Lecture 2

Databases and Database Users

Dr. Asmaa Hanafy

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OUTLINE
 Types of Databases and Database Applications
 Basic Definitions
 Typical DBMS Functionality
 Example of a Database (UNIVERSITY)
 Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
 Types of Database Users
 Advantages of Using the Database Approach
 Historical Development of Database Technology
 Extending Database Capabilities
 When Not to Use Databases
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Types of Databases and Database
Applications
 Traditional Applications:
 Numeric and Textual Databases
 More Recent Applications:
 Multimedia Databases
 Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
 Biological and Genome Databases
 Data Warehouses
 Mobile databases
 Real-time and Active Databases
 Bigdata
 Our course focuses on traditional applications

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Recent Developments (1)
 Social Networks started capturing a lot of
information about people and about communications
among people-posts, tweets, photos, videos in
systems such as:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Linked-In
 All of the above constitutes data

 Search Engines- Google, Bing, Yahoo : collect their

own repository of web pages for searching purposes

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Basic Definitions
 Database:
 A collection of related data.

 Data:
 Known facts that can be recorded and have an implicit meaning.

 Mini-world (universe of discourse (UoD)).:

 Some part of the real world about which data is stored in a database.

For example, student grades and transcripts at a university.


Changes to the miniworld are reflected in the database.
 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. Sometimes, the

applications are also included.

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Basic Definitions
 Defining a database

Specify the data types, structures, and constraints of
the data to be stored
 Meta-data

Database definition or descriptive information

Stored by the DBMS in the form of a database catalog
or dictionary
 Manipulating a database

Retrieval: Querying, generating reports

Modification: Insertions, deletions and updates to its content

Accessing the database through Web applications

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Basic Definitions
 Sharing a database
 Allow multiple users and programs to access the
database simultaneously
 Application program
 Accesses database by sending queries to DBMS
 Query
 Causes some data to be retrieved

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Application Activities Against a
Database
 Applications interact with a database by generating
- Queries: that access different parts of data and
formulate the result of a request
- Transactions: that may read some data and
“update” certain values or generate new data and
store that in the database
 Applications must not allow unauthorized users to

access data
 Applications must keep up with changing user

requirements against the database

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Additional DBMS Functionality
 Protection includes:
 System protection

against hardware or software malfunction (or crashes)
 security protection

against unauthorized or malicious access.
 Maintain the database system
 Allow the system to evolve as requirements change
over time
 Applications must keep up with changing user
requirements against the database

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Simplified database system environment

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Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
 Mini-world for the example:
 Part of a UNIVERSITY environment.
 Some mini-world entities:
 STUDENTs
 COURSEs
 SECTIONs (of COURSEs)
 (academic) DEPARTMENTs
 INSTRUCTORs

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Example of a Database
(with a Conceptual Data Model)
 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

 Note: The above entities and relationships are typically

expressed in a conceptual data model, such as the
ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP data model

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Example of a simple database

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach
 Self-describing nature of a database system:
 A DBMS catalog stores the description of a particular database (e.g.
data structures, types, and constraints)
 The description is called meta-data*.
 This allows the DBMS software to work with different database
applications.
 Insulation between programs and data:
 Called program-data independence.
 Allows changing data structures and storage organization without

having to change the DBMS access programs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Some newer systems such as a few NOSQL systems need no meta-
data: they store the data definition within its structure making it self
describing

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Example of a simplified database catalog

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
 Data Abstraction:

allows program-data independence and program-operation
independence
 Program-data independence

Structure of data files is stored in DBMS catalog separately from
access programs
 Program-operation independence

Operations specified in two parts:

Interface includes operation name and data types of its
arguments
 Implementation can be changed without affecting the interface

 DBMS provides users with a conceptual representation of data that

does not include many of the details of how the data is stored or how
the operations are implemented.

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
 Data Abstraction:
 A data model is used to hide storage details and
present the users with a conceptual view of the
database.
 Programs refer to the data model constructs rather
than data storage details
 Support of multiple views of the data:
 Each user may see a different view of the
database, which describes only the data of
interest to that user.

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Main Characteristics of the Database
Approach (continued)
 Sharing of data and multi-user transaction
processing:
 Allowing a set of concurrent users to retrieve from and to
update the database.
 Concurrency control within the DBMS guarantees that
each transaction is correctly executed or aborted
 Recovery subsystem ensures each completed transaction
has its effect permanently recorded in the database
 OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) is a major part of
database applications. This allows hundreds of concurrent
transactions to execute per second.

