University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines

Alubijid | Cagayan de Oro | Claveria | Jasaan | Oroquieta | Panaon

Course : Fundamentals of Database Systems

Module No. :1

Title : Introduction to Databases and Transactions

Intended Learning Outcomes :

✓ Define terms
✓ Name limitations of conventional file processing
✓ Explain advantages of databases
✓ Identify costs and risks of databases
✓ List components of database environment
✓ Identify categories of database applications
✓ Describe database system development life cycle
✓ Explain prototyping and agile development approaches
✓ Explain roles of individuals
✓ Explain the three-schema architecture for databases

Introduction

A database is shared collection of logically related data (and a description of this data), designed to
meet the information needs of an organization.

A database is composed of:

• Entities
• Relations

A File-based system is a collection of application programs that perform services for the end users
such as the production of reports. Each program defines and manages its own data.

Limitations of the file-based approach:

▪ Separation and isolation of data
▪ Duplication of data
▪ Data dependence
▪ Incompatible file formats
▪ Fixed queries/proliferation of application programs

This limitations can be attributed to two factors

1) definition of data embedded in the application programs, rather than being stored separately
and independently; and

Fundamentals of Database Systems

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2) There is no control over the access and manipulation of data beyond that imposed by the
application programs.

Database Management System or DBMS is software designed to assist in maintaining and

utilizing large collections of data.

- A general-purpose software system that facilitates the processes of defining,

constructing, & manipulating databases for various applications.

Defining a database involves specifying the data types, structures, and constraints for the
data to be stored in the database.

Constructing the database is the process of storing data itself on some storage medium that
is controlled by the DBMS.

Manipulating a database includes such functions as querying the database to retrieve specific
data, updating the database to reflect changes in the miniworld, & generating reports from the
data.

DBMS is a software that enables user to define, create and maintain that database and which
provides controlled access to the database. It provides the following facilities:

✓ Allows users to define the database through DDL (Data Definition Language)
✓
Allows user to insert, update, delete and retrieve data through DML (Data Manipulation
Language)
✓ Provides controlled access to the database.

DBMS provides controlled access to the database. For example, it may provide:

• A security system, which prevents unauthorized users from accessing the database;

• An integrity system, which maintains the consistency of stored data;

• A concurrency control system, which allows shared access of the database;

• A recovery control system, which restores the database to a previous consistent state
following a hardware or software failure;

What are we going to cover?

➢
Database design and application development: how do we represent the world with a database?

➢
Data analysis: how can we answer questions about enterprising this data?

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➢
Concurrency and robustness: How does a DBMS allow many users to access data concurrently, and
how does it protect against failures?

➢
Efficiency and Scalability: How does the database cope with large amounts of data?

Data
Information
Database

Figure 1: Database Composition

A bit of history

➢ Early 1960s: Charles Bachman at GE creates the first general purpose DBMS Integrated Data Store. It
creates the basis for the network model (standardized by CODASYL)

➢ Late 1960s: IBM develops the Information Management System (IMS). It uses an alternate model, called
the hierarchical data model. SABRE is created around IMS.

➢ i970: Edgar Codd, from IBM creates the relational data model. In 1981 Codd receives the Turing Award
for his contributions to database theory

➢ 1980s SQL, developed by IBM, becomes the standard query language for databases. SQL is
standardized by ISO.

➢ 1980s and 1990s, IBM, Oracle, Informix and others develop powerful DBMS.

➢ In the Internet Age, DBMS are showing how useful they can be.

Forms of Data
➢ Text
➢ Image
➢ Audio
➢ Video

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How do we capture data?

Figure 2. Data sources

What is metadata?

➢ Metadata are data that describe the properties of data (but do not include that data)
➢ Allow database designers & users to understand what data exist, what the data mean
and what the fine distinctions are between seemingly similar data items

Table 1. Metadata

Field Data Type Field Size Default Nul Format

Value l
EmployeeID Text 10 N AAA1001

EmpName Text 50 N

EmpAddres Text 75 Manila N

s
EmpTelNo Text 13 Y \(02) 999-9999
EmpEmail Hyperlink 30 Y

Why do we use DBMS?

