Entering Records

1. Entering Records

2. In this lesson students are learning about: • searching the internet effectively • judging the reliability of websites • adding new records to a database • validation rules in databases

3. At the end of this lesson students will be able to: • use the internet and other sources to locate reliable information • select appropriate data from an information source • create new database records • explain how validation reduces the risk of ‘garbage’ getting into a database • use a source table to record information sources

4. Remember Clothes4u? • Today we will be searching for, recording and entering new items into the database. • You will perform a very similar process for your controlled assessment

5. Using the internet – designing an effective search • Remember the audience profile you created? You will now be searching the Internet for garments to enter into your database. The items must be suitable to fit your audience profile. • You will need details on: garment size, colour, brand, price, supplier, etc

6. Question • Give examples of internet search criteria you could use to locate suitable items of clothing to add to your database.

7. Task: 20 mins • Use the internet to find new items of clothing to add to the database. You should aim to find at least TWO different items of clothing for each of the THREE main age categories. • Use a sources table to record where they found the information. • If you locate information from a supplier that does not appear in the SUPPLIERS table you will later need to add the supplier’s details to the database.

8. Data validation • How to avoid “Garbage In Garbage Out” (GIGO) • Databases need to provide accurate and reliable information so it is important that you enter appropriate information in the first place. Databases have “Validation rules” to help prevent entry of data that is in an incorrect format. • Your teacher will now show you….

9. Task: 10 mins • Use the data entry form to add your new records to the database. You should check your data carefully as you enter it to avoid errors that the database’s validation rules may not pick up, e.g. spelling.

10. And finally • Why is it important to ensure that the information provided by a database is reliable? • Think of examples of what might go wrong if a database generates inaccurate information. • How might a database designer ‘keep the garbage out’?