Product Description

Oracle Design looks thoroughly at the field of Oracle relational database design. The design of both databases and applications is an often neglected area of Oracle, but one that has an enormous impact on the ultimate power and performance of a system. If the initial design is poor, then the most powerful hardware, the most sophisticated software tools, and the most highly tuned data and programs won't make your system run smoothly and efficiently. Indeed, applications that have been designed poorly will never be able to perform well, regardless of the tuning and retrofitting performed later on. There are three main areas of Oracle design:

• The design of the specific database objects (e.g., tables, views, indexes, stored functions) that will be implemented in a database.
• The design of the screens, reports, and programs that will maintain the data and allow inquiries against it.
• Under certain circumstances, the design must also be concerned with the specific environment or technology (e.g., the network topology, the hardware configuration, and the use of a client/server, parallel processing, or distributed database architecture).

This book examines all aspects of database and code design. Part I examines the project life cycle and where design fits in that cycle; it shows a sample case study, identifies the areas of Oracle7 that are of particular interest to designers, takes a look ahead at Oracle8, and provides an in-depth discussion of data modeling (e.g., entities, relationships, attributes, entity models, function hierarchies). Part II describes design issues for the database itself -- denormalization, data types, keys, indexes, temporal data, import/export, backup, recovery, security, and more. Part III explores design issues for specific architectures and environments -- client/server, distributed database, data warehouses, and parallel processing. Part IV describes design issues for the code that accesses the database -- metrics and prototypes, locking, the toolset, design of screens, reports, batch programs, etc. Part V contains summary appendixes. The table of contents follows: Part I: Getting Started with Design

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Why is Design so Important for Oracle?
• 3. Data Modeling

Part II: Designing the Database

• 4. Deciding When to Denormalize
• 5. Choosing Data Types and NULLs
• 6. Choosing Keys and Indexes
• 7. Dealing with Temporal Data
• 8. Loading and Unloading Data
• 9. Deciding on Object Placement and Storage
• 10. Safeguarding Your Data

Part III: Designing for Specific Architectures

• 11. Designing for Client/Server
• 12. Designing Distributed Databases
• 13. Designing for Data Warehouse
• 14. Designing for Parallel Processing

Part IV: Designing the Code Modules

• 15. Introduction to Code Design
• 16. Determining Where to Locate the Processing
• 17. Metrics, Prototypes, and Specifications
• 18. Locking
• 19. Selecting the Toolset
• 20. Designing Screens, Reports, Batch Programs, Error Handling, and Help

Part V: Appendixes

• A. Off-the-Shelf Packages
• B. Tricks of the Trade

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #863595 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 548 pages

From the Publisher
This book looks thoroughly at the field of Oracle relational database design, an often neglected area of Oracle, but one that has an enormous impact on the ultimate power and performance of a system. Focuses on both database and code design, including such special design areas as data models, denormalization, the use of keys and indexes, temporal data, special architectures (client/server, distributed database, parallel processing), and data warehouses.

About the Author
Dave Ensor is manager of Worldwide Solutions, PATROL R&D, with BMC Software where his roles are to assist customers in their use of both BMC's PATROL product and the Oracle Server, and to feed the results of his field work back into product planning. He has more than 30 years of IT experience and has been involved with the design and performance issues surrounding Oracle since 1987. For many years he led Oracle Worldwide's Performance Studies Group based in the UK, which provided consultancy support to both customer and internal projects with critical performance requirements. Dave is well known as a speaker on performance management and design; he presents his papers at user conferences and writes and delivers one-day seminars. He lives in the UK just outside London, but spends much of the year traveling to user sites and meetings. In his spare time he also travels, but in this case without his laptop and with his wife. He can be reached at dave_ensor@compuserve.com. Ian Stevenson is a freelance consultant specializing in database design and development. He has worked with database technology for 19 years, starting with early hierarchical models. He worked for Oracle (UK) for two years in post-sales support and Human Resources Development. This is where he formed his friendship with Dave Ensor. Ian has a first-class honors degree in mathematics from the University of Southampton and is a member of the British Computer Society. He is married to Brenda and has two children, Todd and Tara. He is a fanatic supporter of the Southampton football club. He can be contacted via ian@westmail.demon.co.uk.