Advantages:
✓ Control of data redundancy
✓ Data consistency
✓ Sharing of data
✓ Data integrity and security
✓ Enforcement of Standards
✓ Economy of scale
✓ Balanced conflicting requirements
✓ Data independence
✓ Efficient data access
✓ Data administration
✓ Concurrent access and crash recovery
✓ Reduced application development time

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Disadvantages:
✓ Complexity
✓ Size
✓ Cost of DBMS
✓ Additional hardware costs
✓ Cost of conversion
✓ Performance
✓ Higher impact of a failure

Roles in the Database Environment

1. Data and Database Administrators
2. Database Designers
3. Application programmers
4. end-users

Data Administrators
- is responsible for the management of the data resource including database planning, development
and maintenance of the standards, policies and procedures and logical database design.
- Consults with and advises senior managers, ensuring that the direction of database development will
ultimately support corporate objectives.

Database Administrators
- Is responsible for the physical realization of the database system, including physical database design
and implementation, security and integrity control, maintenance of the operational system and
ensuring satisfactory performance for the applications and users.

Database Designers
❖ two types of designers:
✓ logical database designer
o is concerned with identifying the data, the relationships between data and the constraints on
the data that is to be stored in the database.
o Must have a thorough and complete understanding of the organization’s data andof the
business rules.
✓ physical database designer
o takes the logical data model and decides how it is to be physically realized. This
involves:
▪ mapping the logical data model into a set of tables and integrity constraints;
▪ selecting specific storage structures and access methods for the data to achieve
good performance for the database activities;
▪ designing any security measure required on the data.

Application Programmers

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- responsible in the implementation of the application programs that provide the required functionality
for the end users.
- work from the specification produced by systems analyst.

End Users
- are the clients for the database – the database has been designed and implemented, and is being
maintained to server their information needs.
- End users can be classified according to the way they use the system:
Naïve users:
• are typically unaware of the DBMS.
• They invoke database operations by entering simple commands or choosing options
form a menu.

Sophisticated users:

• familiar with the structure of the database and the facilities offered by the
DBMS.
• May use a high-level query language such as SQL to perform the required
operations.

File-based vs. Database Processing

Figure 3. File-based Processing

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Figure 4. Database Processing

❖ A view can present a consistent, unchanging picture of the structure of the database, even if the
underlying database is changed (for example, fields added or removed, relationships changed, files
split, restructured or renamed). If fields are added or removed from a file, and these fields are not
required by the view, the view is not affected by this change. Thus, a view helps provide the
program-data independence.

File-based Sample

Sales Files

Property_for_Rent (Property Number, Street, Area, City, Post Code, Property Type, Number
of Rooms, Monthly Rent, Owner Number)

Owner (Owner Number, FirstName, LastName, Address, Telephone Number)

Renter (Renter Number, FirstName, LastName, Address, Telephone Number, Preferred

Type, Maximum Rent)

Contracts Files

Lease (Lease Number, Property Number, Renter Number, Monthly Rent, Payment Method,
Deposit, Paid, Rent StartDate, Rent Finish Date, Duration)

Property_for_Rent (Property Number, Street, Area, City, Post Code, Property Type, Number
of Rooms, Monthly Rent, Owner Number)

Renter (Renter Number, FirstName, LastName, Address, Telephone Number, Preferred

Type, Maximum Rent)

The Personnel Department also stores staff details, namely:

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Staff(Staff Number, FirstName, LastName, Address, Telephone Number, Position, Sex, Date of Birth,
Salary, National Insurance Number, Branch Number)
Relational Database Life Cycle

The Relational Data Model: introduction

• A data model is a collection of high level description constructs that hide many low-level
storage details.
• Most current DBMS use the relational data model
• The central data description in this model is the relation (a set of tuples –same as in set theory
mathematics)
• For convenience, we refer to each tuple as a row
• A schema is a description of the data in terms of the data model. In the relational model the
schema looks like:
RelationName(field1 : type1, ..., fieldn : typen)

Relational Data Model: example

➢ A relation of students:
Students(sid : string, name : string, age : integer, gpa : real)
➢ An instance of the students relation can be represented as:

