Doing database design with MySQL

Most of the database textbooks, targeting database design and implementation for information systems curricula support the big database systems (Oracle, MS SQL Server, DB/2, etc.). With respect to the most important aspects of the database management: design and implementation; one should not ignore MySQL—the most widely used, open source, relational database management system developed in Sweden in 1995 and now owned by Oracle Corporation. This paper shows two database-design learning cases. The first one deals with a forward-engineering technique used to transform a data model into a physical database. The second case shows how to reverse-engineer an existing database into a data model. Both the cases utilize MySQL Workbench and MySQL Community Server. By contrast Microsoft Access can only reverse engineer a physical database into its relationship diagram.