Download CS263 lecture 11 & 12 - Computing

Relational Algebra & Client-Server
Systems, CS263 Lectures 11
and 12
Relational Algebra

Relational algebra operations work on one or more relations to
define another relation leaving the original intact.

Both operands and results are relations, so output from one
operation can become input to another operation.

Allows expressions to be nested, just as in arithmetic. This
property is called closure.

5 basic operations in relational algebra: Selection, Projection,
Cartesian product, Union, and Set Difference.

These perform most of the data retrieval operations needed.

Also have Join, Intersection, and Division operations, which can
be expressed in terms of 5 basic operations.
Relational Algebra Operations
Selection (Restriction) 
predicate (R)
Works on a single relation R and defines a relation that contains
only those tuples of R that satisfy the specified condition (predicate).
Example: List all staff with a salary greater than £10,000.
salary > 10000 (Staff)
Projection 
col1, . . . , coln(R)
Works on a single relation R and defines a relation that contains a
vertical subset of R, extracting the values of specified attributes and
eliminating duplicates.
Example: Produce a list of salaries for all staff, showing only their
staffNo, fName, lName, and salary details.
staffNo, fName, lName, salary (Staff)
Union 
RS
Union of two relations R and S defines a relation that contains all
the tuples of R, or S, or both R and S, duplicate tuples being
eliminated. R and S must be union-compatible (i.e. same attributes).
Example: Produce a list of all staff that work in either of two
departments (each department has a separate database), showing only
their staffNo, and date of birth.
 staffNo, dob(Staff_DepA)   staffNo, dob (Staff_DepB)
Staff_DepB
Staff_DepA
staffNo
SL10
SA51
DS40
dob
14-02-64
21-11-82
01-01-40

staffNo dob
CC15 11-03-66
SA51 21-11-82
staffNo
SL10
SA51
DS40
CC15
dob
14-02-64
21-11-82
01-01-40
11-03-66
Intersect

RS
Defines a relation consisting of the set of all tuples that are in both
R and S. R and S must be union-compatible.
Example: Produce a list of staff that work in both department A and
department B, showing only their staffNo, and date of birth.
( staffNo, dob(Staff_DepA))  ( staffNo, dob (Staff_DepB))
Staff_DepB
Staff_DepA
staffNo
SL10
SA51
DS40
dob
14-02-64
21-11-82
01-01-40

staffNo dob
CC15 11-03-66
SA51 21-11-82
staffNo dob
SA51 21-11-82
Set Difference
R–S
Defines a relation consisting of the tuples that are in relation R, but
not in S. R and S must be union-compatible.
Example: Produce a list of all staff that only work in department A
(each department has a separate database), showing only their staffNo,
and date of birth.
 staffNo, dob(Staff_DepA)
Staff_DepB
Staff_DepA
staffNo
SL10
SA51
DS40
 staffNo, dob (Staff_DepB)
dob
14-02-64
21-11-82
01-01-40
staffNo dob
CC15 11-03-66
SA51 21-11-82
staffNo dob
SL10 14-02-64
DS40 01-01-40
Cartesian product X
RXS
Defines a relation that is the concatenation of every tuple of relation
R with every tuple of relation S.
Example: Combine details of staff and the departments they work in.
 staffNo, job, dept (Staff) X  dept, name (Dept)
Staff
staffNo job
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
Dept
dept
10
20
20
X
dept name
10 Stratford
20 Barking
staffNo job
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
dept
10
20
20
10
20
20
dept
10
10
10
20
20
20
name
Stratford
Stratford
Stratford
Barking
Barking
Barking
Relational Algebra Operations
Join
R
<join condition>
<join condition>
S
Defines a relation that results from a selection operation (with a join
predicate) over the Cartesian product of relation R and relation S.
Example: Produce a list of staff and the departments they work in.
( staffNo, job, dept (Staff))
Staff
staffNo job
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
Staff.dept = Dept.dept
Dept
dept
10
20
20
dept name
10 Stratford
20 Barking
( dept, name (Dept))
staffNo job
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
dept
10
20
20
dept
10
20
20
name
Stratford
Barking
Barking
Because the predicate operator is an ‘=‘ this is known as an Equijoin
Natural Join
R
S
This performs an Equijoin of the two relations R and S over all
common attributes. One occurrence of each common attribute is
eliminated from the result.
Example: Produce a list of staff and the departments they work in.
( staffNo, job, dept (Staff))
Staff
staffNo job
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
( dept, name (Dept))
Dept
dept
10
20
20
dept name
10 Stratford
20 Barking
staffNo job
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
dept
10
20
20
name
Stratford
Barking
Barking
Left Outer Join
R
S
Left outer join is a join in which tuples from R that do not have
matching values in common columns of S are also included in the
resulting relation.
Example: Produce a list of all departments and associated staff that
work in them.
( dept, name (Dept))
Dept
dept
10
20
30
( staffNo, job, dept (Staff))
Staff
name
Stratford
Barking
Watford
staffNo job
SL10 Salesman
SA51 Manager
DS40 Clerk
dept
10
20
20
dept
10
20
20
30
name
Stratford
Barking
Barking
Watford
staffNo
SL10
SA51
DS40
job
Salesman
Manager
Clerk
Intersect

