1 System architecture
A conceptual information system

2 Conceptual schema design process
Step 1: Convert examples to elementary facts
Arity
Elementary facts
Significant output reports
Step 2: Draw the fact types
Ternary facts
Multiple fact types
Population check
Step 3: Check for entity types that should be combined
Step 4: Add uniqueness constraints and check arity of fact types
Uniqueness constraints on unary fact types
Uniqueness constraints on binary fact types
Determining uniqueness constraints
Uniqueness constraints on longer fact types
Arity check
Assumptions
External uniqueness constraints
Step 5: Add mandatory constraints
Disjunctive mandatory roles
Reference schemes
Step 6: Check for arithmetic and logical deviations
Arithmetic deviations
Logical deviations
Step 7: Add other constraints
Value constraints
Frequency constraints
Subset constraints
Equality constraints
Exclusion constraints
Subtype constraints
Step 8: Perform final checks

3 Relational implementation
The relational model
The relational mapping procedure
Step 1: Compound uniqueness constraints
Step 2: Simple uniqueness constraints
Step 3: Constraints
Nested fact types
One-to-one fact types
Subtypes

Glossary
Answers
Index