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Chapter 5 Database Processing
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Figure 5-10
Components of a Database
Application System Traditional Forms, Queries, Reports, and Applications

In most cases, a traditional database is shared among many users. In that case, the application
shown in Figure 5-10 resides on the users’ computers and the DBMS and database reside on a
server computer. A network, in most cases not the Internet, is used to transmit traffic back and
forth between the users’ computers and the DBMS server computer.
Single-user databases like those in Microsoft Access are an exception. With such databases,
the application, the DBMS, and the database all reside on the user’s computer.
Traditional forms appeared in window-like displays like that in Figure 5-2. They serve their
purpose; users can view, insert, modify, and delete data with them, but by today’s standards, they
look clunky.
Figure 5-11 shows a traditional report, which is a static display of data, placed into a format
that is meaningful to the user. In this report, each of the emails for a particular student is shown
after the student’s name and grade data. Figure 5-12 shows a traditional query. The user specifies
query criteria in a window-like box (Figure 5-12a), and the application responds with data that fit
those criteria (Figure 5-12b).
Traditional database application programs are written in object-oriented languages such as
C++ and VisualBasic (and even in earlier languages like COBOL). They are thick applications that
need to be installed on users’ computers. In some cases, all of the application logic is contained in a
program on users’ computers and the server does nothing except run the DBMS and serve up data.
In other cases, some application code is placed on both the users’ computers and the database
server computer.

Figure 5-11
Example of a Student Report