Microsoft Access
and SQL
Week 8
LBSC 690
Information Technology
Muddiest Points
•	Cardinality

•	Compound primary keys

•	Derivable combinations (5NF)
Corrected E-R Example
5NF Example
Agenda
•	Questions
•	E-R modeling exercise
•	Microsoft Access
•	Scalability issues
•	MySQL
•	Term project
Key Ideas
•	Databases are a good choice when you have
–	Lots of data
–	A problem that contains inherent relationships

•	Join is the most important concept
–	Project and restrict just remove undesired stuff

•	Design before you implement
–	Managing complexity is important
RideFinder Exercise
•	Design a database to match passengers with  available rides for Spring Break
–	Drivers phone in available seats
•	They want to know about interested passengers
–	Passengers call up looking for rides
•	They want to know about available rides
•	No “ride wanted” ads
–	These things happen in no particular order
Exercise Goals
•	Identify the tables you will need
–	First decide what data you will need
•	What questions will be asked?
–	Then design normalized tables
•	Start with binary relations if that helps
•	Design the queries
–	Using join, project and restrict
–	What happens when a passenger calls?
–	What happens when a driver calls?
Reminder: Starting E-R Modeling
•	What questions must you answer?

•	What data is needed to generate the answers?
–	Entities
•	Attributes of those entities
–	Relationships
•	Nature of those relationships

•	How will the user interact with the system?
–	Relating the question to the available data
–	Expressing the answer in a useful form
Exercise Logistics
•	Work in groups of 3 or 4
•	Brainstorm data requirements for 5 minutes
–	Do passengers care about the price?
–	Do drivers care how much luggage there is?
•	Develop tables and queries for 15 minutes
–	Don’t get hung up on one thing too long
•	Compare you answers with another group
–	Should take about 5 minutes each
Making Tables from E-R Diagrams
•	Pick a primary key for each entity
•	Build the tables
–	One per entity
–	Plus one per M:M relationship
–	Choose terse but memorable table and field names
•	Check for parsimonious representation
–	Relational “normalization”
–	Redundant storage of computable values
•	Implement using a DBMS

•	1NF: Single-valued indivisible (atomic) attributes
–	Split “Doug Oard” to two attributes as (“Doug”, “Oard”)
–	Model M:M implement-role relationship with a table

•	2NF: Attributes depend on complete primary key
–	(id, impl-role, name)->(id, name)+(id, impl-role)

•	3NF: Attributes depend directly on primary key
–	(id, addr, city, state, zip)->(id, addr, zip)+(zip, city, state)

•	4NF: Divide independent M:M tables
–	(id, role, courses) -> (id, role) + (id, courses)

•	5NF: Don’t enumerate derivable combinations
Using Microsoft Access

•	Create a database called M:\rides.mdb
–	File->New->Blank Database

•	Specify the fields (columns)
–	“Create a Table in Design View”

•	Fill in the records (rows)
–	 Double-click on the icon for the table
Creating Fields
•	Enter field name
–	Must be unique, but only within the same table

•	Select field type from a menu
–	Use date/time for times
–	Use text for phone numbers

•	Designate primary key (right mouse button)

•	Save the table
–	That’s when you get to assign a table name
Entering Data
•	Open the table
–	Double-click on the icon

•	Enter new data in the bottom row
–	A new (blank) bottom row will appear

•	Close the table
–	No need to “save” – data is stored automatically
Building Queries
•	Copy ride.mdb to your M:\ drive

•	“Create Query in Design View”
–	In “Queries”

•	Choose two tables, Flight and Company

•	Pick each field you need using the menus
–	Unclick “show” to not project
–	Enter a criterion to “restrict”

•	Save, exit, and reselect to run the query
Some Details About Access
•	Joins are automatic if field names are same
–	Otherwise, drag a line between the fields
•	Sort order is easy to specify
–	Use the menu
•	Queries form the basis for reports
–	Reports give good control over layout
–	Use the report wizard - the formats are complex
•	Forms manage input better than raw tables
–	Invalid data can be identified when input
–	Graphics can be incorporated
Databases in the Real World
•	Some typical database applications:
–	Banking (e.g., saving/checking accounts)
–	Trading (e.g., stocks)
–	Airline reservations

•	Characteristics:
–	Lots of data
–	Lots of concurrent access
–	Must have fast access
–	“Mission critical”

Database Integrity
•	Registrar database must be internally consistent
–	Enrolled students must have an entry in student table
–	Courses must have a name

•	What happens:
–	When a student withdraws from the university?
–	When a course is taken off the books?

