Chapter One

Introduction and Conceptual Database

Modeling

Compiled By: Habtemichael W.

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Outline
 Basic Concept
 Characteristics of The Database Approach
 Database Users
 Advantages of Using The Database Approach
 Historical Development Of Database Technology
 Architectures for DBMS
 Classification Of Database Management Systems

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 Basic Definitions
 Database: A collection of related data.
 Data: Known facts that can be recorded and have an implicit
meaning. Example:- personal info; name, address,…
 Implicit properties of Database:
 Mini-world: Some part of the real world about which data is
stored in a database. For example, student grades and
transcripts at a university.
 logically coherent collection of data with some inherent
meaning.
 A database is designed, built, and populated with data for a
specific purpose. 3
• What is a Database?- It is a collection of related facts

Filing Cabinet
Hard disk full of data

Diary

Library

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 A database may be generated and maintained manually or it may
be computerized.
 Database Management System (DBMS): A software package/
system to facilitate the creation and maintenance of a
computerized database.
 Database System: The DBMS software together with the data
itself.
Typical DBMS Functionality
 Define a database : in terms of data types, structures and
constraints
 Manipulating the database : querying, generating reports,
insertions, deletions and modifications to its content
 Concurrent Processing and Sharing by a set of users and
programs – yet, keeping all data valid and consistent
 Protection or Security measures to prevent unauthorized
access (both hardware and software)
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 Database System
Users/Programmers

DATABASE SYSTEM

Application Programs/Queries
DBMS
DBMS SOFTWARE
+
Software to Process
Database Queries/Programs
=
Database System Software to Access
Stored Data

Stored Database
Stored
Definition
Database
(Meta-Data)

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Example of a Database
Part of a UNIVERSITY environment.
• Some mini-world entities:
– STUDENTs
– COURSEs
– SECTIONs (of COURSEs)
– DEPARTMENTs
– INSTRUCTORs
.
• Some mini-world relationships:
– SECTIONs are of specific COURSEs
– STUDENTs take SECTIONs
– COURSEs have prerequisite COURSEs
– INSTRUCTORs teach SECTIONs
– COURSEs are offered by DEPARTMENTs
– STUDENTs major in DEPARTMENTs
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Database Users
Users may be divided into those who actually use and control the
content (called “Actors on the Scene”) and those who enable the
database to be developed and the DBMS software to be designed
and implemented (called “Workers Behind the Scene”).

i. Actors on the scene

– Database administrators: responsible for authorizing access to
the database, for coordinating and monitoring its use, acquiring
software, and hardware resources, controlling its use and
monitoring efficiency of operations.
– Database Designers: responsible to define the content, the
structure, the constraints, and functions or transactions against
the database. They must communicate with the end-users and
understand their needs.
– End-users: they use the data for queries, reports and some of
them actually update the database content.

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ii. WORKERS BEHIND THE SCENE

 DBMS system designers and implementers are persons who design

and implement the DBMS modules and interfaces as a software package.
 A DBMS is a very complex software system that consists of many
components, or modules, including modules for implementing the
catalog, processing query language, processing the interface, accessing
and buffering data, controlling concurrency, and handling data recovery
and security.
 The DBMS must interface with other system software, such as the
operating system and compilers for various programming languages.

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Advantages of Using the Database Approach

 Controlling redundancy in data storage and in development and

maintenance efforts, avoid inconsistency and incorrectness.
 Sharing of data among multiple users.
 Restricting unauthorized access to data.
 Providing persistent storage for program
 Providing Storage Structures for efficient Query Processing,
through indexing technology
 Providing backup and recovery services.
 Providing multiple interfaces to different classes of users - GUIs.
 Enforcing integrity constraints on the database – data type,
relationship, uniqueness, .

