LIS751 Database Design for Information Professionals

Week 2 Lab
Task 2: ERD Tools & Relationships
Due: Before the next class meeting

Description:
This lab has two separate tasks:

(1) Using Cacoo OR Lucidchart (You only need to choose one!!!) to draw Entity-Relationship (ER)
diagram (Instructions for both tools are provided below)
(2) Understanding types of relationships

Deliverables:
 Please submit this document with questions answered to Canvas

Task 2.1 – Option 1 - Cacoo

In this task, we will practice using Cacoo as the tool for drawing ER diagrams. Please note that you will
be draw an ER diagram for the student-class-grade database we introduced in the class, which looks like
this:

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Steps:
(1) Please go to Cacoo at https://cacoo.com/signup and create an account if you don’t have one.
(2) After you create an account, please log into your account and choose “Create New Diagram”
from the upper left corner of your screen

(3) In the window that pops up to you, please select Database on the left panel, and choose the
circled one (ER Diagram) as the template by double clicking it. You can try different templates
if you want. Here just use the template circled for demonstration.

(4) In the next window, you will see the template ER diagram. Please click the any box in the
diagram, then right click the diagram and select “Ungroup”. In this way, it separates different
parts of the single diagram and makes editing easier.

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(5) To remove lines that connect entity boxes, you may right click the line and then choose
Delete. You can also use Delete or Backspace once you double click the line. Please remove all
lines.

(6) Please double click one entity box and delete it using the method used to delete the lines. The
screenshot shows how the Professor entity box is deleted. You will also be able to copy the
entity box in the sheet by selecting Copy from the menu (as shown on the screenshot), and

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then paste it by hit Control + V, or right click and choose Paste from the menu. You can also
click a specific box and move it freely on the sheet to adjust the position.

(7) Please edit the text area by double clicking the text. You can then change the text related to
student-class-grade database, and also format the text. Please change the text in all three
boxes so that they are the same as in the example of student-class-grade database.

(8) Once you changed the text in all three boxes, we will add lines that connecting boxes. Please
move your mouse to the line icon on the left of your screen, and you will see the window
below. The pop-up window will allow you to change the thickness, color, shape, type, and the

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starting and end shape of a line. Please choose the following configurations for the lines that
you are trying to draw.

(9) After you choose the line shape and types, you can move your mouse to the box where you
want to use as the starting point, and drag your mouse from there to the box where you want
it to end with. You can then edit the position of lines by dragging them, or double click to
enable the editing tool box. Please note that the screenshot below is only a demo diagram not
the one asked by the assignment.

(10)
In

case in want to go back to any previous step, this undo (also redo) button is available on the
tool bar.

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(11) On the left panel of your screen, you’ll find a selection of shapes (Stencil) that you can use. To
use any of them, please browse the category, and drag a specific stencil to your editing area
on the left.

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(12) After you’ve done editing the diagram, you can save it by pressing Control and S on your
keyboard. Please note that this saves to your Cacoo account as a working sheet. You can go
back and edit it at any time you want by signing into the same account.

(13) Export: If you want to use your diagram outside of Cacoo, you need to Export it. Please click
the Export icon from the upper right corner of your screen, and choose to export it as PNG file.
For now, it only allows free users to export the diagram in PNG. You can have the option to
export as other formats if you upgrade your plan.

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(14) On Cacoo, you can also easily share your diagram by clicking Share on the upper right corner
of your screen.

Cacoo is really powerful, and can do more things than just E-R diagram. So you can play with it more if
you want. Once you are done with the ER diagram of student-class-grade database, export it as an
PNG file and paste it below.

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Task 2.1 – Option 2: Lucidchart

In this task, we will practice using Lucidchart as the tool for drawing ER diagrams. Please note that you
will be draw an ER diagram for the student-class-grade database we introduced in the class, which looks
like this:

Steps:
(1) Please go to Lucidchart.com to sign-up for an account if you don’t have one. You might see
many options of sign-up for fees, but we will go for the free one (unless you want to pay!).
(2) Once you log in, it will bring you to your account page. Feel free to skip the account details and
click the “Documents” on the upper right corner to start drawing.

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(3) You will likely see a document called “Blank ERD” in your personal center. Please move your
mouse to the doc and click “Open” it. Or you can also click ERD on the top navigation bar to
create a new one.

(4) You will see some entities and relationships in the blank ERD document. Delete or add as you
want.

(5) You can change the text in the text area of each shape by double click the text. Font formatting
is located at the top navigation bar.

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(6) To add a shape/an entity box to your ERD sheet, move your mouse to the left panel and drag the
shape you want to a destination on the sheet.

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(7) To edit the lines connecting shapes/entities boxes/tables, click the line. The line formatting
function is available on the upper right corner.

(8) Once you are done, you can go to File -> Download As and download the file as a format of your
interest.

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(9) You will be able to share your ERD with anyone, including your collaborators, by clicking Share
on the top navigation bar.

Lucidchart is really powerful, and can do more things than just E-R diagram. So you can play with it more
if you want. Once you are done with the ER diagram of student-class-grade database, export it as an
PNG file and paste it below.

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Task 2.2: Identify relationships between identities.

Please identify the type of relationships between each two entities: 1:1, 1:M, or M:N.

Scenario 1: UW-Madison registrar database:

(1) UW-Madison registrar office is building a database for course registration and grade purpose. In
that database, there will be a students entity, and a classes entity. What is the relationship
between student and class entity.
M:N. Because each student can take many classes, and many students can take each class

(2) In the UW-Madison registrar database, there will be a courses entity and a classes entity.
Courses entity has the information of each course, and the classes entity records the
information for each offering of these courses. What is the relationship between Courses and
Classes entity.

1:M. Each course has many classes, but one class is associated to only one course.

(3) If the UW-Madison registrar database also records instructor information for each class. So what
is the relationship between the Instructors entity and the classes entity? Suppose that co-
teaching a class is not allowed at UW-Madison.

1:M. One instructor can teach many courses, but one course can only be taught by one
instructor

Scenario 2: Bike store database

The bike store database stores information for customer, inventory, manufacture information, repair
job, sale record, and employee information in a bike store.

(4) If the Customers entity stores information for all customers of the shop, and the Sales entity
stores all the information for every purchase of customers. What is the relationship between
these two entities?

1:M. Each customer has many sales (orders) but one sale is associated to only one customer.
(5) If the Inventory entity stores the information for parts of bikes that are available in the store,
and the Manufacture entity stores information for the make of these products. What is the
relationship between Inventory and Manufacture entity?

1:M. One bike part has only one manufacturer, but single manufacturer can make different bike
parts.

(6) If the Repair entity records each repair job happened at the bike shop, and the Inventory entity
stores the information for parts that are available to be used for repair jobs. What is the
relationship between Repair and Inventory entity?
M:N. A part can be repaired more than one (so recorded in more than one repair jobs) and one
repair job may involve more than one part.

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