G.

Manikandan
SAP / ICT / SOC
SASTRA 1
Lecture Objectives

 Characteristics of the Database Approach

 Personnel involved in the DBMS environment.

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Characteristics of the Database
Approach
 Self-describing nature of a database system

 Insulation between programs and data

Abstraction

 Support of multiple views of the data

 Sharing of data and multi-user transaction

processing

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1. Self-describing nature of a database system
 Database system
 Database
 DBMS Catalog
 complete definition or description of the database structure
and constraints.

 DBMS software - general-purpose - not written for a specific

database application

 Refer to the catalog

 To know the structure of the files in a specific database,
 such as the type and format of data it will access.

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1. Self-describing nature of a database system
 DBMS software work with any number of database applications
 University database
 Banking database
 Company database

 File processing, data definition is typically part of the application

programs

 Programs are constrained to work with

 only one specific database,
 whose structure is declared in the application programs

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1. Sample DBMS Catalog

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2. Insulation between programs and data
 Traditional file processing
 the structure of data files is embedded in the
application programs,
 so any changes to the structure of a file may require
changing all programs that access that file.

 Program-data independence.

 DBMS programs do not require such changes .

 The structure of data files is stored in the DBMS catalog

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2. Insulation between programs and data
 object-oriented and object-relational systems
 users can define operations on data as part of the
database definitions.
 An operation (also called a function or method) is
specified in two parts.
 The interface (or signature)
 implementation (or method)
 User application programs can operate on the data by
invoking these operations
 regardless of how the operations are implemented.

 Program-operation independence.
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2. Insulation between programs and data

 The characteristic that allows program-data independence

and program-operation independence is called data
abstraction.

 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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3. Support of multiple views of the data
 A database typically has many types of users, each of
whom may require a different perspective or view of the
database.

 A view may be a subset of the database or it may

contain virtual data that is derived from the database files
but is not explicitly stored.

 Users - whether the data they refer to is stored or

derived.

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3. Support of multiple views of the data
 A multiuser DBMS must provide facilities for defining
multiple views

 For example
 one user of the database may be interested only in
accessing and printing the transcript of each student;

 A second user, who is interested only in checking that

students have taken all the prerequisites of each
course for which the student registers

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4. Sharing of data and multi-user transaction processing

 Multi user DBMS

 allows a set of concurrent users to retrieve and to
update the database.

 Concurrency control Software

 within the DBMS guarantees that each transaction is
correctly executed or completely aborted.

 Need for Concurrency control ?

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4. Sharing of data and multi-user transaction processing

 Airline reservation example

 when several reservation agents try to assign a seat on
an flight
 The DBMS should ensure that each seat can be
accessed by only one agent at a time for assignment to
a passenger.

 These types of applications are generally called online

transaction processing (OLTP) applications.

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4. Sharing of data and multi-user transaction processing

 The concept of a transaction has become central to many database

applications.

 A transaction is an
 executing program or
 process that includes one or more database accesses,
 such as reading or updating of database records

 The DBMS must enforce several transaction properties.(ACID)

 Atomicity
 Consistency
 Isolation
 Durability

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 Actors on the Scene

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Introduction
 Small personal database
 list of addresses
 one person typically defines, constructs, and
manipulates the database, and there is no sharing.

 Large organizations
 Many people are involved in the
 design,
 Use, and maintenance
 of a large database with hundreds or thousands of
users.

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Persons
 Actors on the Scene
 Database Administrators
 Database Designers
 End Users
 System Analysts and Application Programmers

 Workers behind the scene

 DBMS system designers and implementers
 Tool developers
 Operators and maintenance personnel

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1.Database Administrators
 In any organization
 Where many people use the same resources
 Need an administrator to manage these resources.

 In a database environment
 the primary resource is the database itself,
 secondary resource is the DBMS and related
software.

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1.Database Administrators
 Administering these resources is the responsibility of the database
administrator (DBA).

 The DBA is responsible for

 authorizing access to the database,
 coordinating and monitoring its use, and
 acquiring software and hardware resources as needed.

 The DBA is accountable for problems such as

 security breaches and
 poor system response time.

 In large organizations,
 the DBA is assisted by a staff that carries out these functions.

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2. Database Designers
 Database designers are responsible for
 identifying the data to be stored in the database and
 choosing appropriate structures to represent and store this
data.

 These tasks are mostly undertaken before the database is

actually implemented and populated with data.

 It is the responsibility of database designers to communicate with

all prospective database users in order to understand their
requirements and to create a design that meets these requirements.

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2. Database Designers
 In many cases, the designers are one of the DBA and may be
assigned other staff responsibilities after the database design is
completed.

 Database designers typically interact with each potential group of

users and develop views of the database that meet the data and
processing requirements of these groups.

 Each view is then analyzed and integrated with the views of

other user groups.

 The final database design must be capable of supporting the

requirements of all user groups.

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3.End Users
 End users are the people whose jobs require access
to the database for querying, updating, and generating
reports

 Casual end users

 occasionally access the database, but they may need
different information each time.

 They use a sophisticated database query interface to specify

their requests and are typically middle- or high-level managers.

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3.End Users
 Naive or parametric end users
 make up a sizable portion of database end users.

 Their main job function revolves around constantly

querying and updating the database,

 using standard types of queries and updates—called

canned transactions—that have been carefully
programmed and tested.

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3.End Users
 Sophisticated end users
 Include engineers, scientists, business analysts, and others
who thoroughly familiarize themselves with the facilities of the
DBMS in order to implement their own applications to meet their
complex requirements.

 Standalone users
 Maintain personal databases by using ready-made program
packages that provide easy-to-use menu-based or graphics-
based interfaces.
 An example is the user of a financial software package that
stores a variety of personal financial data.

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4.System Analysts and Application
Programmers
 System analysts
 Determine the requirements of end users, especially naive
and parametric end users
 Develop specifications for standard canned transactions that
meet these requirements.

 Application programmers implement these specifications as

programs; then they test, debug, document, and maintain these
canned transactions.

 Such analysts and programmers—commonly referred to as

software developers or software engineers—should be familiar
with the full range of capabilities provided by the DBMS to
accomplish their tasks.

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