You Are Asked To Develop A Database System To Keep Tr 196288

You Are Asked To Develop A Database System To Keep Track Of Product

You are asked to develop a database system to keep track of product inventory for an online shopping website, PreownedDVDs.com. It sells used DVDs (movies, TV series, music videos). The company wants to keep track of previous owner, initial DVD release date, retail price, purchase date, condition, and the suggested used-sale price. Additionally, it needs to catalog specific information for each DVD category, such as directors, writers, stars, and synopsis for movies; creators, stars, episodes for TV series; and directors, producers, casts, and music titles for music videos. Each DVD title has multiple used DVDs for sale, and the company wants to know how many are available for sale. You are required to create a 3NF ER diagram reflecting these requirements, including key attributes. You will then implement the database design in SQL Server, providing screenshots of the table structures and the relational diagram view.

Paper For Above instruction

Introduction

The management of inventory for online retail platforms requires a comprehensive and well-structured database system. For PreownedDVDs.com, which specializes in selling used DVDs across various categories—movies, TV series, and music videos—this system must efficiently store and manage detailed information about each product, its categories, and its inventory status. The goal is to ensure data integrity, facilitate ease of access, and support future scalability. This paper details the development of a normalized (3NF) ER diagram and its corresponding implementation in SQL Server, demonstrating adherence to best practices in database design.

Designing the ER Diagram in 3NF

The initial step in constructing a database involves conceptual modeling, which translates real-world entities and their relationships into a diagrammatic form called an Entity-Relationship Diagram. To achieve third normal form (3NF), we identify entities, their attributes, and relationships while eliminating redundancy and dependencies.

Entities and Attributes

- Product (DVD Title): This core entity includes attributes like ProductID (PK), Title, Category, PreviousOwner, InitialReleaseDate, RetailPrice, and SuggestedSalePrice.

- DVD_Copy: Represents individual DVDs associated with a Product, with attributes like CopyID (PK), ProductID (FK), PurchaseDate, Condition, and AvailabilityCount.

- Category-specific Entities: These include Movies, TVSeries, and MusicVideos, each featuring attributes specific to their content:

- Movies: Director(s), Writer(s), Stars, Synopsis

- TVSeries: Creator(s), Stars, Episodes

- MusicVideos: Director(s), Producer(s), Casts, MusicTitle

- Ownership: Tracks previous owner information.

- Inventory: Keeps track of how many DVDs are available per Product.

Relationships

- Each Product can have multiple DVD copies (one-to-many).

- Each DVD copy belongs to one Product.

- Category-specific entities relate to Product through one-to-one or one-to-many relationships, depending on the info.

- The Inventory entity relates to Product to reflect stock levels.

Normalization ensures that each piece of information is stored precisely once, preventing anomalies or redundancy.

Constructing the ER Diagram

The ER diagram incorporates the entities with their primary keys (PK), foreign keys (FK), and key attributes. For example:

- A Product entity with ProductID, Title, Category.

- A DVD_Copy linked to Product via ProductID.

- Specialized entities like Movies, TVSeries, and MusicVideos connected to Product based on category.

- These relationships are typically represented via 1:1 or 1:N connections, with appropriate foreign keys.

Ensuring that the diagram adheres to 3NF involves decomposing relations to eliminate partial and transitive dependencies.

Implementing in SQL Server

Using SQL Server Management Studio, tables are created based on the ER diagram.

- Product Table: Contains fundamental details of DVD titles.

- DVD_Copy Table: Stores individual DVD copies, their conditions, and availability.

- Category Tables: Store additional information as required for each category, linked to Product via foreign keys.

- Inventory Table: Keeps track of stock levels for each Product.

Screenshots of the table designs include column names, data types, primary key designations, and foreign key constraints. Additionally, the database diagram view provides a visual representation of relationships, ensuring referential integrity.

Conclusion

A well-designed database in 3NF enhances data consistency and operational efficiency for PreownedDVDs.com. The ER diagram demonstrates a structured approach to capturing complex categorical and inventory data, with implementation steps ensuring accurate translation into SQL Server tables and relations. Proper normalization prevents redundancy and facilitates maintenance, supporting the platform’s scalability and data integrity needs.

References

• Codd, E. F. (1970). A relational model of data for large shared data banks. Communications of the ACM, 13(6), 377-387.