Tiki Giftware Shop Database Business Information System

Prepared by Daniel Chan

Outline of the new Database business information system

• Relationship between the database tables

• Database forms of products, artist and sales

• Switchboard for navigation

• How to use database for analysis:

A. Simple queries

B. Crosstab query

• Security issues

A. Internal threats

B. External threats

• Summary

Relationship between the database tables

• When designing the database information system, it is very important to establish the relationship between various parts of the information system. Enforced referential integrity is one of the most important rules that relational tables follow in the one to many relations.

• In the case of Tiki Giftware shop, the relationship between products, artists and sales are shown below:

Database forms of products, artist and sales

• One of the biggest advantages of database system is its ability to import data files from another source (e.g. spreadsheet, words) and present them in forms.

• The form can be used for data entry and viewing. These forms can also be used as user-interactive elements that offer additional choices or request additional information

• The product form is shown below while the artist and sales forms of Tiki Giftware shop are shown in the next slide:

Products

Artists Sales

Switchboard for navigation• Switchboard is a navigational tool by which users can find their way around the

database

• A switchboard is a user friendly interface that allows the users to open the various objects within the database such as tables, queries, reports and forms

• A switchboard itself is a form within the database. The switchboard of Tiki Giftware Shop may look like this:

A. Simple queries

Most of the forms and reports for an application are based on queries

For example, if we want to find out which products made from green stone has a unit profit margin of less than $3 and were sold by email, a query can be constructed below:

• The data thus extracted are displayed in a table below:

• If Tiki Giftware Shop wants to identify the five most popular artists, another simple query can be constructed. Its design view should look like this:

• Base on the expression just mentioned, the datasheet will extract and display the data below:

1. Another query can also be used to sort out Tiki Giftware Shop’s most popular woven products within a certain period. Its design view will look like this:

• Data are now extracted to show the most popular woven products based on the number of products sold between 22nd to 28th February:

• A Crosstab query can be used to analyse and generate report that answers a lot of questions. A view of the crosstab query in Design view is given below

B. Crosstab query

• In the case of Tiki Giftware shop, the report generated by the crosstab query design in previous slide has answered the following questions:

1. which artist in the Takarei family made the highest total profit 2. which of the designs created by this artist made the most profit 3. what was the percentage contribution of this design to the artist’s total profit

Security issues

• All database systems will have issues in privacy, integrity and security

• Security measures are required for both internal and external threats.

A. Internal threats include: 1) inadvertent and intentional damage to data and the database objects 2) unauthorised access, viewing, editing and even changing the database design

Measures to tackle internal threats: 1) establish user-level security by specifying which users enjoy which permissions 2) use a database password 3) back up the database system

B. External threats includes: 1) Denial-of-service attacks – an attack that makes repeated requests of a computer

system or network. Thereby overloading it and deny legitimate users access to it. 2) Worm – a worm is a malicious program that copies itself repeatedly into a

computer’s memory or onto a disk drive 3)Viruses – a malicious program that can destroy or corrupt data in the system 4)Trojan horses – a program pretends to be no harm or even useful, but it actually

carries viruses, destructive instructions or backdoor programs that take control of your computer without your knowledge

Measures to cope with external threats 1) Firewall – a system of hardware or software that protects a computer or a network

from invaders 2) Anti-virus software – a software that can detect, quarantine and sometimes destroy

the viruses

Summary• Database information system offers a lot of benefits to a business. These may

include: If you use Access to build you database system, it saves your time from re-entering

all your data as Access can directly import data from many other sources ( such as Excel and Words)

Database system like Access can build forms. If you have hundreds or thousands of entries, the forms can help to make data entry easier, faster and reduce the chance for errors

Database system provides powerful tools for creating, sorting and searching data and records

Database system helps you analyse your sales and profits. It can also generate printed and on-screen reports for managerial decision

Last but not least, a database system can be linked to a website to make a database driven website or e-commerce

• As shown in this slide show, Tiki Giftware shop can use the database system to build forms (product, artists and sales) in order to make data entry easier and construct a Switchboard to help navigation in the system. The system also satisfies Tiki Giftware shop’s requirements by providing analysis to the business (such as which products are most saleable, which design is the most popular and which artist in the Takarei family made the highest total profit).

• A word of caution is given at the end to give brief introduction to internal and external threats to the system. Measures are suggested to tackle these threats.