LECTURE#7 | DBMS INTERFACES | MENU BASED- GUI BASED-WEB BASED-AUDIO BASED-NLP BASED-DBA INTERFACES
NOTES LINK: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1htB4...
DBMS Interfaces
User-friendly interfaces provided by a DBMS may include the following:
Menu-based Interfaces for Web Clients or Browsing. These interfaces present
the user with lists of options (called menus) that lead the user through the formulation
of a request. Menus do away with the need to memorize the specific
commands and syntax of a query language; rather, the query is composed step-bystep
by picking options from a menu that is displayed by the system. Pull-down
menus are a very popular technique in Web-based user interfaces. They are also
often used in browsing interfaces, which allow a user to look through the contents
of a database in an exploratory and unstructured manner.
Apps for Mobile Devices. These interfaces present mobile users with access to
their data. For example, banking, reservations, and insurance companies, among
many others, provide apps that allow users to access their data through a mobile
phone or mobile device. The apps have built-in programmed interfaces that typicallyallow users to login using their account name and password; the apps then provide
a limited menu of options for mobile access to the user data, as well as options such
as paying bills (for banks) or making reservations (for reservation Web sites).
Forms-based Interfaces. A forms-based interface displays a form to each user.
Users can fill out all of the form entries to insert new data, or they can fill out only
certain entries, in which case the DBMS will retrieve matching data for the remaining
entries. Forms are usually designed and programmed for naive users as interfaces
to canned transactions. Many DBMSs have forms specification languages,
which are special languages that help programmers specify such forms. SQL*Forms
is a form-based language that specifies queries using a form designed in conjunction
with the relational database schema. Oracle Forms is a component of the Oracle
product suite that provides an extensive set of features to design and build
applications using forms. Some systems have utilities that define a form by letting
the end user interactively construct a sample form on the screen.
Graphical User Interfaces. A GUI typically displays a schema to the user in diagrammatic
form. The user then can specify a query by manipulating the diagram.
In many cases, GUIs utilize both menus and forms.
Natural Language Interfaces. These interfaces accept requests written in English
or some other language and attempt to understand them. A natural language
interface usually has its own schema, which is similar to the database conceptual
schema, as well as a dictionary of important words. The natural language interface
refers to the words in its schema, as well as to the set of standard words in its dictionary,
that are used to interpret the request. If the interpretation is successful, the
interface generates a high-level query corresponding to the natural Interfaces for Parametric Users. Parametric users, such as bank tellers, often
have a small set of operations that they must perform repeatedly. For example, a
teller is able to use single function keys to invoke routine and repetitive transactions
such as account deposits or withdrawals, or balance inquiries. Systems analysts and
programmers design and implement a special interface for each known class of
naive users. Usually a small set of abbreviated commands is included, with the goal
of minimizing the number of keystlanguage request
and submits it to the DBMS for processing; otherwise, a dialogue is started with the
user to clarify the request.
Keyword-based Database Search. These are somewhat similar to Web search
engines, which accept strings of natural language (like English or Spanish) words
and match them with documents at specific sites (for local search engines) or Web
pages on the Web at large (for engines like Google or Ask). They use predefined
indexes on words and use ranking functions to retrieve and present resulting documents
in a decreasing degree of match. Such “free form” textual query interfaces are
not yet common in structured relational databases, although a research area called
keyword-based querying has emerged recently for relational databases.
Speech Input and Output. Limited use of speech as an input query and speech
as an answer to a question or result of a request is becoming commonplace. Applications
with limited vocabularies, such as inquiries for telephone directory, flight
arrival/departure, and credit card account information, are allowing speech for
input and output to enable customers to access this information. The speech input
is detected using a library of predefined words and used to set up the parameters
that are supplied to the queries. For output, a similar conversion from text or numbers
into speech takes place.