RS
Defines a relation consisting of the set of all tuples that are in both
R and S. R and S must be union-compatible.
Example: Produce a list of staff that work in both department A and
department B, showing only their staffNo, and date of birth.
( staffNo, dob(Staff_DepA))  ( staffNo, dob (Staff_DepB))
Staff_DepB
Staff_DepA
staffNo
SL10
SA51
DS40
dob
14-02-64
21-11-82
01-01-40

staffNo dob
CC15 11-03-66
SA51 21-11-82
staffNo dob
SA51 21-11-82
Division
R S

Defines a relation over common attributes C that consists of set of
tuples from R that match a combination of every tuple in S.
Example: Show all staff that use all the company’s programming languages.
Staff_Prog
 Prog
Prog
Staff_Prog
staffNo
SL10
SA51
SA51
SE14
SE18
language
COBOL
BASIC
COBOL
BASIC
BASIC

language
COBOL
BASIC
staffNo
SA51
CS263 Lec. 12: Client/Server
systems
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Operate in a networked environment
Processing of an application distributed between
front-end clients and back-end servers
Generally the client process requires some resource,
which the server provides to the client
Clients and servers can reside in the same computer,
or they can be on different computers that are
networked together, usually:
Client – Workstation (usually a PC) that requests and
uses a service
Server – Computer (PC/mini/mainframe) that
provides a service. For DBMS, server is a database
server
Three components of application
logic
1. Input – output or presentation logic
component – responsible for formatting and
presenting data on the user’s screen (or other
output device) and managing user input from
keyboard (or other input device)
 2. Processing component logic – handles
data processing logic (validation and
identification of processing errors), business
rules logic, and data management logic
(identifies the data necessary for processing
the transaction or query)

Client/Server architectures

File Server Architecture

Database Server Architecture

Three-tier Architecture
Client does
extensive processing
Client does little
processing
File server architecture






The first client/server architectures developed
All processing is done at the PC that requested the data,
I.e. the client handles the presentation logic, the
processing logic and much of the storage logic
A file server is a device that manages file operations and
is shared by each of the client PCs attached to the LAN
Each file server acts as an additional hard disk for each
of the client PCs
Each PC may be called a FAT CLIENT (most processing
occurs on the client)
Entire files are transferred from the server to the client
for processing.
Three problems with file server architecture
1. Huge amount of data transfer on network when client wants to access data whole
table(s) transferred to PC – so server is doing
very little work
 2. Each client authorised to use DBMS when
DB application program runs on that PC - one
database but many concurrently running
copies of DBMS (one on each PC) – heavy
resource demand on clients
 3. DBMS copy in each client must manage
shared database integrity - must recognize
shared locks, integrity checks, etc 
File Server Architecture
FAT CLIENT
Database server (2-tier) architectures





Client responsible for managing user interface, I/O
processing logic, data processing logic and some business
rules logic (front-end programs)
Database server performs data storage and access
processing (back-end functions) – DBMS only on server
Clients do not have to be as powerful, and server can be
tuned to optimise data processing performance
Greatly reduces data traffic on the network, as only records
(rather than tables) that match request transmitted to client
Improved data integrity as all processed centrally
Stored procedures
Modules of code implementing application logic –
included on the database server. Advantages:
 Performance improves for compiled SQL statements
 Reduced network traffic as processing moves from
the client to the server
 Improved security if stored procedure is accessed
rather than data and code being moved to server
 Improved data integrity - multiple applications access
same stored procedure
 Thinner clients (and a fatter database server)
Disadvantages:
 Writing stored procedures takes more time than using
e.g. VB + proprietary nature reduces portability +
performance degrades as number of on-line users
increases

