Database Application Design

SI Course Proposal for Winter 1998

Textbooks:

Thomas Bruce "Designing Quality Databases with IDEF1X Information Models", Dorset House 1993.

Morrison and Morrison, "Guide to Oracle". 1998. International Thomson Publishing.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, students should be able to take a small database application project from conception to completion. Students should also gain insight into issues involved in larger, enterprise-wide database applications. Students will also acquire particular skills:

State of the art Data Modeling, using IDEF1X Standard

Advanced database design using the CASE Tool Erwin

SQL programming

Providing Web access to databases

Assignments

SQL Problem set

Modeling and Design Problem set

Final exam

Database Design and Implementation Project

As individuals or in small teams, students will identify a database project to work on as a semester project. This could be an existing database that needs to be redesigned, or a new project where no database exists yet. Students will use the modeling tools and techniques to design a database format that will meet both the current and ongoing needs of the intended users, and then implement the database. By the end of the of the semester, the database should be in productive use.

Preliminary Syllabus

Module 0: Orientation (1 week)

Anatomy of Database Applications

The Modeling and Development Process

The Relational Data Model

Module 1: SQL Programming (3 weeks)

Module 2: Data Modeling (5 weeks)

Entrity-Relationship Diagrams

IDEF1X

Erwin

Normal Forms

Integrity Rules

Physical DB Design and Performance Tuning

Module 3: Developing the Application and UI (1 week)

Forms and Reports

Module 4: Web Access to Databases (2 weeks)

HTML forms

Interfacing with a database

Generating HTML

Module 5: Advanced Issues (2 weeks)

Integrating Heterogeneous Databases

Enterprise Modeling

OLAP

Metadata modeling and management

Next Generation Database Engines

Object DB

Temporal DB

Module 6: Project Presentation and Evaluation (1 week)