.
7. Geospatial r-tree.
8. Hierarchy-of-arrays MOLAP.
9. Inverted index.
10. Classic full-text index.
11. Classic linked-list.
12. Classic object-oriented.
13. Native XML (all).
14. Tree.
15. File plus calculated metadata (e.g., for still image).
16. Simple key/value lookup.

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 References:
1. Prettyman, A. W. (2018). Practical PHP7,MySQL 8, and MariaDB Website Database. Key West, Florida,USA:
Appress Media LLC.

2. Publication, M. R. (2008, January 31). Monash Research Publication. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from
www.dbms2.com: http://www.dbms2.com/2008/01/31/5-kinds-of-data-structure-and-16-kinds-of-data-
access-method/

3. Rubens, P. (2016, August 23). 7 Database Security Best Practices. Retrieved July 31, 2020, from
esecurityplanet: http://www.esecurityplanet.com

4. Tutorialspoint. (2020, July 31). MySQL ALTER command. Retrieved July 32, 2020, from
www.tutorialspoint.com: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/mysql/mysql-alter-command.html

5. Architect, E. (2011). Data Modeling From Conceptual Model to DBMS. Retrieved July 31, 2020, from
sparxsystems: http://www.sparxsystems.com

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