Reflection

Through this 3 week maymester class, I have learned many concepts pertaining to databases.  This course has expanded my mind to using databases for everyday business.  At the beginning of the class I didnt believe that databases were used much in business since I hadnt been exposed to them, but now I believe that every business should use databases. I have not only learned how to create a relational diagram, but have learned about Access and all it has to offer for database design.  Now that I know how to create databases on Access it would be wise for me to keep track of my pottery business using this Microsoft software.  I really thought the Standford sources we used in the class was very helpful to learning about databases. Id like to learn more from this source since it touches on information beyond what we have learned so far; go further into detail.  

What Iv learned so far

The most important concept ive learned is the relational model which has tought me about entities, relationships, keys, and cardinalities.  With this model i have learned that every piece of your information has a relation to one another.  I have also learned that there are many types of relations; many to many, one to many, etc, which shows the type of relation one table of data will have to another set of data.  I didnt realize this before entering into the database design class, but now it is possible for me to see each relationship connection between information.  Another concept that I have developed skills for is how to use Access.  Before this class I didnt even know it existed, which isnt the best thing since im a business major.  Access helps me to organize my data neatly and correctly since it leaves no room for error.  It has made it very easy for me to make relation tables and clearly see the connections between each relation.

Many business people use databases to keep track of their employees, orders, or items for their business.  Learning these relational tools and models will give me some basic skills for going into business.  Also, since I sell my own pottery using Access with database design might help me keep track of my sales.  Honestly I would like to learn more about excel too since its a very common database system for any kind of business.  Having skills in these types of software will help me grow in the business world.

Database design. Day 3, what Iv learned

Access 2013 tutorial

By watching the Access 2013 tutorial, I was able to learn new elements of the program.  Two simple elements I learned first before moving onto cardinalities was that you can simply delete a row of a table by selecting the “Delete Row” button, and you always want to make sure you are consistent with your database.  If you spell something wrong, an error message will appear, which helps you keep everything consistent.  To move onto cardinalities you can choose the relationship button, which is the relationship between tables.  The tutorial used movies as its example.  You can create a separate table that links the movie table and genre table together. The primary keys from the separate tables are linked and become foreign keys in the new table.   To actually link the tables together you then have to change the data type of the attribute to “long integer”.  Then with your set of tables, grab the ID from your movie table with your mouse and drag it on top of the text “movie” in the new table.  By doing this step, it create the relationship between tables.  Next, a box will appear where you have to write down your properties.  Click “enforce referential integrity” to create the link. This will then show the one-to-many link with a dark line and crow’s feet.  After that, you want to repeat the same process for the genre table.  After watching this tutorial, I know now how to create cardinality graphs on Access 2013.  


Unified Modeling Language UML

A popular system used in the database world is called the unified modeling language (UML), which can be graphical and can be translated into relationships automatically. There are 5 concepts of UML: Classes, associations, Association Classes, subclasses, and composition & aggregate.  Class consists of name, attributes, and methods of the class.  When data modeling just add Pk (primary key) and drop methods.  Multiplicity of associations are relationships between objects of two classes.  The types of relationships are one to one, many to one, and many to many, but in this video we learn a new type; complete.  Complete is when every object must participate in the relationship; it is always one to something, no 0's.  Association class is additional information that is related to the two classes in the relationship.  The video gives us an example of student related to college, which its association class is application info of that student applying to that certain college.  The association class is created below the student-college relationship.  The video explains that you cant have in UML is having more than one association between the same student and the same college.  Self association is just an association between class and self; for example, you and your sibling. The video moves on to talk about subclasses.  Subclasses are extensions of the superclass.  A super class is a generalization while a subclass is a specialization of that superclass.  For example, Student is a super class while  while domestic, foreign, and AP students are it's subclasses.  Here I learned that the superclass relationship is complete if every object is in at least one subclass.  It is incomplete if this is not true.  I also learned that the superclass is disjoint if every object is in most subclasses and it is considered overlapping is objects are in multiple subclasses.  Next in the video, it talks about composition which means that objects of one class belong to objects of another class. This is shown by a colored-in diamond on the relationship line.  Aggregation means that the class can be related to the other class, but doesn't have to.   Aggregation is shown by an empty diamond.


Physical vs. logical data models

Since this was a short video I didn't learn as much as the other two, I did learn about logical and physical data models.  Logical data models are general depiction of data which show entities and relationships, whereas physical data models show enough detail to depict how the database is built.  For example, details can show if the key is primary of foreign.  When going from the physical model to relational model, there are some terms that will change.  An entity becomes a table, an attribute becomes a column/field, and an entity instance becomes a row.

Office Depot Ideas: Greenguides: Sorting out Green Advertisement Claims

Office Depot wants to try to get customers to choose more of their Eco friendly paper products.  As a database class we are helping Office Depot and Chatham University to make it easier for customers to find the most efficient paper products for their needs.  Here are some ideas of what is important to track when considering a new database for Office Depot.

Before marketing your product as Eco friendly you first have to understand why the product fits this term. What makes the product effect the environment in a positive way? According to the EPA’s Green Guidelines, when people shop online for a product that is green, they should look as to why the product of their choice is considered environmentally friendly or why it has a special eco seal. It is important for marketers to show why. No one wants to buy a product that says it is something that it really isn’t. For example, show how many trees this certain product has saved, mention that this product is biodegradable, or ozone friendly and explain why.


Even though your product description says that it is environmentally friendly and explains why that is, it still is probably better to back it up with a seal or certification. Having a seal proves to the customer that your product is better for the environment. For example, for paper products there is the forest stewardship counsel certified, which certifies that the paper is eco friendly.