Page 207 - Using MIS

Q4 How Do Database Applications Make Databases More Useful? 175

Figure 5-12a
Sample Query Form Used to
Enter Phrase for Search

Figure 5-12b
Sample Query Results of Query
Operation
Source: Microsoft Access 2013

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 con-
tained 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.
As stated, in the early years of your career, you will still see traditional applications, es-
pecially for enterprise-wide applications like ERP and CRM. Most likely, you will also be con-
cerned, as a user if not in a more involved way, with the transition from such traditional applica-
tions into browser-based applications.

Browser Forms, Reports, Queries, and Applications

The databases in browser-based applications are nearly always shared among many users. As
shown in Figure 5-13, the users’ browsers connect over the Internet to a Web server computer,
which in turn connects to a database server computer (often many computers are involved on
the server side of the Internet).

Applications with both
client- and server-side code

Browser
Application
Browser Program A
Application
Browser Internet Program B DBMS DB
Application
Program C
Browser Application Database Server Computer
Program D
Browser Web Server
Computer(s)

Applications coded in: Applications coded in:
• html5 • C#
Figure 5-13
Four Application Programs on • css3 • Java
• Node.js JavaScript
• JavaScript
a Web Server Computer