On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 5:50 PM, Marc Delisle
<marc(a)infomarc.info> wrote:
Smita a écrit :
Hi
I have started working on automated normalization. I have written the
detailed work flow for normalizing the relation to 1NF in my blog[1], I
need your feedback/suggestions on the same. Just needed to know if the
approach looks good.
Also for user interface, I'm thinking to keep options on db_operations
and
tbl_operations page will be appropriate. The
options will have
1. Normalize to 1NF,
2. Normalize to 2NF (1NF + 2NF),
3. Normalize to 3NF (1NF+2NF+3NF).
On select of an option, user shall be presented a dialogue which will
assist in normalizing the relation. Is it fine ? or should we keep these
options somewhere else ?
[1]
http://smita786.blogspot.in/2014/06/gsoc14-coding-week-5-automated.html
Thanks and Regards
- Smita
Hi Smita,
here are my reactions, thrown at random :)
About the vocabulary itself, I am wondering about using terms like 1NF,
etc. In my book "Creating MySQL databases" I was very careful to avoid
these terms. Some phpMyAdmin users have an IT background, but some do not.
Maybe we could use messages like "First step of normalization (1NF)".
Yes, sounds better.
Also, if going to 1NF involves 3 steps, maybe mention step 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
in the dialogs.
Yeah, sure.
Maybe we could find another term for
"normalization", like "improve
database structure" or whatever, but adding "(normalization)" as a hint
for IT people.
yes.
The workflow looks fine, but will you take into
consideration the
central list of columns?
I don't know where and how we can use central list of columns for
normalization. any idea ? While adding a new column during normalization,
it can be used as normally it is used. can we use them for any other
purpose during normalization ?
For example, in step 1.1 (making all attributes atomic), there is the
address column. When asking user whether this column can be split, you
could offer a panel to see the central list of columns; there, he could
see that there is a column definition for city (which might have
originated from a different table) and this give the user an idea about
splitting the city part of the address.
--
Marc Delisle (phpMyAdmin)