Table 2. Relational data model

exampls
Sid Name Login Age gpa

250001 Novem Novem03 18 1.5

250002 Hannah Joy Hjoy 18 1.2

260003 Kate Kakit 19 1.0

260005 Faith Faith05 11 1.8

260008 Heide Heidz 12 2.0

Relational Data Model: example

• Each row is a tuple in the relation (a record in the DBMS)
• We can add integrity constraints (assertions on the data) such as every student has a different sid

Enterprise Data Model

▪ Is the abstract graphical representation of an enterprise.
▪ Usually the beginning of database development
▪ Graphical model that shows high level entities for the organization and the relationship among
entities
▪ Specifies scope & general contents of organizational databases

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▪ Typically occurs during information systems planning

Data modeling is language-independent. It can be drawn using a pen and a paper.

PURPOSE of Enterprise Data Model:

It creates an overall picture or explanation of organizational data NOT the design

of the database
▪ reviews current systems
▪ analyze the nature of the business areas to be supported
▪ describe the data needed at a very high level of abstraction
▪ plan one or more database development projects

Data Modeling Tools

• Entity Relationship Diagram
• Unified Modeling Language
• Data Flow Diagram
• Data Dictionary

Figure 5. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

Information System Architecture (ISA)

Six Components:
1. Data - May be represented as ERD
2. Processes - Manipulate data; represented by DFD, object-models with methods or
other notations
3. Network - Transports data around & between organizations and business partners
4. People - Source & receiver of data / information and performs processes
5. Events and Point in Time - Shows when processes are performed (e.g State-Transition
Diagrams)
6. Reasons - Shows events & rules governing the processing of data. Some diagramming

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tools exist for rules (e.g decision tables)

Information Engineering
• It is a formal methodology in creating and maintaining information system.

➢ Bottom-up Planning
➢ Top-down Planning

Bottom-up - projects are requested by IS users who need certain info to do their job
Top-down- generic IS planning methodology that attempts to gain a broad understanding of the IS needs of
the entire org
4 steps
1. Planning
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Implementation

Planning - Results in an IS architecture, including an enterprise model (INFO. SYSTEM PLANNING)

INFORMATION SYSTEM PLANNING

• ISP is the road map setting the direction of systems development

• It is based on information engineering. It could be a possible source of database
development projects.
• The goal of information systems planning is to align IT with the business strategies of the
organization. It should be directed towards achieving corporate goals in line with the
mission-vision of the company.

Goal: Business Alignment STEPS:

1. Identify strategic planning factors

2. Identify corporate planning objects

3. Developing an enterprise model

1. Identify Strategic Planning Factors

• Goals

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• Critical Success Factors

• Problem Areas
2. Identify Corporate Planning Objects
• Identifying corporate planning objects is also called as enterprise analysis.

• It requires the analysis of organization-wide information requirements in terms of

organizational units, functions and processes and information requirements
A. organizational Units

B. Organizational locations

C. Business Functions

D. Entity Types

E. Information System

• Organizational Units – are various departments, branches or program areas in the

organization
• Organizational Locations – geographic locations of business units where business
operations occur
• Business functions - related groups of business processes that support the mission of
the organization
• Entity types – major categories of data about people, places, events & things managed by
the organization. Key attributes are also discussed in this section
• Information System - application software & supporting procedures for handling sets of
data

3. Developing an Enterprise Model

A. Functional decomposition

B. Entity Relationship Diagram

C. Planning matrix

• Functional Decomposition
➢ Process of breaking down the functions of an organization into progressively greater level
of details
➢ To simplify problems, isolate attention & identify components

• Entity Relationship Diagram

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➢ Used to describe Enterprise model by depicting the entity types, relationships between
entities & how business operates. (BUSINESS RULES - govern the validity of data)
• Planning Matrix
➢ Shows Inter-relationships between planning objects

Figure 6: Systems Development Life Cycle

Figure 7: Database Application Life Cycle

Alternative Systems Building Approaches

1. Traditional Systems Development Lifecycle
– Also known as the SDLC
– Methodological, Highly Structured
– Includes many checks & balance

