1. How Databases Work For Records Management Presented By Joe Gentry President, Xpert Systems, Inc.

2. Record Keeping Uses Databases Databases are increasingly at the core of records management classification and indexing from simple electronic card catalogs to complex applications such as electronic record-keeping systems.

3. Our Direction Today We will discuss database usage in records management, including in depth analysis of good and poor database designs.

4. Target Audience Ever Heard of the Beginner Series of books that begin with For Dummies…? This is the Databases For Dummies Presentation … (But, of course WE are not Dummies)

5. Why Do I Need To Know This? Databases are everywhere You use them in everyday applications They Force you to be Organized People will talk about them – you should at least know enough to talk about them Business = Data Collection

6. How Can I Apply This? Good Question! What Do You Do? Keep Track of Things – Any Thing Records Files Collections To Do Items – Task Lists

7. What We Will Cover What is a Database? Different Database Uses How To Create a Database How To Design Tables (Good and Bad) How To Connect To Your Data How To Find Your Data How To Apply This To Your Work

8. What We Will Not Cover The Tough stuff – Its unnecessary The College stuff – Whos got time The Bad stuff – The Sky is Falling The Hard stuff – Easier Than You Think The Boring stuff – My Personal Challenge No one will walk out of here today and apply for a job as a Database Administrator. There are lots of courses taught and books sold to give you more detailed information on databases.

9. What Is A Database – Really? The Purpose of a Database is to Store Data Physically, a Database is Implemented as one or more files – depending on the type of database used Databases consist of Multiple Objects

10. Who Uses Databases? Everyone who uses Windows! Run REGEDIT.EXE some time View the Microsoft Windows Internal Database Where Associations Are Stored Where Application Settings Are Stored Where Object Permissions Are Stored

11. (Windows Database Trick) Ever Install A Program That Puts an Annoying Reminder Message That Just Never Seems to Want To Go AWAY? Would You Like to Know the Trick Hiding Place For This Application?

12. Internet Giants Use Databases The Following Web Sites have to handles thousands of requests each day all relying heavily on, you guessed it, Databases! E-Bay Amazon.Com Imovies CheapTickets

13. Database Objects Tables Keys Constraints Indexes Views Stored Procedures Triggers Defaults Rules

14. Whos Afraid Of Databases? Well If youve Taken A Course Of Any Kind On Database Design Theory – Probably You Are! Today, We Are Going To Focus on Simplicity – So Never Fear

15. Can We Make This Complicated? Before We Delve Into How The Internal Workings of A Database Operate, Lets Consider The Following: Its Like Driving A Car Many people have no idea how the Internal Combustion Engine operates in their Automobile They Just Need To Know How To Turn The Key To Start The Motor And Thats It!

16. Database Applications Lets Take A Few Minutes To Discuss How Databases Are Used In Some Day-To-Day Programs

17. Example Database Applications Contact Manager Document Manager Library Books Manager Accounting Retail Store Manager Document Capture Management Work-Flow Management Personal Organizer Human Resources Manager

18. Contact Manager As used by the salespeople in any company Keep track of all the customers you work with Contacts at that company Every phone conversation Every letter sent out Every follow-up that needs to be performed Tie all of the different salespersons data together to give the sales manager an overall view of what their people are doing Where they are in the different sales cycles Are they even working?

19. Document Manager Keeps track of your documents Paper, Electronic Files, Images, Email, etc. For every document you need to know: What it is? Who it Belongs to? Where should it go? How long do I need to keep it? How do I need to secure it? How do I find it later?

