Oracle Design: The Definitive Guide (Nutshell Handbooks) [Paperback]

Dave Ensor (Author), Ian Stevenson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Nutshell Handbooks | Publication Date: March 8, 1997

Oracle Design looks thoroughly at the field of Oracle relational database design. The design of both databases and applications is an often neglected area of Oracle, but one that has an enormous impact on the ultimate power and performance of a system. If the initial design is poor, then the most powerful hardware, the most sophisticated software tools, and the most highly tuned data and programs won't make your system run smoothly and efficiently. Indeed, applications that have been designed poorly will never be able to perform well, regardless of the tuning and retrofitting performed later on.

There are three main areas of Oracle design:

• The design of the specific database objects (e.g., tables, views, indexes, stored functions) that will be implemented in a database.
• The design of the screens, reports, and programs that will maintain the data and allow inquiries against it.
• Under certain circumstances, the design must also be concerned with the specific environment or technology (e.g., the network topology, the hardware configuration, and the use of a client/server, parallel processing, or distributed database architecture).

This book examines all aspects of database and code design. Part I examines the project life cycle and where design fits in that cycle; it shows a sample case study, identifies the areas of Oracle7 that are of particular interest to designers, takes a look ahead at Oracle8, and provides an in-depth discussion of data modeling (e.g., entities, relationships, attributes, entity models, function hierarchies). Part II describes design issues for the database itself -- denormalization, data types, keys, indexes, temporal data, import/export, backup, recovery, security, and more. Part III explores design issues for specific architectures and environments -- client/server, distributed database, data warehouses, and parallel processing. Part IV describes design issues for the code that accesses the database -- metrics and prototypes, locking, the toolset, design of screens, reports, batch programs, etc. Part V contains summary appendixes.

The table of contents follows:

Part I: Getting Started with Design

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Why is Design so Important for Oracle?
• 3. Data Modeling

Part II: Designing the Database

• 4. Deciding When to Denormalize
• 5. Choosing Data Types and NULLs
• 6. Choosing Keys and Indexes
• 7. Dealing with Temporal Data
• 8. Loading and Unloading Data
• 9. Deciding on Object Placement and Storage
• 10. Safeguarding Your Data

Part III: Designing for Specific Architectures

• 11. Designing for Client/Server
• 12. Designing Distributed Databases
• 13. Designing for Data Warehouse
• 14. Designing for Parallel Processing

Part IV: Designing the Code Modules

• 15. Introduction to Code Design
• 16. Determining Where to Locate the Processing
• 17. Metrics, Prototypes, and Specifications
• 18. Locking
• 19. Selecting the Toolset
• 20. Designing Screens, Reports, Batch Programs, Error Handling, and Help

Part V: Appendixes

• A. Off-the-Shelf Packages
• B. Tricks of the Trade

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Oracle Design looks thoroughly at the field of Oracle relational database design. The design of both databases and applications is an often-neglected area of Oracle, but one that has an enormous impact on the ultimate power and performance of a system. If the initial design is poor, then the most powerful hardware, the most sophisticated software tools, and the most highly tuned data and programs won't make your system run smoothly and efficiently. Indeed, applications that have been designed poorly will never be able to perform well, regardless of the tuning and retrofitting performed later on. There are three main areas of Oracle design: The design of the specific database objects (e.g., tables, views, indexes, stored functions) that will be implemented in a database. The design of the screens, reports, and programs that will maintain the data and allow inquiries against it. Under certain circumstances, the design must also be concerned with the specific environment or technology (e.g., the network topology, the hardware configuration, and the use of a client/server, parallel processing, or distributed database architecture). This book examines all aspects of database and code design. Part I examines the project life cycle and where design fits in that cycle; it shows a sample case study, identifies the areas of Oracle7 that are of particular interest to designers, takes a look ahead at Oracle8, and provides an in-depth discussion of data modeling (e.g., entities, relationships, attributes, entity models, function hierarchies). Part II describes design issues for the database itself -- denormalization, data types, keys, indexes, temporal data, import/export, backup, recovery, security, and more. Part III explores design issues for specific architectures and environments -- client/server, distributed database, data warehouses, and parallel processing. Part IV describes design issues for the code that accesses the database -- metrics and prototypes, locking, the toolset, design of screens, reports, batch programs, etc. Part V contains summary appendixes. The table of contents follows: Part I: Getting Started with Design 1. Introduction 2. Why is Design so Important for Oracle? 3. Data Modeling Part II: Designing the Database 4. Deciding When to Denormalize 5. Choosing Data Types and NULLs 6. Choosing Keys and Indexes 7. Dealing with Temporal Data 8. Loading and Unloading Data 9. Deciding on Object Placement and Storage 10. Safeguarding Your Data Part III: Designing for Specific Architectures 11. Designing for Client/Server 12. Designing Distributed Databases 13. Designing for Data Warehouse 14. Designing for Parallel Processing Part IV: Designing the Code Modules 15. Introduction to Code Design 16. Determining Where to Locate the Processing 17. Metrics, Prototypes, and Specifications 18. Locking 19. Selecting the Toolset 20. Designing Screens, Reports, Batch Programs, Error Handling, and Help Part V: Appendixes A. Off-the-Shelf Packages B. Tricks of the Trade

