ICT Coursework Two – Database Project Essay Example

will need to find out the customer's details. This includes their forename and surname, their date of birth, their address, their phone number and their gender.This information will be collected by a customer filling in a form at the shop and then the staff collected it in and input the information into the database. If the data needs to be collected then an invoice will be sent to the customer attached with another form to fill in the updated or correct details.

Then they bring it back to the stop and then the staff edits it on the database. The video information will be collected by the staff producing a written table and will enter the video name, the quantity, barcode number, the genre, the price of rental and the renting of the video.Then they will input that information into the database. When there are new videos that have just come in stock they will use a scanning device that will automatically input the information the manufacturers programmed in the barcode automatically.

The loans information will be collected y regularly checking the videos that the customers ID, forename and surname and video ID. From that list they input the information info the database and make it so that the overdue cost will automatically increase by the amount of days overdue. This will be done by calculations.Evaluation of Data collection Methods I would collect my information by handing out forms as mentioned above.

I could also questionnaire the customers myself or by a form to fill in. I could also post people in the area advertising the store and also has a form to fill in

and to post back to the store. I could also have online registration or they could register by phone. Data Entry The data will be entered by mostly manually. This will be done by reading the membership forms and the video invoices from the manufactures for the member and video information.

The prices will be entered manually and the loans info will be entered manually by checking the logs of issues and typing them out. The advantage of using manual inputting is that the information is close to accurate and there is no extra cost in equipment. The disadvantage is that the manual input is time consuming and the person manually inputting the info could get it incorrect. I could also use a flatbed scanner with OCR capabilities to scan it the membership forms or invoices and convert them to text and it is a matter of copying and pasting the information in their correct fields in the database.The advantage of using optical character recognition is that it is not time consuming and will be done in no time. The disadvantage is that it is an extra cost and also the OCR is not accurate depending on the handwriting of the information.

The OCR may not recognise a certain character and convert it differently or not at all. I could also use a barcode scanner to scan in the video information on the package and automatically fills in the correct fields with the videos information. The advantage of using barcode reading is that is not time consuming and the information is 100% accurate.The disadvantage of using barcode is that it is an extra cost and it

will take time for the store to program the details to the barcode readings or to pay the manufacturers more money to program the barcodes themselves and allowing the shop to use them.

Also if the barcode on the package is damaged it will not read the information, reverting to manual input methods. Error Checking To ensure that the information is correct the staff will send the members an invoice with their details they have inputted and attached is another form to fill in the correct information and then collect it and update the database.For the videos the staff will do daily checks on the database to see any obscure looking information in the database and will edit this info by getting the video and re-entering the video data again. Or the staff will do two copies of information identical to each other because the information will be inputted twice and if they are not identical then one or the other or both are changed with the correct information. Process of informationThe information will be calculated by some calculation validations in the database so that certain data is updated by the computer automatically without any more manual tampering.

However the calculations depend on two of more different kinds of information for it to work.So this information will be manually inputted and updated if needed and the calculation will create and automatically update its data with this other information. The database will be updated or edited when a video has changed price or new stock has arrived, and when a customers details are incorrect or moved location or changed name etc., or when a customers details

are deleted because a ridiculously overdue item.

Information Flow Analysis of Output Requirements The outputs that the database will have are, on screen - to see the information as the user edits updates or inputs data. The user on screen will see everything. The table, the form, the report and the queries. Another on is printed out so that the user can keep and store that as a hard copy is the system fails.

The user can print out the table will all the data on it, the queries without the design, and the reports as a document so that they can send them to the customers. Analysis of Strategies for Backup and Security The system will be backed up on CD-RW's daily and on hard disk drives and a server. The database will have an encrypted modification password and it will be write-protected so it cannot be deleted. If a staff member needs to access the database to modify It, then a staff password is needed. It will not open until the password is correct