COMP1556 – Week 4

Database Technologies
Applications

The on-line examination case study and object orientation.

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  The Last Two Weeks 
• We went through the six steps to creating a
sustainable database.
• You found that a crows-foot diagram could
contain much more information than just
what links to what.
• You found that designing a database is more
an art than a science. What does a word
mean?
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  This Week 
• We will start with some input on how to
capture complex relationships.
• We will go through the six steps using the on-
line examination case study …
• … which you have all read!
• Then it is back to LucidChart to create the
diagrams.
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 The Art Gallery Scenario
• You working for an art gallery which needs a
DB to hold all the information on artists and
their sales.
• The design should allow for different kinds of
artists to sell their work.
• A biography page for each artist is needed as
well as a catalogue of their work for sale.
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Now we are off
to LucidChart

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 Step 1 – Find the Objects
• Anything you can touch, e.g. a person.
• Anything you can list, e.g. course code.
• At stage 3 we will add any necessary intersection
entities.
• In LucidChart, we add a 3 column box for each
object.

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 Step 2 – Link the objects
• We start with the left-most object.
• Check whether there is a link to each of the other
objects.
• Then move to the second object and check that
against each to its right.
• Repeat this until the last object.

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 Stage 3 – Add Cardinality

• Which is the 1 and which is the Many?

• Try the relationship from both ends to check
the cardinality.
• We can have M-Ms and 1-1s at this stage. We can
sort them out later.
• For M-Ms, add an intersection entity.

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 Stage 4 – Add the PKs
• Each object gets a primary key (PK) with it
own name and “ID” at the end.
• Add these to each object …
• … with a smile.

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 Stage 5 – Add the FKs
• Check each object to see whether it has a
many link at its end.
• For each many link, add the PK from the 1
end.
• If Fred is at the many end of a link with Mary,
then it gets MaryID as a foreign key (FK).

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 Stage 6 – Add the Fields
• For each object, go through and add any
necessary fields.
• Normally, this is where you would start.

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 The Assumptions
• An assumption is something that changes
the shape of the database design.
• It is NOT “Person to Email is a 1-M relationship”.
• It IS “Person to Tapestry, Painter, Sculptor and
Graffiti is a partial\disjoint relationship because
…”.
• It IS “I am assuming that one person can only …
because …”.
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 A “Type of …” Object
• Imagine that there is a class called Artist and
two others called Painter and Sculptor.

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 A “Type of …” Object
• If someone is either a Painter or a Sculptor
then these are disjoint.

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 A “Type of …” Object
• If someone can be both a Painter and a
Sculptor then these are overlapping.

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Disjoint or Overlapping

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 Complete or Partial
• If someone must be either a Painter or a
Sculptor and cannot be just an Artist then it is
a complete relationship.

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 Complete or Partial
• If someone can be an Artist or a Painter or a
Sculptor then it is a partial relationship.

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Complete or Partial

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 Working with these

• These are two independent problems.

• A relationship can be either partial or
complete.
• And it can be either disjoint or overlapping.
• There are therefore four possible diagrams:-

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 Partial/Disjoint Diagram
• Someone can be an Artist, Painter or Sculptor
but not a combination of these.

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Partial/Overlapping Diagram
• Someone can be an Artist, Painter or Sculptor
or any combination of these.

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 Complete/Disjoint Diagram
• Someone can be a Painter or Sculptor but not
both. Each of these is an artist.

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Complete/Overlapping Diagram
• Someone can be a Painter or Sculptor but they
are both Artists (who have shared attributes).

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 Some Tips
• Start with a diagram that looks something like
this:-

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 Some Tips
• Then when you are happy with that, convert it
into the type of diagram appropriate for the
assumptions you made.
• Are the tables disjoint (separate) or overlapping
(can be more than one)?
• Is the relationship partial (they can be any or
all) or is it complete (belongs to a single
category)?
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 Some Tips
• Keep track of all your assumptions.
• You will need to explain/query these with
clients.
• Clients know what they mean – they are the
experts in their area – it is up to you to make
sure that you ask the right questions.
• You will need to understand this for the exam.
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 We have covered …
• We looked the difference between partial and
complete relationships.
• We looked the difference between disjoint and
overlapping relationships.
• How to use the six-step process in a complex
situation. You are now in a position to
complete the design of the database for your
coursework. Hooray!!!
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 In the tutorial …
• You have a quiz on what we covered in the
lecture today. Please start with that.
• Join your pair to go into LucidChart and start
re-designing the DB for your coursework by
using the techniques covered today.
• Do NOT create any SQL!

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 Next Week
• We will be looking at creating dummy data.
• You need this so that you can test all the SQL
which you will be writing for your coursework!
• This is the professional approach.
• We will be starting Oracle after that.
• The first thing we will do is create the database.
• Then we will populate it – this is non-trivial!
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 So, …
• … will I see you next week and the week after
next?

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