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Designing the Database "On Paper"
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| <div style="margin: 0 auto; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; border: 1px solid pink; background-color: #fff3f3; text-align: left; width: auto; padding: 4px;">This article is part of the [[To Base and Back Again]] tutorial series.</div> | <div style="margin: 0 auto; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-bottom: 0.75em; border: 1px solid pink; background-color: #fff3f3; text-align: left; width: auto; padding: 4px;">This article is part of the [[To Base and Back Again]] tutorial series.</div> | ||
| - | Before actually creating a new Database document in NeoOffice, it is important to think through what sorts of data you will be storing and how you need to access it. | + | Before actually creating a new Database document in NeoOffice, it is important to think through what sorts of data you will be storing and how you need to access it. Planning out your database on paper ahead of time will save you hours of frustration and restructuring later. |
| + | |||
| + | ==First Questions== | ||
| + | Begin planning by asking yourself these questions: | ||
| + | *What kind of data do I need to store? | ||
| + | ::For the birder's journal, the data we need includes birds, dates of sightings, locations, information about field trips, etc. | ||
| + | |||
| + | *What do I want to do with the data? What kind of reports do I want to be able generate? | ||
| + | :: For the birder's journal, the we want to be able to: | ||
| + | :::See the data for particular field trips. (e.g. what birds did I see when I visited Skokie Lagoons on | ||
| + | April 1, 2007?) | ||
| + | :::Produce a list of all the birds seen at a particular location over time. (e.g. all the birds I've ever seen at Skokie Lagoons) | ||
| + | :::Produce a life list, a list of all the birds I've seen over my lifetime (with each species of bird listed only once) | ||
| + | :::Perhaps even filter by location and weather conditions. | ||
| + | |||
| + | *How should the data be grouped | ||
| + | :Simple linear databases (like the database in ClarisWorks/Appleworks, for example) only allowed you to work with one table or group of data in a data base. This limited what kind of data to could store and how it could relate. Relational databases like Base (and File Maker Pro and Helix RADE for Classic), allow you to work with multiple tables of relatively independent data that can relate to each other in a variet of ways. | ||
| + | |||
| + | F:iguring out how to group your data, or what tables you need, is an essential. Think carefully about what data is closely tied together, and what data needs to be independent of other groups (or tables) of data. In a simple database to catalog music, for example, you might want to three groups: Albums (Name, date, etc.), Songs, and Composers. These should be separate because more an Album contains more than one song, and Composers(or Artists) produce more than one Album. | ||
| + | |||
| + | :For the birders journal, the most natural groupings are: | ||
| + | ::Birds | ||
| + | ::Field Trips | ||
| + | ::Locations | ||
Revision as of 00:46, 16 July 2007
This article is part of the To Base and Back Again tutorial series.
Before actually creating a new Database document in NeoOffice, it is important to think through what sorts of data you will be storing and how you need to access it. Planning out your database on paper ahead of time will save you hours of frustration and restructuring later.
First Questions
Begin planning by asking yourself these questions:
- What kind of data do I need to store?
- For the birder's journal, the data we need includes birds, dates of sightings, locations, information about field trips, etc.
- What do I want to do with the data? What kind of reports do I want to be able generate?
- For the birder's journal, the we want to be able to:
- See the data for particular field trips. (e.g. what birds did I see when I visited Skokie Lagoons on
- For the birder's journal, the we want to be able to:
April 1, 2007?)
- Produce a list of all the birds seen at a particular location over time. (e.g. all the birds I've ever seen at Skokie Lagoons)
- Produce a life list, a list of all the birds I've seen over my lifetime (with each species of bird listed only once)
- Perhaps even filter by location and weather conditions.
- How should the data be grouped
- Simple linear databases (like the database in ClarisWorks/Appleworks, for example) only allowed you to work with one table or group of data in a data base. This limited what kind of data to could store and how it could relate. Relational databases like Base (and File Maker Pro and Helix RADE for Classic), allow you to work with multiple tables of relatively independent data that can relate to each other in a variet of ways.
F:iguring out how to group your data, or what tables you need, is an essential. Think carefully about what data is closely tied together, and what data needs to be independent of other groups (or tables) of data. In a simple database to catalog music, for example, you might want to three groups: Albums (Name, date, etc.), Songs, and Composers. These should be separate because more an Album contains more than one song, and Composers(or Artists) produce more than one Album.
- For the birders journal, the most natural groupings are:
- Birds
- Field Trips
- Locations