Slide 1-12
Additional Implications of Using the Database Approach
 Potential for enforcing standards: this is very crucial for the
success of database applications in large organizations Standards
refer to data item names, display formats, report structures, meta-
data (description of data) etc.
 Reduced application development time: incremental time to add
each new application is reduced.
 Flexibility to change data structures: database structure may
evolve as new requirements are defined.
 Availability of up-to-date information – very important for on-
line transaction systems such as airline, hotel, car reservations.
 Economies of scale: by consolidating data and applications across
departments wasteful overlap of resources and personnel can be
avoided.
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Historical Development of Database Technology
i. Early Database Applications: The Hierarchical and Network
Models were introduced in mid 1960’s and dominated during the
seventies. A bulk of the worldwide database processing still occurs
using these models.
ii. Relational Model based Systems: The model that was originally
introduced in 1970 was heavily researched and experimented with in
IBM and the universities. Relational DBMS Products emerged in the
1980’s.
iii. Object-oriented applications: OODBMSs were introduced in late
1980’s and early 1990’s to provide to the need of complex data
processing in CAD and other applications.
iv. Data on the Web and E-commerce Applications: Web contains data
in HTML (Hypertext markup language) with links among pages. This
has given rise to a new set of applications and E-commerce is using
new standards like XML (eXtended Markup Language).
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 v. Extending Database Capabilities

 New functionality is being added to DBMSs in the following

areas:
– Image Storage and Management- Storage and retrieval of images from
scanned photos, image from Medical Procedures (X-Ray)
– Audio and Video data management- Storage and retrieval of
movies such as Video clips digital camera
– Data Mining – Application that analyze large amount of data
searching for the occurrence of specific patterns or relationships
– Spatial data management –Applications that stores Spatial
location of data such as weather information that are used in GIS

Remark: The above gives rise to new research and development in

incorporating new data types, complex data structures, new
operations and storage and indexing schemes in database systems.

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ARCHITECTURES FOR DBMS
i. Centralized DBMSS Architecture

 Earlier architectures used mainframe computers to provide the main

processing for all functions of the system, including user application
programs and user interface programs, as well as all the DBMS
functionality.
 The reason was that most users accessed such systems via computer
terminals that did not have processing power and only provided display
capabilities.
 So, all processing was performed remotely on the computer system, and

only display information and controls were sent from the computer to the

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display terminals, which were connected to the central computer via
A physically centralized architecture
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ii. Basic Client/Server Architectures.
 The client/server architecture was developed to deal with
computing environments in which a large number of Pcs,
workstations, file servers, printers, database servers, Web servers,
and other equipment are connected via a network.
 The idea is to define specialized servers with specific
functionalities. For example, it is possible to connect a number of
PCs or small workstations as clients to a file server that maintains
the files of the client machines.
 In this way, the resources provided by specialized servers can be
accessed by many client machines. The client machines provide
the user with the appropriate interfaces to utilize these servers, as
well as with local processing power to run local applications. 18
 In such a client/server architecture, the user interface programs and
application programs can run on the client side. When DBMS access is
required, the program establishes a connection to the DBMS (which is
on the server side);
 once the connection is created, the client program can communicate
with the DBMS as long as both client and server machines have the
necessary software installed
 The architectures described here are called two-tier architectures
because the software components are distributed over two systems:
client and server. The advantages of this architecture are its simplicity
and seamless compatibility with existing systems. The emergence of
the World Wide Web changed the roles of clients and server, leading
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to the three-tier architecture.
Physical two-tier client-server architecture
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 iii. three-tier client/server architecture.
Many Web applications use an architecture called the three-tier
architecture, which adds an intermediate layer between the client
and the database server. This intermediate layer called the Web
server, depending. This server plays an intermediary role by storing
business rules(constraints) that are used to access data from the
database server.
It can also improve database security by checking a client's credentials
before forwarding a request to the database server. The intermediate
server accepts requests from the client, processes the request and
sends database commands to the database server, and then acts as a
conduit for passing (partially) processed data from the database server
to the clients

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 CLASSIFICATION OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

 Several criteria are normally used to classify DBMSs.

– The first is the data model on which the DBMS is based. The main data model used
in many current commercial DBMSs is the relational data model. We can hence
categorize DBMSs based on the data model: relational, object, object-relational etc..
– The second criterion used to classify DBMSs is the number of users supported by
the system. Single-user systems support only one user at a time and are mostly used
with personal computers. Multiuser systems, which include the majority of DBMSs,
support multiple users concurrently.
– A third criterion is the number of sites over which the database is distributed. A
DBMS is centralized if the data is stored at a single computer site. A centralized
DBMS can support multiple users, but the DBMS and the database themselves
reside totally at a single computer site. A distributed DBMS (DDBMS) can have the
actual database and DBMS software distributed over many sites, connected by a
computer network. 22