The following outlines the assignment in which is due on
12/20/06:
Grading policy of the project
The worth of this assignment is approximately in the range of 20 to 30 points. It is the
combination of in-class assignments and home assignments. Normally that would only equal
20pts, but this assignment requires some more research not available in the text. The more
added functionality that you give to the assignment the more points you would attain. The
functionality should be more than a visual manipulation.
When you make this assignment it must be documented.
For example:
What and why did you create the database
All major fields in the table of the database
What is the primary key in the database
What queries did you do against the database.
The documentation plays a significant role in your grade, so do ask questions on how it should
look like.
Roles of the Tutorials
The tutorials are used to help you do the assignment. You have to do the tutorials anyway for the
class, however you don’t have to do the assignments in the book. You are doing an independent
assignment which is not part of the book. This is how the tutorials brake down to help you for the
assignment
Tutorial one: Introduction to Microsoft Access 2002
This content is used to describe the majority functionality of Microsoft access. It also gives you an
idea on how your assignment is going to be done.
First one has to create a table, using the aspects of fields
Then you can create queries against the table, and receiving a record set
Creation of a form which allows you to enter information into the table
Creation of a report which helps describe the information you have in the database.
Tutorial two: Creating and Maintaining a Database
This is used to show you how to create a table. This should be your starting point on the
assignment.
Tutorial three: Querying a Database
this is used to show you how to query against a database. This should be the last thing you
should work on.
Tutorial four: Creating forms and Reports
This should be the second thing you should work on. It allows the creation of a Graphical User
Interface to input the information into the table, without having the table open.
This is an example of how the assignment should look like. I have placed the appropriate labels
for what each part is.
How to do the assignment
The assignment is to make a music database. So the process, in which you do in the book,
should be substituted for music content instead of employer information. The database you have
should contain a good portion of your music in your home. You do not have to place all the CD’s
in your home, just a good representation of it.
The reason of the assignment is as follows. Let us say that you have 1000 cd’s or tapes in your
home. You want to make sure about a song on an album, or you don’t remember if you have that
album from a particular artist. The database would have your entire collection on the CPU. Hence
you have the ability to use the CPU to check for the information much faster and efficiently
instead of looking thru all the CD’s.
STEP ONE:
Take a look at a CD in your home. Then determine what is the most important information
needed for finding music?
You can use http://www.allmusic.com as a guide to help you find out how to use important fields.
For example
Here is the CD cover for Slick Rick’s first album (I actually
bought the tape when this came out. I was not allowed to have
it in the home because of the cursing ) The important fields
that I can use for a database is.
Artist Name
Album Name
Genre
Year
Label
Format
and so fort. From that alone I can find which fields I think are
important to build a table with. You know how to take fields
and make that into a table (Database). Tutorial 2 teaches you that. What you have to do is
determine what the primary key of this relationship is. If you are not sure about that, then e-mail
and I would help you out.
Remember Tutorial 2 shows you what to do with the fields that you create, and how to make a
primary key. Once you put that information down, you HAVE TO DOCUMENT IT. Tell me what
you choose it, what are the fields that you made. Tutorial 2 shows you how to do it. If you have
any questions please ask me.
STEP TWO:
Now you must make a form from access to place the data into the database.
You can modify the form for you own custom design. Place your own pictures, play music when
the form open up, make functions to place filters on the text fields. This process means you have
to do outside research to find that information. Tutorial 4 shows you how to do some of this
process. The more functionality that you produce here means the more points. If you have any
questions on how to add more functionality let me know. You must also make a report, and
determine what information you want to print out. DOCUMENT THAT AS WELL. What and why
do you want to make that report?
STEP THREE:
Creation of queries against the database.
This information is found in tutorial 3. The process works like this, if you have created a database,
what type of question u can ask. For example look at this database:
We can ask the question of:
Who are all the people that live in Columbus?
Who are all the people with the last name User
For your music database, you can ask questions like:
What are all the albums released in 1999
What are all the albums that were released off of Rawkus Records?
That outlines how your assignment should be done. If you have any questions please e-mail me:
LMadram@yahoo.com