Ian Stevenson is a freelance consultant specializing in database design and development. He has worked with database technology for 19 years, starting with early hierarchical models. He worked for Oracle (UK) for two years in post-sales support and Human Resources Development. This is where he formed his friendship with Dave Ensor. Ian has a first-class honors degree in mathematics from the University of Southampton and is a member of the British Computer Society. He is married to Brenda and has two children, Todd and Tara. He is a fanatic supporter of the Southampton football club. He can be contacted via ian@westmail.demon.co.uk.

Excerpted from Oracle Design by Dave Ensor, Ian Stevenson. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1 - Introduction

In this chapter:
What Is Design?
A Case Study
Looking at Alternative Methods and Approaches
Planning the Design Phase
Design Tasks

This book is about database design--in particular, the design of Oracle databases--and some elements of the code that accesses them. How much does design matter? A lot. Performance usually makes or breaks a computer system, and design is central to good performance. If your database isn't well-designed from the start, it will be almost impossible for your applications to run efficiently. Even the most powerful hardware and software, and the most highly tuned code, won't make up for a poor or incomplete design. Design will also improve the chances that the system meets the original requirements and will ensure that what you intend to build is achievable, given the constraints that will inevitably be imposed upon you. Finally, good design will make it much easier for you to maintain your application, to change the way things work, and to add new features.

What Is Design?
What is design and when do we perform it? Design encompasses three major areas:

The design of the specific database objects that will be implemented in a database. For Oracle, these include such objects as tables, views, indexes, and stored procedures, functions, and packages.

The design of the specific screens, reports, and programs that will maintain the data in the database and allow inquiries against that data.

Under certain circumstances, the design must also be concerned with the specific environment or technology--for example, the network topology, the hardware configuration, and the use of a client/server, parallel processing, or distributed database architecture.

In an ideal world, you will be able to construct a database design that is utterly clear and logical and that achieves the best possible performance for your system. But design, like every other part of life, is all about tradeoffs and informed decision-making. Here is a real-world definition of design:

Design is the business of finding a way to meet the functional requirements within the specified constraints using the available technology.

What are these constraints? Every project has some absolute requirements--usually, the maximum amount of elapsed time that can be consumed by the project, and the maximum amount of money that can be spent on it. A project may also have a myriad of other inconvenient requirements and limitations. As a designer, your job is to do the best job you possibly can within this structure--and to point out where tradeoffs can be made and where they will seriously jeopardize the success or quality of the project.

Although design is a vitally important task, it hasn't always received the attention it deserves. One problem is that the design of a database isn't as structured a task as the analysis of a project's requirements or the building of the application. You'll find many books on project analysis and development, but very few on design. (We're out to remedy that!)

There is one very common misconception about design--that it is a single and discrete phase of a project, falling neatly between the analysis and build phases. Very often, in books about project development, you'll see a diagram such as the one in Figure 1-1 of the so-called "waterfall method."

The reality is that a project simply can't be pieced together in such an idealistic way. For one thing, there is a wide overlap between the phases of a project. For another, design doesn't begin and end in such a clear way; it often continues through the test and implementation phases of the project.

In the next section, we'll present a case study of an actual (but much simplified) project. We'll look briefly at each phase of the project (strategy, analysis, design, build), and introduce some important terms and concepts along the way. We'll examine these in a lot more detail in later chapters.

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Customer Reviews

Excellent Concise book for Design the FIRST background book.
After reviewing many books for my company, technical and background this is certainly the first background book to be given to any manager and consultant to ensure that there is a common understanding.

Very good overview of designing Oracle Databases
If you are interested in Oracle design, then you should check this book out. It is a fine reference and well written, by two people who clearly understand their subject. Full of good advice on designing Oracle databases.

This book is about becoming a better Oracle database *designer* (it is not a programming book). It should help you understand how to put together Oracle Database Designs a whole lot better !