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Title: |
ER modelling – a zoom in and zoom out approach |
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Author: |
Xiong Wang 
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Address: |
Department of Computer Science, California State University, Fullerton, P.O. Box 6870, Fullerton, CA 92834-6870, USA |
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Journal: |
International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management 2009 - Vol. 1, No.4 pp. 357 - 374 |
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Abstract: |
Entity-relationship modelling is an effective design method for relational databases. It is covered in almost every textbook on database systems. Yet, there is not a single book that gives a systematic process on building an entity-relationship model step-by-step from the requirement specifications. In this paper, a zoom in and zoom out approach for such a process is introduced. A toolkit called ERZoom has been developed to assist the designer in the zoom in and zoom out design process. ERZoom provides a unique feature that enables the designer to view a selected subset of the entities and their attributes, while hiding the rest of the entity-relationship model. This is especially useful in distributed database design where vertical fragmentation is a major issue. ERZoom is developed as an open source package using Java. The zoom in and zoom out approach has been taught to beginners for several years and was well-received by the audience. |
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Keywords: |
entity-relationship modelling; conceptual modelling; relational database design; data modelling; distributed database design. |
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DOI: |
10.1504/IJDMMM.2009.029031 |
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