Database server architecture
Thinner
clients
DBMS only
on server
3-tier architectures





In general, these include another server layer in
addition to the client and database server
This additional server may be used for different
purposes
Often application programs reside on the additional
server (the application server)
Or additional server may hold a local database whilst
another server holds the enterprise database
Often a thin client - PC just for user interface and a
little application processing. Limited or no data
storage (sometimes no hard drive)
Three-tier architecture
Thinnest
clients
Business rules on
separate server
DBMS only on
DB server
Advantages





Scalability – middle tier can be used to reduce load
on database sever by using a transaction processing
monitor to reduce number of connections to server,
and additional application servers can be added to
distribute processing
Technological flexibility – easier to change DBMS
engines – middle tier can be moved to different
platform. Easier to implement new interfaces
Cost reduction – use of off-the-shelf
components/services in the middle tier - also
substitution of modules within application rather than
whole application
Improved customer service – multiple interfaces on
different clients can access the same business
process
Competitive advantage – ability to react to business
changes quickly by changing small modules of code
Challenges




High short-term costs – presentation component must be
split from process component – this requires more
programming
Tools, training and experience– currently lack of
development tools and training programmes, and people
experienced in the technology
Incompatible standards – few standards yet proposed
Lack of compatible end-user tools – many end-user tools
such as spreadsheets and report generators do not yet
work through middle-tier services (see later discussion on
middleware)
Middleware




Software which allows an application to interoperate
with other software, without requiring the user to
understand and code the low-level operations
required to achieve interoperability
With Synchronous systems, the requesting system
waits for a response to the request in real time
Asynchronous systems send a request but do not
wait for a response in real time – the response is
accepted whenever it is received .
6 Types of Middleware ->






1. Asynchronous Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) - client
makes calls to procedures running on remote computers
but does not wait for a response. If connection lost, must
re-establish the connection and send again. High
scalability but low recovery
2. Synchronous RPC – distributed program using this calls
services available on different computers – possible to
achieve this without undertaking detailed coding (e.g. RMI
in Java)
3. Publish/Subscribe (push technology) - server monitors
activity and sends information to client when available asynchronous, clients (subscribers) perform other
activities between notifications from server.
4. Message-Oriented Middleware – asynchronous, sends
messages that are collected and stored until acted upon client continues with other processing.
5. Object Request Broker (ORB) – tracks location of each
object and routes requests
6. SQL-oriented Data Access - translate generic SQL into
Database middleware





ODBC – Open Database Connectivity - most DB
vendors support this
OLE-DB - Microsoft enhancement of ODBC
JDBC – Java Database Connectivity - Special Java
classes that allow Java applications/applets to
connect to databases
CORBA – Common Object Request Broker
Architecture – specification of object-oriented
middleware
DCOM – Microsoft’s version of CORBA – not as
robust as CORBA over multiple platforms
Client/Server security




Network environment has complex security issues.
Networks susceptible to breaches of security through
eavesdropping, unauthorised connections or
unauthorised retrieval of packets of information
flowing round the network. Specific security issues
include:
System-level password security – user names and
passwords for allowing access to the system.
Password management utilities
Database-level password security - for determining
access privileges to tables; read/update/insert/delete
privileges
Secure client/server communication - via encryption –
but encryption can negatively affect performance
DB access from clients
Partitioning to create 2, 3 or n-tier
architecture - decisions must be made about
the placement of the processing logic
 Storage logic (the database engine) handled
by server, and presentation logic handled by
client
 Part a) of Fig. depicts possible 2-tier systems,
placing processing logic on client (fat client),
on server (thin client) or partitioned across
both (distributed environment)
 Part b) depicts typical 3 and n -tier
architectures
 Some processing logic placed on the client if

Processing logic distributions
a) 2-tier
Processing logic could be
at client, server, or both
Processing logic will be at
application server or Web
server
b) 3 and n-tier
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)







An API providing common language for application
programs to access/process SQL databases independent of particular RDBMS
Required parameters: ODBC driver needed, Backend server name, Database name, User id and
password
Fig. Shows generic ODBC architecture
Client application requests connection established
with data source
Driver manager identifies appropriate ODBC driver
Driver selected processes requests from the client
and submits queries to RDBMS in required version of
SQL
Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) similar to ODBC
– built specifically for Java applications
ODBC Architecture
Client does not need
to know anything
about the DBMS
Application Program
Interface (API) provides
common interface to all
DBMSs
Each DBMS has its own ODBC-compliant driver