20. Library Books Manager Used to track the Corporate Library What books on shelves What books are loaned out When are They due back Who has what Where are the books located

21. Accounting Management Similar to Quicken/Quickbooks Create Invoices Customers Who Owes Us Money Who We Owe Money To Taxes Collected/Owed Employees Payroll

22. Retail Store Manager Customers Products Sold Taxes Collected Sales People Commissions Owed Inventory On Hand – Inventory To Order Reports

23. Document Capture Management Used When Scanning Paper Documents What Type Of Document Is It? Where Does It Get Stored? What Index Information Do I Need? Is It Part of a Batch of Documents? Do I Want To QA, OCR, Index Each One? Internal Routing of Batchs Work-Flow

24. Work-Flow Management In-Box Work-Flow Moves Documents From Point to Point Tracks Documents Which Work-Flow Where/Who It Came From? Where It Goes Next? Approval Action (Initials, etc.) Age of Items Reports

25. Personal Organizer Day-Timer Type of Application - Outlook Daily To-Do Lists Short Term Goals Long Term Goals Personal Phone Numbers Important Dates (Birth Dates, etc.)

26. Human Resources Manager Keeps Track of People Resumes Application Data Job Reviews – Performance Evaluations Equipment Assigned Office Locations Payroll

27. The Common Denominator The Glue that holds all of these different applications together is the database Every significant business application must store its information somewhere

28. Levels Of Database Usage Ordinary Application User No Idea What A Database Even Is Seasoned Application User Knows Enough About Databases To Be Dangerous Knows Where Data is Stored And How To Poke Around Application Developer Is Responsible For Designing Database Architecture Database Administrator The Guru

29. Hypothetical Situation It Never Fails! Your Boss comes to You and Assigns The Task of Tracking Records For A Special Project How Are You Going To Keep Track Of Them?

30. But Ive Got Excel Here! Over The Years, I Have Seen Them All: Post-It Notes Plain Notebook Paper Index Cards Excel Spreadsheets Notepad Text Document A Database A Really High-End Database

31. Different Types Of Databases There are Three Main Types of Databases: Desktop Databases Access, FoxPro, Paradox, Btrieve, etc. Client/Server Databases SQL Server, Sybase, Oracle, Informix, etc. Mainframe Databases DB2, etc.

32. Database Components Data Files Where The Actual Data is Stored Database Engine Handles Search Requests, Record Additions/Deletions, etc. User Interface Some Method to Connect To The Database Engine

33. Desktop Databases These are the Do It All databases The Three Main Components All Operate Together On Your Local Desktop Machine: The Database File is Stored On Your Local C: Drive The Database Engine Resides In Memory on Your Machine The User Interface is Running On the Same Machine

34. Microsoft Access Part of the Microsoft Office Suite of Products (Professional Edition) Simple to Use Easy To Create Objects using Wizards Built-In Reports Built-In Programming Language Stores File as.MDB file on Drive

35. Desktop Utility Desktop Databases Get the Job Done And Have Been Doing So For Many Years You Can Store Your Data For Many Years And You May Still Get The Job Done But Then, The Question Is…

36. Do You Share? If you have a Desktop Database That Is Being Shared By Many Other Users, You Start To Edge Into The Next Level When There Is A Lot of Activity Against A Desktop Database such as Access, Locking Issues Creep Into The Picture

37. Room To Grow The Next Most Pressing Issue With A Desktop Database is Volume As The Size Grows – Depending On The Situation, The Database May Become Inappropriate For The Job

38. Client/Server Who? A Client/Server Database Breaks Down The Three Main Components Over Two Or More Computers The Server is Where The Database Files Are Located The Server is Where The Database Engine is Located (Possibly A Different Server From Where The Database Files Are Located) The Client is The User Interface Portion of The Process And Is Processed By The Local Users Computer

39. Server Databases Server Databases usually run as a Service on the Server Computer Its A Program That is Running In Memory Just Waiting For Users To Request Work This Service Program Can Handle Many Different User Requests At Once They Can Store Large Volumes of Data Data Files Can Even Span Multiple Physical Devices

40. Through Thick And Thin Clients Early Client/Server Applications Were known as Thick Clients An Actual Program Is Installed On Your Local Machine That Connects To The Database Upgrading Lots Of Users=Lots Of Pain Today More People Desire Thin Clients Usually Little Or Nothing is Installed On Local Computer Updates Are Done In One Place – The Server Often, But not Always, Browser-Based

