Creating the Eval SQL Server Database

This section describes how the structure of the Eval database evolves from the functional requirements that the design team specified during the planning and research phase of the PT application. Linking Tables in the Eval Database describes the process of resolving many-to-many relationships, adding link-tables that resolve many-to-many relationships, defining the relationships between tables, defining the columns in each table, and defining the attributes of table columns. The design team plans to use stored procedures and views extensively in this application. Coding the stored procedures and creating the views will be part of writing the application, and this section describes the tasks that the stored procedures and views will perform. Constraints and triggers on Eval tables maintain the integrity of the data. See the following topics for detailed information on the Eval database:

• Building the Eval Data Model describes how entities evolve during the process of defining the users of the application and the tasks they need to perform.
• Translating Entities into Eval Table Objects explains how entities are examined—and in some cases combined—to create the primary data tables in the database.
• Creating Relationships Between Eval Tables describes the foreign key relationships between tables and includes a diagram of the Eval database.
• Globalizing the Eval Database describes the strategy for supporting users with different language and data-formatting requirements.
• Adding Attributes to Eval Tables describes the columns and column attributes of each table.
• Full-Text Search in the PT Application discusses the search capability for form views.
• Enforcing Data Integrity in the Eval Database describes how the Eval database uses triggers and constraints to maintain integrity of the PT application's data.
• Adding Indexes to Eval Tables discusses table columns that are appropriate for clustered or nonclustered indexes.
• Using Multiple Data Files in Eval explains the benefits of using secondary data files.
• Assigning Data Files to Filegroups describes how to use filegroups, a feature of SQL Server 7.0, to enhance performance.
• Assigning Tables and Indexes to Filegroups provides further information about using filegroups.