Education:
Information Technology Institute (ITI)
Databases, Database Connectivity and Entity Relationship Diagrams
With in the information technology field data and data storage are very important. This is reflected in the ITI curriculum. In each of the projects databases and database connectivity is an important constituent. In the web presence project the database was linked to a web site using active server pages, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) and Data Access Objects (DAO).
In the Visual Basic module both ActiveX Data Object (ADO) controls and custom built ADO's are be used. The ADO controls were used to create a rapid application design prototype of the main project. Although the ADO controls were very quick to implement, they have limitations. Some of these include functionality control, scalability, reliability and a limit of a 2-tier system. In the main project these issues are addressed by using a 3-tier design incorporating Business Object Data Transfer (BODT) objects and custom built DAO's, controlled by Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS).
In each of these projects Access databases are being used. The Java project will utilize an DB2 database. In the final project, Oracle 8 will be used along with Oracle Web Server and Oracle Developer. The Java and Oracle project will be started in April 2000 and July 2000 respectively.
Another aspect of databases covered at ITI are the entity relationship diagrams (ERD). These diagrams are essential in the design of reliable and effective databases. For each of our projects ERD's will be produced to describe the relationships between the database table. The diagram below shows the ERD for the database used in the web presence project.
Web Presence Project ERD
This ERD design was used to simplify the ASP coding. A more complete normalization would result in the creation of a shipping entity.
ERD's were also generated for the Visual Basic and Oracle modules (Oracle ERD). The Java module used a legacy DB2 database.
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