41. Applications Store Data New Thin Client Applications Allow me To Do My Work Through A Browser The Data Application can Add New Records, Perform Searches, Run Reports Basically I can Do All I need To Do With Nothing Installed On My Machine* *Okay, Need a Browser with the Latest Java Runtime

42. Lets Do It! Okay So Your Boss Is Still Dropping Hints That Your Project Has Yet To Show Any Progress Lets Get Busy Writing The Plan

43. The Plan The Project Needs A Plan – Even If It Is A Simple One Step 1. Describe The Scope of Project Step 2. Outline Objects Involved Step 3. Describe Relationships Of Objects Step 4. Start Initial Design On Paper Step 5. Design Actual Database

44. How Do I Pick A Database? When Deciding Which Database to Use, There Are Three Major Decisions That Need To Be Answered: What Can I Afford? How Much Data Will I Have? How Many Users Will I Have?

45. Database System Comparison Access Low Number Users/Moderate Frequency of Transactions, or Moderate Number of Users/Low Frequency of Transactions SQL Server High Number Users/Moderate Frequency of Transactions, or Moderate Number Users/High Frequency of Transactions Oracle High Number Users/High Frequency of Transactions

46. Simple Decision For Us Since Our Department Has NO BUDGET And We Already Own Microsoft Access, We Will Do Our Project Using Access The Good News – All Of Our Data Can Easily Be Imported Into Either SQL Server Or Oracle When The Time Comes

47. How Do I Get Started? Step 1. Describe The Scope Of Project Basically, Its To Manage All Of The Folders And Documents In A Five Drawer Filing Cabinet

48. Paralysis Of Analysis Step 2. Outline Objects Involved This is Where A Lot Of Projects Can Get Bogged Down Or Go In The Wrong Direction Dont Over-Analyze

49. Simple Design The Objects: Cabinet Drawers Folders Documents

50. Whos Related To Who? Step 3: Describe Relationships Of Objects One Cabinet Has Many Drawers One Drawer Has Many Folders One Folder Has Many Documents

51. Initial Design Step 4: Start Initial Design On Paper Designing A Database Is As Much Art As It Is Science Dont Over-Complicate Matters If Possible

52. Create The First Database Step 5. Design Actual Database This is Where the Fun comes in …

53. The Wrong Way We Create One Table Called FileCabinets With The Following: Cabinet Name – What we Call this Cabinet Cabinet Location – Where its Physically Located Cabinet Type – We Have Many Different Drawer Number – Drawer 1, 2, 3, etc. Drawer Name – Label on the Front of Drawer Folder Name – Label on Actual Folder Folder Owner – Who is Responsible For This Folder? Document Name – What is The Document Called Document Type – What Kind of Document is it? Document Attribute 1 – Used To Describe The Document Document Attribute 2 – Used To Describe The Document

54. Get The Job Done Pick up any book on Database Design and you will probably get overwhelmed by all of the jargon. There are lots of Preferred ways to do things Most Import of All is Get The Job Done

55. Before We Begin The Design We Are Going To Have To Consider The Right Way To Build Our Database What Is The Right Way?

56. Parental Advisory The Next Few Slides May Be Deemed Inappropriate For People Of ALL Ages Stick With Me, Here Comes The Technical Stuff…

57. Relational Database Design Before We Look At Relational Database Design We Should Define The Term Relational Database A Relational Database is a Database That Has Been Organized Into Related Tables, Rows, and Columns This Type of Database Normally Uses More Tables That Are Narrow Vs. Few Tables That Are Wide More Tables That Contain Fewer Columns

58. Are You Normal? When You Take A Course On Relational Database Management Systems, Or Pick Up A Book That Covers Database Design, Count On One Thing To Come Up… Normalization! A Normalized Database Improves Performance Even Though There Are More Tables