Figure 8. Systems Development Life

Cycle
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Alubijid | Cagayan de Oro | Claveria | Jasaan | Oroquieta | Panaon

2. Rapid Application Development (RAD)

– Iterative process of rapidly repeating analysis, design & implementation steps until
desired system is acquired
– Works best when :
• most of the database needed already exists
• Systems that primary retrieve data

3. Prototyping
– Process of building experimental system quickly and inexpensively for demonstration &
evaluation
– Iterative
– may be used as an alternative to the systems development life cycle

4. Computer-Aided Software Engineering Tools

Software that provides automated support for some portion of the systems development process Features:
1. Ability to draw data models using entity relationships & other notations (ensures consistency
across diagrams)
2. Ability to generate codes (database definition commands to be given to DBMS)
3. Information Repository

5. Integrated-CASE (I-CASE) Tools

▪ Provides support across whole life-cycle but such tools are rarely used since they tend to be
strong in supporting certain phases but weak in supporting other phases of the system
▪ Created as case tool that has the ability to share the metadata that are developed during each
stage of the process
6. Application Software Packages
• Set of prewritten, precoded application software programs commercially available for sale
or lease
• Requires customization
Ex. ERP
7. Outsourcing
– Contracting computer center operations, telecommunications networks, or applications
development to external vendors

8. End User Development

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• Development of information systems by end users with little or no formal assistance from
technical specialists
• Allows users to specify their own business needs

Figure 9. Data definition for a database

Conceptual Schema
• The the conceptual schema describes the data stored in the database
• In a relational database it describes all the relations stored in the database
• Creating a good conceptual schema is not a simple task, and it is called conceptual database
design. It involves:
o Determining the different relations needed
o The number of fields per relation
o The type of each field

Figure 10: Levels of Abstraction in a DBMS

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Example of a Conceptual Schema

Students(sid:string, name: string, login: string, age: integer, gpa: integer,gpa: real) Faculty(fid: string, fname:
string, sal: real)
Courses(cid: string, cname: string, credits: integer) Teaches(fid: string, cid: string)
Enrolled(sid: string, cid: string, grade: string)

Physical Schema
• The physical schema specifies how the relations are actually stored in secondary storage devices
• It also specifies auxiliary data structures (indexes) used to speed up the access to the relations
• Decisions about the physical schema depend upon:
• Understanding how the data is going to be accessed
• The facilities provided by the DBMS

Example of Physical Schema

✓ Store all relations in unsorted files of records
✓ Create indexes in the first column of every relation, and in the sal column of faculty

External Schema
• The external schema is a refinement of the conceptual schema
• Allows customized and authorized access to individual users or groups of users
• Every database has one conceptual and one physical schema, but it can have many external
schemas
• Each external schema: users
• is tailored to a particular group of users consists of one or more views and relations of the
conceptual schema
• A view is conceptually a relation, but its records are not stored in the database; instead, they are
computed from other relations.

Example of External Schema

CourseInfo(cid: string, fname: string, enrollment: integer)

Data Independence
• Data Independence means that programs are isolated from changes in the way the data is
structured and stored.

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• As long as we maintain the external schema, we can modify the other 2 schemas of an application
• Logical Data Independence: users are shielded from the logical structure of the data (e.g. a
relation is split into 2 or more)
• Physical Data Independence: As long as the conceptual schema remains the same, we can change
the storage details of the application without affecting the user.

THREE-TIERED DATABASE LOCATION ARCHITECTURE

Data for an IS may reside in multiple locations or tiers of computers to balance various organizational and
technical factors

Figure 11. Three-tier database architecture

CLIENT-SERVER ARCHITECTURE

LAN-based environment in which database SW on a server (called database server or database engine)
performs database commands sent to it from client workstations and application programs on each client
concentrate on user interface functions
Advantages:
• Allows for simultaneous processing on multiple processors for the same application.
• Possible to take advantage of the best data processing features of each computer platform.
• Can mix client tech (kiosks, networked PCs) while sharing common data.
• Processing can be performed close to source of processed data thus improving response times &
reducing network traffic.
• Allows open-system standard.

