Running head: DATABASE ENVIRONMENT PAPER

Database Environment Paper Mario Padilla DBM/380 July 16, 2012 University of Phoenix

DATABASE ENVIRONMENT PAPER Database Environment Paper A database for storing the information used in a specific information system. The needs and requirements of future users of the information system must be taken into account to properly take the above decisions. If you remember the three worlds presented: the real, conceptual, and representations, you will observe that the design of a database is to obtain a specific computer representation from the study of the real world of interest. The design of a database is not a straightforward process. Typically, the complexity of the information requirements and the amount of information systems make it complicated. Therefore, when designing databases is interesting to apply the old strategy of divide and conquer. Therefore, it should decompose the design process in several stages, with each intermediate result is obtained that serves as a starting point for the next stage, and the last stage yields the desired result. This eliminates the need to solve all problems at once raised the design, but in each stage, facing a single type of sub problem. This divides the problem and at the same time, simplifying the process. In summary, the design of a database is to define the structure of data that must be a database of system specific information.

In the case of the Denver Art Museum, you must create a database that allows us to track all the artworks, the artists who created them, and places within the museum where these works of art displayed within the museum are.

The Denver Art Museum is one of the largest art museums between Chicago and the West Coast, with a collection of more than 70,000 works of art divided between nine permanent collections including African, American Indian, Asian, European and American, modern and contemporary, pre-Colombian, photography, Spanish Colonial, and western American art. Our

DATABASE ENVIRONMENT PAPER holdings reflect our city and regionand provide invaluable ways for the community to learn about cultures from around the world. ("The Denver Art Museum", 2012).

In the conceptual phase of the design of the database. at this stage is obtained a structure of the information for future technology independent BD to be used. Not taken into account yet what kind of database is used-relational, object oriented, hierarchical, etc. - And consequently, also takes into account how DBMS specific language or how it will implement the database. Thus, the conceptual design stage allows us to focus solely on the problem of structuring information, without worrying at the same time to resolve technology issues.

In this case we are talking about the need for a database that has the ability to capture information from all works of art from the Denver Art Museum, this in turn must include the artist's name, the name of the work of art exhibition in the room where this work of art inside the museum. This database could include subfields as the origin of the artist, the time of this work of art, whether the work itself or borrowed from other museums and the duration of the loan.

At the stage of logical design starts from the result of conceptual design, which is changing to suit the technology to be employed. More specifically, it is necessary to fit the model of the DBMS to which you want to implement the database. For example, if it is a relational DBMS, this stage will get a set of relationships with their attributes, primary keys and foreign keys. This stage of the fact that it has solved the problem of structuring information in a conceptual level, and can focus on technological issues related to the model database.

DATABASE ENVIRONMENT PAPER To develop this database, we will use Microsoft Access. According to "Access 2010" (2012), "Access is a database tool for gathering all your information and Understanding your phone numbers, inventory, guest lists, whatever you're tracking and providing a convenient way to enter, navigate, and report out your data." (para. 1).

A good database design ensures easy maintenance. Data is stored in tables and each table contains data about a subject, such as customers. Therefore, when upgrading a portion of the data, such as an address, it is in one place, but that change automatically appears throughout the database. A well-designed database usually contains different types of queries that show the necessary information. A query can display a subset of data, like all works of art from China, or combinations of data from different tables, such as artist information combined with location information in the museum.

An attribute is another word for field. In spreadsheet language it would be a cell. It is a place in a database table to store one piece of data of a given type. For example an attribute designated to hold a last name, could hold "Smith", but should not hold "Amy Smith ("Database Fundamentals", 2012). A entity is something that someone wants to track. An employee, for example. It is basically the subject for a table. You gather data about the employee, you run queries to find out information about them, track their time, vacation, sick days etc... Therefore, an entity is very much the same as a record in a table. ("Database Fundamentals", 2012).

DATABASE ENVIRONMENT PAPER For this specific design, the entity will be the name of the artwork, so that the attributes

must be the artist's name, date of creation of the artwork, the country of origin, the room where it is located within the museum, if it is a work of art museum's own or borrowed. For this process will be used the ER model. The ER model is one of the data modeling approaches most commonly used today for its simplicity and clarity. Its readability is favored because it provides a very comprehensive diagrammatic notation. It is a useful tool to help the designer to reflect on a conceptual model real-world requirements of interest to communicate with end users on the conceptual model obtained and, thus, to verify that it meets the requirements.

For this process will be used the ER model. The ER model is one of the data modeling approaches most commonly used today for its simplicity and clarity. Its readability is favored because it provides a very comprehensive diagrammatic notation. It is a useful tool to help the designer to reflect on a conceptual model real-world requirements of interest to communicate with end users on the conceptual model obtained and, thus, to verify that it meets the requirements.

DATABASE ENVIRONMENT PAPER References

Access 2010. (2012). Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/what-is-microsoftaccess-database-software-and-applications-FX102473444.aspx Database Fundamentals. (2012). Retrieved from http://classes.midlandstech.edu/cpt242/DATABASE_FUNDAMENTALS.html#ENTITY The Denver Art Museum. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.denverartmuseum.org/about/mission-history