Database Processing, Chapter 1 (Week 6)

This reading comes from D. Kroenke's Database Processing: Fundamentals, Design and Implementation (No link available), Chapter 1. The reading involved mostly different kinds of databases and different ways to create databases, all the easy technical overview to think about before getting started on a database project. Now on to the pertinent points of the reading:

1. The first kind of database applications available are SAP Applications. They are sometimes called client-server applications because the program is the client that connects to the database server. SAP applications connect to the database via a corporate network. These applications are written in Visual Basic, C++ or Java.
2. The second kind of applications are called e-commerce applications or any applications the run on a Web server. Users can connect to these applications from Web browsers like Explorer and Safari. Some common Web servers are Apache and Microsoft's Internet Information Server.
3. The third kind is Reporting Applications. They publish the results of database queries on corporate portals or a Web site.
4. The last kind of application is XML Web services. This application is on the leading edge of database processing. It uses a combination of XML markup language as well as other standards to create program-to-program communication. The code that comprises an application can then be distributed over several computers.
5. DBMS manages the database. The best DBMS available is Oracle from the Oracle corporation though it is much more difficult to use than the SQL server.
6. Database: a self-describing collection of integrated tables. Integrated tables are tables that store both data and the relationships among the data. Self-describing means that the collection contains a description itself.
7. Triggers are used to main database accuracy and consistency as well as to enforce any data restraints.
8. Stored Procedures are used for database administration tasks and are sometimes a part of database applications.
9. There are THREE types of Database design: Existing data, New Systems Development and Database redesign.
   

The many charts in the reading, made understanding these notes much easier. They were comprehensive and drawn out to show steps and relationships. For copyright reasons, I cannot copy them here, but attest to their usefulness.