Database

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Definition

“In computer science, a database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system so that a computer program or person using a query language can consult it to answer queries. The records retrieved in answer to queries are information that can be used to make decisions. The computer program used to manage and query a database is known as a database management system (DBMS).” (Wikipedia, retrieved 22:30, 12 September 2007 (MEST)).

The goal of this (future) article is threefold (for now):

• List some useful Wikipedia resources on general database issues
• Point to other articles in this Wiki
• Show where in educational technology various kinds of databases are being used

See also: web application framework, web service, portalware

A guide to Wikipedia's database articles

(by no means complete, these are just some important entry points)

General

Database: History, Overview of Database models, Technical internals, Overview of Database applications

Models and query languages

Database models: Overview of flat, hierarchical, network, relational and object models

Data model (short overview)

List of database models

Query language (short table)

Relational model (the model)

Relational database (the model again)

SQL

XML databases and files

XQuery (to query XML data and XML databases)

XQuery Update Facility (Stub)

XML data and files

XSLT

XPath

XPointer

E4X (a ECMAScript/ActionScript extension)

Document Object Model), SAX, etc.

SPARQL (to query RDF)

Hierarchical model

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Object-relational model

Object model

Flat file

Regular expression

Technology

Database management system

Relational database management system (RDBMS)

Comparison of relational database management systems

MySQL

Microsoft SQL Server

Object-relational database (ORDBMS)

Comparison of object-relational database management systems

Object database OODBMS]

List of object-oriented database management systems

XML database

eXist

LDAP

List of LDAP software

Directory Service

Simple

FileMaker

Special purpose applications such as reference managers with their own storage engine

Flat file database (can implement various models)

Single file

SQLLite

SQL Server Compact (Microsoft)

Serialization to files in some programming languages

Database engines (Low level, i.e. DBMS are built on top)

MyISAM (used by MySQL)

InnoDB (used by MySQL)

BerkeleyDB

dbm

Client-side (don't know where to put these)

JavaDB, HSQL, etc. (quite heavy)

TrimQuery and Trimpath JS templates

Related issues

Databases are an important component in webapplications and are integrated within web application frameworks

• Web application framework
• Comparison of web application frameworks
• List of web application frameworks

In education

• Portalware such as Learning management systems or learning object repositories are usually implemented with an RDBMS (e.g. MySQL). Open source platforms mostly use a LAMP/WAMP architecture
• XML databases so far a thinly spread, since education always is slow to keep up with latest trends.
• Many client-side applications such as reference managers or teacher productivity tools use various single file systems, sometimes just a flat file.
• Web 2.0 services such as Gogglebase are easy ways to store simple data. E.g. for student projects.