Integrity Constraints
•	Conditions that must always be true
–	Specified when the database is designed
–	Checked when the database is modified

•	RDBMS ensures integrity constraints are respected
–	So database contents remain faithful to real world
–	Helps avoid data entry errors
Referential Integrity
•	Foreign key values must exist in other table
–	If not, those records cannot be joined

•	Can be enforced when data is added
–	Associate a primary key with each foreign key

•	Helps avoid erroneous data
–	Only need to ensure data quality for primary keys
Concurrency
•	Thought experiment: You and your project partner are editing the same file…
–	Scenario 1: you both save it at the same time
–	Scenario 2: you save first, but before it’s done saving, your partner saves

Concurrency Example
•	Possible actions on a checking account
–	Deposit check (read balance, write new balance)
–	Cash check (read balance, write new balance)
•	Scenario:
–	Current balance: $500
–	You try to deposit a $50 check and someone tries to cash a $100 check at the same time
–	Possible sequences: (what happens in each case?)

Database Transactions
•	Transaction: sequence of grouped database actions
–	e.g., transfer $500 from checking to savings
•	“ACID” properties
–	Atomicity
•	All-or-nothing
–	Consistency
•	Each transaction must take the DB between consistent states.
–	Isolation:
•	Concurrent transactions must appear to run in isolation
–	Durability
•	Results of transactions must survive even if systems crash
Making Transactions
•	Idea: keep a log (history) of all actions carried out while executing transactions
–	Before a change is made to the database, the corresponding log entry is forced to a safe location

•	Recovering from a crash:
–	Effects of partially executed transactions are undone
–	Effects of committed transactions are redone
Databases in Web Applications
Why Database-Generated Pages?
•	Remote access to a database 
–	Client does not need the database software

•	Serve rapidly changing information
–	e.g., Airline reservation systems

•	Provide multiple “access points”
–	By subject, by date, by author, …

•	Record user responses in the database
Issues to Consider
•	Benefits
–	Multiple views
–	Data reuse
–	Scalable
–	Access control

•	Costs
–	Formal modeling
–	Complex (learn, design, implement, debug)
–	Brittle (relies on multiple communicating servers)
–	Not crawlable
Microsoft “Data Access Pages”
•	Displays database content on Web pages
–	Not very useful for changing database content

•	Drag-and-drop design in Microsoft Access
–	“Reports” are designed for printing
–	“Pages” are designed for the Web

•	Requirements:
–	Microsoft Web Server (not Apache)
–	IE 5 or higher Web browser (not Firefox)
–	“Office Web Components” on client machine
•	IE 7 fails gracelessly without them!
Data Access Page Example
Other Ways to Serve Data
Putting the Pieces Together
Structured Query Language
DESCRIBE Flight;
Structured Query Language
SELECT * FROM Flight;
Structured Query Language
SELECT Company.CompanyName, Company.CompanyPhone, Flight.Origin, Flight.DepartureTime 
FROM Flight,Company
WHERE Flight.CompanyName=Company.CompanyName
   AND Flight.AvailableSeats>3;

Create a MySQL Database
•	“root” user creates database + grants permissions
–	Using the WAMP console (or mysql –u root –p)
•	root has no initial password; just hit <enter> when asked
–	By the system administrator on OTAL (otal.umd.edu)
      CREATE DATABASE project;
      GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE, DROP ON project.* TO ‘foo’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘bar’;
      FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
•	Start mysql
–	MySQL console for WAMP, ssh for OTAL
                                                                                         mysql –u foo –p bar
•	Connect to your database
      USE project;
Creating Tables
CREATE TABLE contacts (
  ckey	MEDIUMINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  id		MEDIUMINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  ctype	SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  cstring	VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
  FOREIGN KEY (id) REFERENCES persons(id) ON DELETE CASCADE,
  FOREIGN KEY (ctype) REFERENCES ctlabels(ctype) ON DELETE RESTRICT,
  PRIMARY KEY (ckey)
) ENGINE=INNODB;

•	To delete: DROP TABLE contacts;
Populating Tables
INSERT INTO ctlabels
  (string) VALUES
  ('primary email'),
  ('alternate email'),
  ('home phone'),
  ('cell phone'),
  ('work phone'),
  ('AOL IM'),
  ('Yahoo Chat'),
  ('MSN Messenger'),
  (‘other’);

•	To empty a table: DELETE FROM ctlabels;
“Looking Around” in MySQL
•	SHOW DATABASES;

•	SHOW TABLES;

•	DESCRIBE tablename;

•	SELECT * FROM tablename;

SQL Utility Service Desk Exercise
•	Design a database to keep track of service calls for a utility company:
–	Customers call to report problems
–	Call center manages “tickets” to assign workers to jobs
•	Must match skills and service location
•	Must balance number of assignments
–	Workers call in to ask where their next jobs are
•	In SQL, you can do the following operations:
–	Count the number of rows in a result set
–	Sort the result set according to a field
–	Find the maximum and minimum value of a field
Term Project
•	Goal is to learn some things deeply
–	By doing something real

•	At least two key technologies
–	Web, database, programming, synchronized media

•	4-minute overview talk next week
–	3 slides (goals, mockup, scope)

•	12-minute presentation in final class session
–	Written report due by email 2 days later 
Before You Go
	On a sheet of paper, answer the following (ungraded) question (no names, please):

	What was the muddiest point in today’s class?