59. Normalization There Are Six Different Forms of Normalization Each Method is Usually Referred To AsNormal Form There Are Three Normal Forms Commonly Used Over-Normalized Databases Will Be Normalized To The Fourth, Fifth, Or Sixth Forms And May Actually Slow Overall Performance

60. First Normal Form Eliminates Repeating Groups of Data in a Table Create a Separate Table For Each Set of Related Data Assign a Primary Key To Each Table Which is Used as an ID (Identifier)

61. Eliminate Repeating Groups Cabinet Name Cabinet Location Cabinet TypeDrawer Number Row 1HR CabinetHR Break-room 5 Drawer1 Row 2HR CabinetHR Break-room 5 Drawer1 Row 3HR CabinetHR Break- room 5 Drawer1

62. Separate Tables With IDs Cabinets Cabinet ID Cabinet Name Cabinet Location Cabinet Type Drawers Drawer ID Drawer Number Drawer Name Folders Folder ID Folder Name Folder Owner Documents Document ID Document Name Document Type Document Attribute 1 Document Attribute 2

63. Second Normal Form Create Separate Tables For Sets Of Values That Apply To Multiple Records Relate These Tables With Foreign Keys

64. Tables For Values That Apply To Multiple Records Document Types Document Type ID Document Type Locations Location ID Location Owners Owner ID Owner Name Cabinet Types Cabinet Type ID Cabinet Type

65. Relate With Foreign Keys Cabinets Cabinet ID Cabinet Name Location ID* Cabinet Type ID* Drawers Drawer ID Drawer Number Drawer Name Folders Folder ID Folder Name Owner ID* Documents Document ID Document Name Document Type ID* Document Types Document Type ID* Document Type Locations Location ID* Location Owners Owner ID* Owner Name Cabinet Types Cabinet Type ID* Cabinet Type

66. Third Normal Form Eliminate Columns That Do Not Depend On the Primary Key

67. Eliminate Columns The Columns In Each Table You Define Should Relate To Primary Key Doesnt Belong Employees Table Employee ID Employee Name Supervisor ID Supervisor Name Address

68. Can You ID That Person? The Trick To The Primary Key is Uniqueness Sometimes Defining the Primary Key is Fairly Simple Social Security Number Phone Number Employee Number License Number Sometimes You Have To Completely Make One Up Folder ID, Document ID, Cabinet ID, Drawer ID Fortunately Auto-Incrementing Columns Help

69. Doesnt Feel Very Normal Okay, We Now Have a Normalized Relational Database Designed and Created – What Next? If You Are Adding Records One By One, It Could Be Considered Painful The Best Solution is to Write a Client Interface Of Some Sort That Connects To The Database And Allows You To Enter Data And Retrieve Data

70. Slow Down Relax - Were Not Going To Turn You Into Programmers At This Point This Process Is Very Much Required In Every Electronic Records Management Application Developed Today – Only Much More Complicated Than What We Have Done, Of Course

71. Ways To Connect To A Database We Have A Database And With The Help Of One Our Programmer Friends (NICE People To Have Around ;) We Also Have A Client Program To Use With The Database As Well How Do They Talk To Each Other?

72. The Old Way In The Early Days, Programmers Wrote Applications That Were Tightly Coupled With A Specific Database If The Customer Needed A Version For A Different Database Several Years Ago

73. ODBC = K.I.S.S. Several Years Ago Microsoft And Other Database Software Vendors Defined A Standard Interface For Connecting To Databases Called ODBC Open Database Connectivity Application Developers Could Now Write One Application That Could Connect To Practically Any ODBC-Compliant Database - Simple

74. Out With The Old As Is Common In Technology ODBC is now considered Old The Current Revision of The ODBC Standard is 3.0 and Will Be The Last The Newest Kid On The Block Is Called

75. ADO - OLEDB

77. SQL – The Language Of Databases

78. A Little Is All You Need

79. A VIEW Of The Future

80. Thank You! I Hope You Enjoyed This Presentation I Am Available For Any Questions or Comments