College of Information Technology Introduction to Database

Software Department Lecture 2

====================================================

Data Model
Is a relatively simple representation, usually graphical, of more
abstraction of a more complex real- world data structures. A model main
function is to help you understand the complexities of the real-word
environment. A data model represents data structures and their
characteristics, relations, constraints, transformations, and, other
constructs with purpose of supporting a specific problem domain. The
final data model is in effect a “blueprint” containing all the instructions to
build a database that will meet all end-user requirements. This blueprint is
narrative and graphical in nature, meaning that it contains both text
descriptions in plain, unambiguous language and clear, useful diagrams
depicting the main data elements.

The Importance of Data Models

Data models can facilitate interaction among the designer, the
applications programmer, and the end user, a well- developed data model
can even faster improved understanding of the organization for which the
database design is developed.

Data Model Basic Building Blokes

Entity: is anything (a person, a place, a thing, or an event) about which

data are to be collected and stored. An entity represents a particular type
of object in the real world entities are "distinguishable" that is each entity
occurrence is unique and distinct. For example, a CUSTOMER entity
would have many distinguishable customer occurrences such as Ahmed,
Ali, etc.

Attribute: is a characteristic of an entity. For example, a CUSTOMER

entity would be described by attributes such as customer last name,
customer first name, and its equivalent of fields in the file systems

Relationship: describes an association among entities for example a

relationship exists between customers and agents that can be described as
follows: an agent can serve many customers, and each customer may be
served by one agent.
College of Information Technology Introduction to Database

Software Department Lecture 2

====================================================

Data models use three types of relationships :

 one-to-many(1:M or 1..*)relationships
A painter paints many different paintings, but each one of
them is painted by only one painter.
 Many-to-many (M: N or *..*) relationship
An employee may learn many job skills many be learned by
many.
 one-to-one( 1:1 OR 1..1) relationship
A retail company's management structure may require that
each of its stores be managed by a single employee. In turn,
each store manager, who is an employee, managed only a
single store.

Constraint: is a restriction placed on the data. Constraints are important

because they help to ensure data integrity. And it's normally expressed in
the form of rules.
 An employee's salary must have values that are between 6000 and
350000
 Each class must have one and only one teacher.

Business Rules
From a database point of view, the collection of data becomes
meaningful only when it reflects properly defined business rules. It’s a
brief, precise, and ambiguous description of a policy, procedure, or
principle within a specific organization.
Business rules, derived from a detailed description of organizations
operations, help to create and enforce actions within that organizations
environment, business rules must be rendered in writing and updated to
reflect any change in the organizations operational environment, and it
must be easy to understand, for example:
- A customer may generate many invoices.
- An invoice is generated by only one customer.
- A training session can not be scheduled for fewer than 10
employees or for more than 30 employees.

Discovering Business Rules

The main sources of business rules are company managers, policy
makers, department managers, and written documentation such as a
College of Information Technology Introduction to Database

Software Department Lecture 2

====================================================

company’s procedures, standards, and operations manuals. A faster and

more direct source of business rules is direct interviews with end-users.

Business rules is essential to database design for several reasons:

- They help standardize the company's view of data.

- They can be a communications tool between users and designers.
- They allow the designer to understand the nature, role, and scope
of the data.
- They allow the designer to understand business processes.
- They allow the designer to develop appropriate relationship
participation rules and constraints and to create an accurate data
model.

Translating Business Rules into Data Model

- A noun in business rule will translate into an entity in the model.

- Verb associating nouns will translate into a relationship among the
entities.
Example: "a customer may generate many invoices"
- Customer and invoice are objects of interest for the environment
and should be represented by their respective entities.
- There is a "generate" relationship between customer and invoice.

Data Models Type

The quest for better data management has led to several different
models that attempt resolve the file systems critical shortcomings.

THE HIERARCHICAL MODEL

It was developed in 1960s to manage large amounts of data for
complex manufacturing projects Apollo rocket that landed on the moon in
1969. its basic logical structure is represented by an upside-down tree- its
structure contains levels, or segments. Segment is the equivalent of a file
systems record type. The top layer (the root) is perceived as the parent of
the segment (each parent can have many children, but each child has only
one parent)
College of Information Technology Introduction to Database

Software Department Lecture 2

====================================================

The hierarchical model had limitations: it was complex to implement,

it was difficult to manage, and it lacked structural independence.also,
many common data relationships do not conform to the 1: M from, and
there were no standards for how to implement the model.

The Network Model

The network model (1970) was created to represent complex data
relationships more effectively than the hierarchical model, in the network
model, the user perceives the network database as a collection of records
in 1:M relationship. However, unlike the hierarchical model, the network
model allows a record to have more than one parent. In network db
terminology, relationship is called a set. Each set is composed of at least
two record types: an owner record and a member record. a set represents
a 1:M relationship between the owner and the member.
Disadvantages is the lack of ad hoc query capability put heavy
pressure on programmers to generate the code required to produce even
the simplest report, and although the existing databases provided limited
data independence, any structural change in the database still could
produce have in all application programs that drew data from the
database.
College of Information Technology Introduction to Database

Software Department Lecture 2

====================================================

The Relational Model (1970)

The relational model consist of:

- Relation or table as a matrix.

- Tuple: raw in relation.
- Attribute: column in relation.

Advantages
- Tables are related to each other through the sharing of common
attribute.
- The tables are independent of another; we can easily associate the
data between tables.
- Provides a minimum level of controlled redundancy.
- The relationship type(1:1, 1:M or M:N) is often show in relational
model.
- The relational model is powerful and flexible in query language.
College of Information Technology Introduction to Database

Software Department Lecture 2

====================================================

The Entity Relationship Model

Peter Chen first introduced the ER data model in 1976: it was the
graphical representation of entities and their relationships in a database
structure the quickly become popular because it complemented the
relational data model complex.

- entity is represented by rectangle

- Relationships: describe associations among data. The ER model

uses the term connectivity it may be 1:1 or 1:M or M:N

The Object-oriented (OO) Model

In which both data and their relationship are contained in single
structure known as an object .The OO data model is based on the
following components:
- Object: may be considered equivalent to an ER models entity. The
objects semantic content is defined through several of the items in
this list
- Attributes: describe the properties of an object.
- Class is a collection of similar objects with shared structure
(attributes) and behavior(methods) .
College of Information Technology Introduction to Database

Software Department Lecture 2

====================================================

- Classes are organized in a class hierarchy are upside-down tree in

which each class has only one parent.
- Inheritance is the ability of an object within the class hierarchy to
inherit the attributes and methods of the classes above it.

The development of data models