Queries in a DBMS
• Why do we need a DBMS? to answer queries
• A DBMS provides a specialized language, called query language to ask questions to the DBMS

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Transaction Management
• What happens when a DBMS has more than one concurrent user?
• When several users access (and possibly modify) a database concurrently, the DBMS must order
their request carefully to avoid conflicts
o DBMS should also protect users from system failures:
o it should make sure data is not lost
o it should deal with crashes in the middle of a transaction
o Transaction: a transaction is a conceptually indivisible group of operations that a user
wants to perform (for example, getting transferring money from one account to another)

Concurrent Execution of Transaction

• An important task of a DBMS is to schedule concurrent accesses in a way that every user can
ignore the fact that others are accessing the data at the same time
• A DBMS allows user to think that their programs are executed in isolation
• Locking has to be implemented to allow transactions to be interleaved
• Shared Locks: allow several transactions to hold (and access) an object at the same time
• Exclusive Locks: only one transaction can hold the object

Incomplete Transactions and System Crashes

• What happens if a DBMS crashes in the middle of a transaction?
• When the DBMS recovers, the incomplete transaction should be undone.
• The DBMS maintains a log of everything it writes
• The log is created before the operation is done: write-ahead log

Fundamentals of Database Systems

 University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines
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Exercise:
I. Answer the following briefly and concisely:
1. Cite at least 3 disadvantages of traditional processing systems.

2. Differentiate file-based and database processing.

3. Explain the three (3) levels of database .

II. Fill in the blanks.

Enterprise Data Model typically occurs during

1 planning Six components of Information Systems Architecture (ISA):
2 May be represented as ERD
3 Manipulate data; represented by DFD, object-models with methods or other
notations
4 Transports data around & between organizations and business partners
5 Source & receiver of data / information and performs processes
6 Shows when processes are performed (e.g State-Transition Diagrams)
7 Shows events & rules governing the processing of data. Some diagramming tools
exist for rules (e.g decision tables)

Steps in Information Planning are: Identify 8 planning factors, Identify 9 planning

objects, and developing an enterprise model

The purpose of project identification and selection is to 10 a preliminary understanding of the

business situation that has caused the request for a new or enhanced IS

To 11 business situation & how IS might help solve a problem or make an opportunity
possible is the purpose of projection initiation and planning

Maintenance 12 the operation & usefulness of a system, repair & enhance the system.

13 is the iterative process of rapidly repeating analysis, design & implementation steps

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until desired system is acquired.

14 is a process of building experimental system quickly and inexpensively for

demonstration & evaluation

III. Case Study no. 1

Title: Familiarization of databases

Instructions:
• Enumerate at least 2 organizations you had transactions with
• Recall and write down the type of transaction made and how was it processed
• Photocopy proof of transaction (if there’s any)
• Submit using short bond paper
• Submission Deadline:
• For next meeting: Give a 5 minute report about your experience in this activity

Laboratory Exercise

(1) For each of the following pairs of related entities, indicate whether (under typical
circumstances) there is a one-to many or a many-to-many relationship. Then, using
the shorthand notation introduced in the text, draw a diagram
for each of the relationships.
a. STUDENT and COURSE (students register for courses)
b. BOOK and BOOK COPY (books have copies)
c. COURSE and SECTION (courses have sections)
d. SECTION and ROOM (sections are scheduled in rooms)
e. INSTRUCTOR and COURSE

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(2) A driver’s license bureau maintains a database of licensed drivers. State whether
each of the following represents data or metadata. If it represents data, state
whether it is structured or unstructured data. If it represents metadata, state
whether it is a fact describing a property of data or a fact describing the context
of data.
a. Driver’s name, address, and birth date
b. The fact that the driver’s name is a 30-character field
c. A photo image of the driver
d. An image of the driver’s fingerprint
e. The make and serial number of the scanning device that was used to scan the
fingerprint
f. The resolution (in megapixels) of the camera that was used to photograph the
driver
g. The fact that the driver’s birth date must precede today’s date by at least 16
years

References:

(1) Jeff Hoffer, Ramesh Venkataraman, Heikki Topi-Modern Database Management-Pearson

Education Limited (2016)

Fundamentals of Database Systems