Database Visualizer - dbViZ

Glossary

 

Version 1.2

 

 

Revision History

Date	Version	Description	Author
October 22, 2002	1.0	Initial version	Jianmei Fan
November 19, 2002	1.1	Addition	Jianmei Fan
December 7, 2002	1.2	Addition of  more terms	Jianmei Fan

 

Introduction

 

The glossary contains the working definitions for terms and classes in the database visualizer system. This glossary will be expanded throughout the life of the project.

 

Definitions

 

A

Ant

An open-source Java-based Make tool.

API - Application Programmer Interface

The set of public methods a package presents to the world.

Awt

Abstract windowing toolkit. It is a set of classes that let you write platform independent Java code that will hook into the native GUI systems on many different platforms.

B

C

Columns

Database tables are composed of individual columns corresponding to the attributes of the object.

CVS - Concurrent Versions System

CVS is an open source version control system used by the majority of open source projects. More information can be found at the CVS project homepage.

D

Database

A database is a collection of information organized into interrelated tables of data and specifications of data objects.

Database Schema

A description of the database’s tables and their fields.

DBA - The Database Analyzer

The user of the application who is using the dbViz to study and understand the Database.

DSN - Data Source Name

The ODBC term used to describe all of the information needed to locate and access a particular source of data. DSN provides connectivity to a database through an ODBC driver. The DSN contains database name, directory, database driver, UserID, password, and other information. Once you create a DSN for a particular database, you can use the DSN in an application to call information from the database. DSN's are configured by the administrator of the server. Connectionless DSN's, also referred to as "DSN-less connection", is a type of DSN where the web developer (or account owner) specifies the necessary information right in the application. With a DSN-less connection the developer is free to use connection standards other than ODBC. 

The information regarding the appropriate DSN and its configuration will be given in the next iteration.

E

Entity-Relationship (ER) Diagram

An entity-relationship diagram is a specialized graphic that illustrates the interrelationships between entities in a database. Also Known As: ER Diagram, E-R Diagram, entity-relationship model. 

ER diagram mentioned in dbViZ is not a real ER diagram. It mimics ER diagram, and has some of ER diagram's feature. 

F

Factory Method

Factory Method is a creational pattern. This pattern helps to model an interface for creating an object which at creation time can let its subclasses decide which class to instantiate. It is called a Factory Pattern since it is responsible for "Manufacturing" an Object. It helps instantiate the appropriate Subclass by creating the right Object from a group of related classes. The Factory Pattern promotes loose coupling by eliminating the need to bind application-specific classes into the code.

Foreign Key

A foreign key is a field in a relational table that matches the primary key column of another table.  The foreign key can be used to cross-reference tables.

G

GUI - Graphical User Interface

A graphical user interface lets users interact with their computer via icons and a pointer instead of by typing in text at a command line. Popular GUIs, such as Sun Microsystem's OpenWindows, Microsoft's Windows, and Apple's Mac OS, have freed many users from the command-line interfaces like MS-DOS and Unix.

H

I

J

Java

Java is a computer language like a stripped down C++ that has been designed so that its object modules can run unmodified on many different platforms. Its primary characteristics are safety and security.

JavaCC - Java Compiler Compiler

It is the most popular parser generator for use with Java applications. A parser generator is a tool that reads a grammar specification and converts it to a Java program that can recognize matches to the grammar.

JDBC - Java Database Connectivity.

JDBC is a Java API for executing SQL statements. It consists of a set of classes and interfaces written in Java. Although JDBC resembles Microsoft Corporation's Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) API, JDBC provides a more natural Java interface. It does, however, build on ODBC, so people familiar with ODBC will find it easy to use JDBC. Both JDBC and ODBC are based on the X/Open SQL CLI (Call Level Interface). Using JDBC, SQL statements can be sent to virtually any database management system (DBMS). It is used as an interface for both relational and object DBMSs. JDBC uses the call-level approach when using the Java programming language.

JGraph

JGraph is a free component for graph visualization that brings the latest Java technology to any Swing user interface.