About the Author

Dave Ensor is manager of Worldwide Solutions, PATROL R&D, with BMC Software where his roles are to assist customers in their use of both BMC's PATROL product and the Oracle Server, and to feed the results of his field work back into product planning. He has more than 30 years of IT experience and has been involved with the design and performance issues surrounding Oracle since 1987. For many years he led Oracle Worldwide's Performance Studies Group based in the UK, which provided consultancy support to both customer and internal projects with critical performance requirements. Dave is well known as a speaker on performance management and design; he presents his papers at user conferences and writes and delivers one-day seminars. He lives in the UK just outside London, but spends much of the year traveling to user sites and meetings. In his spare time he also travels, but in this case without his laptop and with his wife. He can be reached at [e-mail]. Ian Stevenson is a freelance consultant specializing in database design and development. He has worked with database technology for 19 years, starting with early hierarchical models. He worked for Oracle (UK) for two years in post-sales support and Human Resources Development. This is where he formed his friendship with Dave Ensor. Ian has a first-class honors degree in mathematics from the University of Southampton and is a member of the British Computer Society. He is married to Brenda and has two children, Todd and Tara. He is a fanatic supporter of the Southampton football club. He can be contacted via [e-mail].

Ian Stevenson is a freelance consultant specializing in database design and development. He has worked with database technology for 19 years, starting with early hierarchical models. He worked for Oracle (UK) for two years in post-sales support and Human Resources Development. This is where he formed his friendship with Dave Ensor. Ian has a first-class honors degree in mathematics from the University of Southampton and is a member of the British Computer Society. He is married to Brenda and has two children, Todd and Tara. He is a fanatic supporter of the Southampton football club. He can be contacted via [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (March 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565922689
• ISBN-13: 978-1565922686
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,065,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Straight Advice from Serious Designers, November 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Oracle Design: The Definitive Guide (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

With this book, the authors help bring focus to the physical design phase. Practical advice can be found that will apply to most RDBMS implementations, and the Oracle-specific topics are "dead on". Though this book covers Oracle v7, their companion "Oracle8 Design Tips" fills the gaps nicely. In my teaching and consulting practice, this book has helped quite a lot. I rarely leave home without it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Designers, techies and smart users, January 13, 2003

By 

Barbara Lauridsen (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oracle Design: The Definitive Guide (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

"Oracle Design" covers the classic steps to accomplish a complete and comprehensive relational database design. This is a book for designers that DBAs should also read. The authors' strengths are that they know what they are discussing and capture it as recommendations and ideas that can be proven with explicit examples. Why read a book published in 1997? Answer is because it is a smart coherent discussion of all of the key factors, from modeling, normalization (when to and when not to), performance, keys & indexes, loading & unloading, different architectures. They do a very sharp job of covering use of nulls. Of special interest is the chapter on temporal data, a characteristic known as "data effectively", designing for values as a point in time. In the data warehouse world, using time dimension is a significant dilemma. We can overlook the dated reference to 3GL tools, swap in knowing that today OLAP tools are a consideration. The book also covers the physical aspects of designing for efficient queries, security and audit trails. The publisher should support the reader by expanding the index and including a CD in the next release in order to make the excellent examples retrievable electronically. For those of us that became hooked on RDBMS because of the improvements offered by Oracle7 series, we can now understand what the big deal is. This book is a solid foundation in the intelligence we need to design effectively for any version of Oracle since rules placed on the server became an option. At full price it would be worth the money but it available at a discount. A very excellent purchase if there are any copies left after I recommend it to my students.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique book on Design, July 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Oracle Design: The Definitive Guide (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

By far, the most entertaining Oracle book I have read (and re-read). The book could benefit from some proof-reading and typo-fixing. But it is an excellent reference, and a useful resource for anybody in or interviewing for an Oracle Designer/Developer kind of job.