Database Processing: Fundamentals, Design and Implementation (2000)

From the Book:
According to Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, information technology has enabled unprecedented increases in business productivity. While the Internet takes most of the credit, behind the scenes database technology plays a vital role. After all, the Internet is only a communication system; much of its value lies in the data and information transmitted to and from databases. 

News of the dot-com bust may cause students to wonder if the value of these technologies will decline accordingly. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lou Gestner, Chairman of IBM, stated several years ago that the true benefits of the Internet and related technologies will occur only after those technologies have been embraced by mainstream, corporate Americaby the so-called old economy companies. Major opportunities for database technology (and for future database practitioners) lie in applying this technology now, to every kind of business and business activity. 

All of which means there has never been a better time to study database processing. From personal databases on desktops to large interorganizational databases distributed on computers worldwide, databases are increasingly important business assets. Marketing, sales, production, operations, finance, accounting, management, and indeed all business disciplines, are using database technology to gain increased productivity in their respective activities. 

Moreover, after the frenzy of new technologies and products in recent years, the key elements of modern database management have now become clear. Conceptual knowledge of data modeling and database design continue to be essential; equally, therelational model and SQL are as important as in the past. Database administration, especially the technology supporting multi-user database management, has increased in importance because all databases that use the new technologies are multi-user. 

Additionally, technology for publishing databases on the web, especially three-tier and multi-tier architectures, XML, Active Server Pages (ASP), and Java Server Pages (JSP) have emerged as winners among many contenders for database publishing. In concert with these technologies, both ODBC with OLE DB and JDBC continue their importance. 

In short, database technology is more important than ever, and the basic technologies that need to be taught have become clearer than any time in the past five years. 
FEATURES OF THIS EDITION
In accordance with these remarks, the second half of this text has been completely rewritten. Almost all of Chapters 11 through 16 is new. The major tasks of database administration are surveyed in Chapter 11 and then illustrated for Oracle in Chapter 12, and again for SQL Server in Chapter 13. Then, Chapter 14 surveys the basic technologies for database publishing on the Web and these technologies are then illustrated for ODBC, OLE DB, IIS, and ASP in Chapter 15 and again for JDBC, JSP, and MySQL in Chapter 16. Chapter 17 includes information on OLAP, while Chapter 18 introduces Oracle's new object-relational constructs. 

Addressing all of these topics in a single term is a challenge, and I believe we need seriously to consider devoting a full year to the database class. Meanwhile, if you have just one term and time is short, this edition has been written to enable you to choose among three sets of alternative technologies. 

Specifically, regarding data modeling, the text addresses the entity-relationship model and the semantic object model. If time is short, you might want to cover only the E-R model because it is far more popular. Similarly, regarding multi-user databases, pick either Oracle in Chapter 12 or SQL Server in Chapter 13 depending on the needs of graduates in your community'. Finally, regarding Web' publishing, if time constrains your course, choose either IIS, ASP, and ODBC in Chapter 15; or Java, JDBC, and JSP in Chapter 16. No loss of continuity will occur if you select only one of any of these three pairs. Of course, if you're not constrained by time, all of these topics are important. 

This edition also includes a new series of end-of-chapter exercises. These concern a small company that markets, sells, produces, and supports a line of camping stoves. The goal of these exercises is to enable the students to apply the knowledge gained from each chapter to a small, realistic, but constrained application. 
CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This text consists of seven parts. Part I introduces database processing. Chapter 1 illustrates sample applications, defines basic terms, and sketches the history of database processing. Chapter 2 then illustrates the development of a simple database and application using Microsoft Access XP. 

The second part concerns data modeling. Chapter 3 discusses the entity-relationship model and shows how this model has been integrated with UML, or the Uniform Modeling Language. Chapter 4 presents the semantic object model, a data modeling alternative to the E-R model. Database design is the subject of Part III. Chapter 5 discusses the relational model and normalization. Chapter 6 then applies the ideas from Chapters 3 and 5 to transform entity-relationship models into relational database designs. Chapter 7 applies the ideas from Chapters 4 and 5 to transform semantic object models into relational database designs. 

The next part addresses the fundamentals of relational database implementation. Chapter 8 presents an overview, Chapter 9 addresses procedural SQL, and Chapter 10 describes the design of relational database applications. Part V considers multi-user database management. Chapter 11 describes database administration and discusses important issues of multi-user database processing including concurrency control, security, and backup and recovery. The ideas presented in Chapter 11 are then illustrated for Oracle in Chapter 12. Chapter 12 also illustrates SQL for data definition. Chapter 13 also mirrors the discussion of Chapter 11 to illustrate multi-user database management using SQL Server. 

Database publishing on the Web is next addressed in Part VI. Chapter 14 lays the foundations of network processing, multi-tier architectures and XML. Chapter 15 then applies these concepts using Microsoft technology including ODBC, OLE DB, IIS, and ASP. Chapter 16 applies the concepts of Chapter 14 using Java; it includes JDBC, JSP, and MySQL. Concepts are illustrated with example using Linux and Apache Tomcat. Chapter 17 then addresses issues of data administration and discusses OLAP. 

Part VII contains only one chapter which addresses object-oriented database processing. New to this chapter is a discussion of Oracles object-relational features and functions. Appendix A contains a brief survey of data structures and Appendix B illustrates the use of Tabledesigner, a product that can be used to develop semantic object models and covert them into database designs and ASP pages.