Database Design and Relationships between Entities

Logical Database Model 

VENDOR
Vendor Number (PK)	Number
Vendor Name	Varchar
DUNS Number	Varchar
Status	Varchar
W-9 Received	Varchar
Business Address	Varchar
Currency Code	Currency
Contact Number	Number

CONTACT
Contact Number (PK)	Number
Title	Varchar
Contact Name	Varchar
Address	Varchar
Phone Number	Number
Fax Number	Number
E-mail Address	Varchar
Website URL	Varchar

Physical Database Design then 

After creating the logical model of the database, the most anticipated and practical part of the development process is to create the physical database that will contain real data. It is in this stage that we get to ensure that all the information provided on the conceptual and logical database design is achievable on the physical database.

Creating Tables 

The first step of creating any database is to start with the tables; these acts like containers, which store the relevant information required by certain objects in the system. By creating tables, we are creating the base storage of the information collected from the forms. There are many ways of achieving this goal depending on what Database Management System you choose to use. As for this project, MS Access has been used to develop the project. Therefore, in our case head on to click on create, and then table design. You will be provided with a data entry form with two columns and some few rows. Type in the fields on the first row, data types on the second row and a small description of the field on the third column. According to Kohler, Link & Zhou ( 2015) it is a good practice to normalize your data and avoid redundant data in your tables, it is, therefore, advisable to put your primary key on the first row per your logical database design, then followed by the rest of the fields.

Creating Forms 

Data can be manually keyed into a table directly, but forms create a user-friendly, elegant appearance to input data into the tables, you can design the background of your forms and add some few buttons to help you access data and navigate to specific records in the table. When using other database management systems like MySQL and PostgreSQL, you might choose to use the web browser to access such information; as in this case, you can easily create a form by clicking on create on the taskbar, and then form wizard. You will be requested to choose the tables that you would like to use the form to update data with. Choose the table and then proceed and click finish. After the form is created, you can right-click on the name of the form then click on the design view to alter the appearance of your forms.

Queries 

In most cases, you are required to filter some information, select, retrieve and manipulate data without affecting the table (Kraleva, Kralea & Sinyagina, 2018). On such cases, you are required to use queries to do such tasks, on MS Access, head on to create then query design and select simple query from the dialogue box that appears. You will be provided with a working area where you can right-click, then click on add tables. You will be able to add tables to the query by choosing the tables that contain the data that you would wish to manipulate. After finishing with the query, save it using the most relevant query name.

Reports 

Reports are very important in any database as they are the result of the manipulated and stored information. Therefore, you should ensure that your system can generate report so that the end-user can be able to see the results that they desired or that which they seek to get from the system.

References

Köhler, H., Link, S., & Zhou, X. (2015). Possible and certain SQL keys.  Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment ,  8 (11), 1118-1129.

Kraleva, R., Kralev, V., & Sinyagina, N. (2018). Design and Analysis of a Relational Database for Behavioral Experiments Data Processing.  International Journal of Online Engineering ,  14 (2).