Whether building a relational, object-relational, or object-oriented database, database developers are increasingly relying on an object-oriented design approach as the best way to meet user needs and performance criteria. This book teaches you how to use the Unified Modeling Language-the official standard of the Object Management Group-to develop and implement the best possible design for your database.

Inside, the author leads you step by step through the design process, from requirements analysis to schema generation. You'll learn to express stakeholder needs in UML use cases and actor diagrams, to translate UML entities into database components, and to transform the resulting design into relational, object-relational, and object-oriented schemas for all major DBMS products.

* Teaches you everything you need to know to design, build, and test databases using an OO model.
* Shows you how to use UML, the accepted standard for database design according to OO principles.
* Explains how to transform your design into a conceptual schema for relational, object-relational, and object-oriented DBMSs.
* Offers practical examples of design for Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, Informix, Object Design, POET, and other database management systems.
* Focuses heavily on re-using design patterns for maximum productivity and teaches you how to certify completed designs for re-use.

The book begins with a tour of some underlying factors in modeling databases. Here, the author distinguishes between the external, conceptual, and internal models of database design.) Then it's on to data architectures, be they the traditional relational or the newer object-relational and object-oriented (OO) database types.

After discussing some of the pitfalls of gathering and implementing user requirements, the author looks at UML notation for use case diagrams. (His example here, a crime database for tracking Sherlock Holmes's stories, along with criminals and clues, is both intelligent and entertaining.)

The author's guide to UML class design is topnotch. He covers basic and advanced OO concepts such as inheritance, aggregation, composition, and polymorphism with clear and concise explanations. He also shows you how to model business rules using objects and UML class diagrams. The most valuable part of this book comes with the mapping of UML class diagrams onto three different kinds of databases: relational (on Oracle7), object-relational (on Oracle8), and object-oriented (on the POET platform). The author shows how to emulate object-oriented ideas successfully using stored procedures and triggers, even if you are not running on a "true" object-oriented platform.

Exceptionally well-written and clear, Database Design for Smarties offers consistently invaluable advice on how to take advantage of objects to create simpler and more maintainable database designs. --Richard Dragan