Skip to main content

CST363 - Learning Journal Week 6

    This week was a real challenge for me, but I feel like this week I learned the most about how databases operate. I found it interesting to use a java application to communicate with the SQL workbench to query for data and add updates to the SQL Database. I imagine this is a very simplified version of how complex database programs work. I was also able to understand the programming a little more because the code we wrote mimicked what we would write to perform a query in SQL. I have attained a better understanding of how a database is often separate from the main program and APIs are used to create a bridge for the two pieces of software to communicate.

    I am looking forward to next week where it appears we will be working with MongoDB. I have heard about this database API from some of the mobile app project tutorials I have completed previously. I think next week will give me a good foundation on how to use the database and possible incorporate it into some of my future projects.

    

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

CST 363 - Learning Journal Week 7

This week we learned how to implement a different type of database using MongoDB. For our group project this week we changes the SQL code to MongoDB code. Both of these database applications do a fine job of working with data and saving it to a database. I did find that MongoDB seemed more streamlined than working with SQL. With SQL there seemed to be more setup as in creating prepared statements, and then executing queries. With MongoDB it seemed like a good chunk of the code was abstracted away and this made for cleaner looking code at the call site. If I had to choose I would likely go with MongoDB as it seemed more approachable.

CST335 Week 7 Journal Entry

 This week I learned about input/output (I/O) devices and their interactions with the operating system (OS). Two types of devices I learned about were block and character devices. Block devices, like hard drives and SSDs, store data in fixed-size blocks and allow random access, making them ideal for large data transfers. Character devices, such as keyboards and mice, handle data streams one character at a time, supporting sequential access. The OS play a crucial role in managing these devices through device drivers that provide a standard interface to interact with the hardware. Performance characteristics of hard drives, such as seek time, rotational latency, and transfer rates, are pivotal in determining overall system efficiency. By calculating transfer rates for different workloads, I learned how disk access patterns significantly impact performance. Additionally, understanding RAID levels provided insights into how redundancy and striping enhance data reliability and performan...

CST363 Learning Journal Week 4

 This weeks learning journal prompts are: 1.  Briefly summarize 5 things what you have learned in the course so far.   2. List at least 3 questions you still have about databases. 1. SQL - Learning how to use SQL was great for me. I had never previously used SQL and I found it to be a very approachable and simple programming language. I learned how to perform queries and build tables to organize data in a manner that was accessible and practical.    Entity Relationship Diagrams - These diagrams I found to be very useful in the initial build out of a database and helps create a visual representation of entities, their attributes and relationships. The ERD can also be used to generate the code required in SQL to model the ERD.   Database Design Process - The text and lectures provided some good guidelines on the process to create a database. I learned how to understand the database requirements by speaking with the end users and also the process of analy...