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Database Users
 Users may be divided into
 Those who actually use and control the database
content, and those who design, develop and
maintain database applications (called “Actors on
the Scene”), and
 Those who design and develop the DBMS
software and related tools, and the computer
systems operators (called “Workers Behind the
Scene”).

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Database Users – Actors on the
Scene
 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.

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Database End Users
 Actors on the scene (continued)
 End-users: They use the data for queries, reports
and some of them update the database content.
End-users can be categorized into:

Casual: access database occasionally when needed

Naïve or Parametric: they make up a large section of
the end-user population.
 They use previously well-defined functions in the form of
“canned transactions” against the database.
 Users of Mobile Apps mostly fall in this category
 Bank-tellers or reservation clerks are parametric users who
do this activity for an entire shift of operations.
 Social Media Users post and read information from websites

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Database End Users (continued)

Sophisticated:
 othersThese include business analysts, scientists,
engineers, thoroughly familiar with the system capabilities.
 Many use tools in the form of software packages that work
closely with the stored database.

Stand-alone:
 Mostly maintain personal databases using ready-to-use
packaged applications.
 An example is the user of a tax program that creates its
own internal database.
 Another example is a user that maintains a database of
personal photos and videos.

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Database Users – Actors on the
Scene (continued)

System Analysts and Application Developers
This category currently accounts for a very large proportion of
the IT work force.

System Analysts: They understand the user
requirements of naïve and sophisticated users and design
applications including canned transactions to meet those
requirements.

Application Programmers: Implement the
specifications developed by analysts and test and debug
them before deployment.

Business Analysts: There is an increasing need for
such people who can analyze vast amounts of business data
and real-time data (“Big Data”) for better decision making
related to planning, advertising, marketing etc.

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Database Users – Actors behind the
Scene

System Designers and Implementors: Design and
implement DBMS packages in the form of modules and
interfaces and test and debug them. The DBMS must interface
with applications, language compilers, operating system
components, etc.

Tool Developers: Design and implement software
systems called tools for modeling and designing databases,
performance monitoring, prototyping, test data generation,
user interface creation, simulation etc. that facilitate building of
applications and allow using database effectively .

Operators and Maintenance Personnel: They
manage the actual running and maintenance of the database
system hardware and software environment.

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Advantages of Using the Database
Approach
 Controlling redundancy in data storage and in
development and maintenance efforts.
 each logical data item—such as a student’s name
or birth date—is stored in only one place in the
database. This is known as data normalization,
and it ensures consistency and saves storage
space
 Restricting unauthorized access to data. Only the
DBA staff uses privileged commands and
facilities.

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Advantages of Using the Database
Approach (continued)
 Providing persistent storage for program Objects
 E.g., Object-oriented DBMSs make program objects
persistent.
 Providing Storage Structures and Search
Techniques for Efficient Query Processing.
 The query processing and optimization module of
the DBMS is responsible for choosing an efficient query
execution plan for each query based on the existing
storage structures. (e.g. indexes)
 Providing backup and recovery services.
 Providing multiple user interfaces

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Advantages of Using the Database
Approach (continued)
 Representing complex relationships among data.
 Enforcing integrity constraints on the database.
 Drawing inferences and actions from the stored
data using deductive and active rules and
triggers.

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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, screens,
report structures, meta-data (description of data),
Web page layouts, etc.
 Reduced application development time:
 Incremental time to add each new application is
reduced.

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Additional Implications of Using the
Database Approach (continued)
 Flexibility to change data structures:

Database structure may evolve as new
requirements are defined.
 Availability of current information:

Extremely important for on-line transaction systems
such as shopping, airline, hotel, car reservations.
 Economies of scale:

Wasteful overlap of resources and personnel can
be avoided by consolidating data and applications
across departments.

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Lecture Summary
 Types of Databases and Database Applications
 Basic Definitions
 Typical DBMS Functionality
 Example of a Database (UNIVERSITY)
 Main Characteristics of the Database Approach
 Types of Database Users
 Advantages of Using the Database Approach
 Historical Development of Database Technology
 Extending Database Capabilities
 When Not to Use Databases
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