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Appendix A: Beginner’s Guide to Databases
What questions will users ask the database?
After you become familiar with the proposed features of the web application, you sit down
with the database users and pose the following question: “What questions will you ask the
database?”
with the database users and pose the following question: “What questions will you ask the
database?”
You learn from some of the aircraft shareholders that they want to ask the database the
following questions:
following questions:
■
How many occupied hours do I have left?
■
Is my aircraft available on a certain date or dates?
After a shareholder requests an aircraft, the employees in Flight Ops will ask the database the
following questions:
following questions:
■
Where does the shareholder want to go?
■
What is the itinerary—one way, return, multi-city? Flight Ops needs this information to
start planning the flight (check weather forecasts, file flight plans, and so on) and to
estimate the total occupied hours.
start planning the flight (check weather forecasts, file flight plans, and so on) and to
estimate the total occupied hours.
■
Does the shareholder have sufficient occupied hours remaining for the proposed itinerary?
■
When does the shareholder want to leave?
■
What is the shareholder’s plane?
■
Is the plane available for the proposed itinerary?
■
How many passengers will accompany the shareholders?
■
How much luggage will they bring—light (carry-on), normal (one suitcase per passenger),
or heavy (more than one suitcase)?
or heavy (more than one suitcase)?
■
What are the shareholder’s catering needs?
■
What is the occupied hourly fee for the plane?
■
Where can I contact the shareholder to confirm the flight and the fee estimate?
Choosing the tables that belong in the database
After learning the questions users will ask the database, you think about how your database
should be structured to best answer their questions. The first step is to choose the tables in
the database.
should be structured to best answer their questions. The first step is to choose the tables in
the database.
In a relational database, all data is represented in the rows and columns of tables. Each table
describes a collection of related entities such as persons, objects, or events. Each row describes
one occurrence of the entity and each column describes one property of the entity—for
example, a person’s last name, an object’s color, or an event’s date.
describes a collection of related entities such as persons, objects, or events. Each row describes
one occurrence of the entity and each column describes one property of the entity—for
example, a person’s last name, an object’s color, or an event’s date.