JVM - Java Virtual machine

A specification for software which interprets Java programs that have been compiled into byte-codes and usually stored in a ".class" file. The JVM instruction set is stack-oriented, with variable instruction length. Unlike some other instruction sets, the JVM's supports object-oriented programming directly by including instructions for object method invocation (similar to subroutine call in other instruction sets).

K

L

M

Meta Data

Meta data is literally "data about data."  This term refers to information about data itself -- perhaps the origin, size, formatting or other characteristics of a data item.

Metaschema

The metaschema is a formal definition of the model. It defines the terms used to express the model and its usage and semantics.

MVC - Model-View-Controller

A way of partitioning the design of interactive software. The model is the internal workings of the program, the view is how the user sees the state of the model and the controller is how the user changes the state or provides input.

N

O

ODBC - Open DataBase Connectivity

It is a widely accepted application programming interface (API) for database access. It is based on the Call-Level Interface (CLI) specifications from X/Open and ISO/IEC for database APIs and uses Structured Query Language (SQL) as its database access language.

Oracle

Oracle is a powerful relational database management system that offers a large feature set.  Along with Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle is widely regarded as one of the two most popular full-featured database systems on the market today.

P

Parser

A program that analyses syntax. In dbVis, it analyses SQL and compile it to Java code. Visit Parsifal glossary for general information about parser.

Positioning

An overall statement summarizing, at the highest level, the unique position the product intends to fill in the marketplace. Reference: Table in section 2.4 of vision document.

PostgreSQL

It is an advanced relational database management system with some object oriented approaches. PostgreSQL is developed and distributed as free software, and while retaining its freedom it remains technically and featurewise a worthy competitor to even the most advanced commercial alternatives. It was also one of the first databases to offer MVCC as opposed to low-level locking or table locking, thereby greatly improving multi-user performance. PostgreSQL implements an extended subset of ANSI SQL and runs on many platforms. It also has interfaces to many different programming languages and database protocols,like ODBC and JDBC.

Problem Statement

A statement summarizing the problem being solved by this project. dbViZ allows the user to view the connection between database tables in a table diagram model and then build a query formulated based off of the extracted data model.

Q

Query

Queries are the primary mechanism for retrieving information from a database and consist of questions presented to the database in a predefined format.  Many database management systems use the SQL standard query format.

R

RUP - Rational Unified Process

A software engineering process developed and marketed by Rational Software. More information can be found at the Rational homepage.

S

Schema

The details of the Database under consideration. The Schema covers the tables, its attributes, the dependencies among tables.

SFTP - Secure File Transfer Protocol

An SFTP is an FTP with encription using SSH.

Sourceforge

Online open source project management tool. More information can be found at the Sourceforge homepage.

SQL - Structured Query Language

It is an industry-standard language used for manipulation of data in a relational database.  The major SQL commands of interest to database users are SELECT, INSERT, JOIN and UPDATE.

SOL-92

SQL-92 was designed to be a standard for relational database management systems (RDBMSs). It is based SQL-89, which in turn was based on SQL-86. SQL-92 was developed by the ANSI - American National Standards Institute (now NCITS) X3H2 committee, which originally began work on a SQL standard in 1982.

SQL script

A database program. A particular request to send information to and from the database in a specified form.

SSH

Stands for Secure Shell. With SSH, you can log on to a remote server safely. Intended as a replacement for telnet which transmits data including user name and passwords unencrypted between local and remote hosts.

Stakeholder

Someone or something with a vested interest in the behavior of the system under discussion.  The database company, the developer and the open source community are stakeholders for this system.

Swing

Sun's set of lightweight GUI components that give much fancier screen displays than the raw AWT. Since they are written in pure Java, they run the same on all platforms, unlike the AWT. They are part of the JFC. They support pluggable look and feel -- not by using the native platform's facilities but by roughly emulating them. This means you can get any supported look and feel on any platform. The disadvantage of lightweight components is slower execution. The advantage is uniform behaviour on all platforms. Swing classes live in packagejavax.swing.* such as JFrame, Jcomponent etc. They used to live in com.sun.java.swing.*. 

T

Table

A table in a relational database is a predefined format of rows and columns that define an entity.

U

V

Visualizer

A window that displays the database table in a form very similar to ER Diagrams. It layouts the tables in the diagram and plot lines between the linked items.

W

X

Y

Z