Thomas Connolly, Carolyn Begg, and Anne Strachan. Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management. 2^nd Edition. Harlow, England. Addison-Wesley. 1999.

Lockman, David. Teach Yourself Oracle8 Database Development in 21 Days. Indianapolis, Indiana. SAMS Publishing. 1997.

The goal of this course is to provide the student with an introduction to database management systems. There are two major learning objectives: 1) to understand the underlying concepts, history, and issues involved in database design and management and 2) to develop the skills necessary to design and implement a simple database system and user interface.

In pursuit of the former objective, we will cover the history of database management systems, including the evolution of the three major models – hierarchical, network, and relational. We will look at the components that make up a database system and the purposes database systems are designed to accomplish. We’ll discuss the goals and phases of the logical and physical design processes and we will learn about some of the important issues involved in database implementation, e.g., database integrity and transaction management.

To achieve the second objective, we will learn how to develop an entity-relationship model of a database system, map that model to a database schema, and then refine the schema according to the principles of functional dependencies and normalization. We will learn to use SQL to create and query the tables of a database schema. We’ll work in the computer lab with Personal Oracle 7 for database design and Developer/2000 for user interface design.

Course Module

Module 1 – Modeling

Within this module, we will cover the history and foundations of the relational database approach. We will learn how to develop an entity-relationship model as a first step in designing our database. From that model, we’ll move on to creating a database schema. We’ll then apply principles of functional dependencies and normalization to refine our schema. Once we have a refined schema, we can begin to think about how we will implement it using a database management system.

Module 2 – Implementation

In this module, we’ll learn SQL, the standard relational database language for creating and managing database tables. We’ll have some classroom sessions learning the basics of SQL and then go into the computer lab for several hands-on sessions, creating and manipulating tables using Personal Oracle 7. Within this module, we’ll also cover user interface and application issues involved with deploying a database system. In the lab, we’ll use Oracle Developer/2000 to create some simple user applications to access various data in the database.

Module 3 – Management

In this module, we’ll examine and discuss issues involved with managing and maintaining an operational database. We will cover topics like file organization and structure, database security, transaction management, and query processing.

Assignments

Assignment 1 - Draw an ER Diagram	10%
Assignment 2 - Map an ER Diagram to a schema	10%
Assignment 3 - Normalization	10%
Assignment 4 – Oracle SQL	15%
Assignment 5 – Oracle forms	15%
Mid-term exam	20%
Final exam	20%
	100%

Late assignment policy

For any assignment turned in late, the grade for the assignment will be a lowered a letter grade unless the student has made arrangements with me prior to the assignment's due date.

Policy on cheating and plagiarism

I expect you to do your own work on the assignments and exams. For any assignment found to be the partial or complete result of cheating or plagiarism, your grade for that assignment will be zero.

last modified: August 26, 1999 by thaniya

Fall 1999

Contents

Required Texts