The development of effective information systems using a relational database management system (RDBMS) environment is a challenging job. The present strategy of client/server information systems has made development more complicated. Now it is possible to have data and associated processing on the server and applications needed by specific users on the clients. In such an environment, it is possible to have client-side software that is not part of the RDBMS-specific facility.

This book attempts to make client/server design more meaningful. It gives details about SYBASE System 11 along with Power Builder as the client-side software and S-Designer, a CASE tool.

Chapter 1 starts with the general approach to client/server design. Interestingly, the author compares his method of conceptual model, physical data model, server database, and client database and applications to the well-known seven-layered OSI communication model. Bean describes SYBASE System 11 and Power Builder, as well as S-Designer. Because SYBASE has acquired Power Builder, users can expect greater synergy between the two.

Chapter 2 describes a conceptual data model using Power Builder’s Data Architect facility. In the next chapter, the example of “ABC Auto Parts” is used to develop a model. The author uses an entity-relationship (ER) diagram in the development of the model. Chapter 4 covers the ideas behind normalization as related to the conceptual model. The description is only up to third normal form.

Chapter 5 is concerned with the idea of a domain. Bean introduces the important concepts of objects and inheritance. The next chapter continues with domain concepts, including rules, properties, characteristics, and constraints. The use of encapsulation is also described. Large software development projects are usually team efforts. Bean describes Data Architect’s facilities for team environment and submodel management.

Chapter 8 helps the reader to understand the design of a physical model by means of the conceptual model. Further details of a physical model are described, with emphasis on many-to-many relations, primary and foreign keys, and reverse engineering. All of these facilities as provided by Data Architect are described. Further refinements of the physical model form the subject of the next chapter. The emphasis is on indexing and creating views based on the users’ requirements and processing strategies. Management of complexity in a large physical model is introduced in chapter 11. Names of variables and procedures are important. Similarly, server performance can be improved by proper declaration of the uniqueness of primary keys, indexes, views, rules, and lookup tables. Triggers are important facilities for application development in an RDBMS environment. Chapter 12 shows the usefulness of Power Builder as the front-end tool along with SYBASE Anywhere.

Chapter 13 covers the SQL facility in SYBASE Anywhere, called Interactive SQL (ISQL). Further concepts of reverse engineering are touched on using Data Architect, which is further described in the last chapter.

The two appendices describe the details of the “ABC Auto Parts” database, which is used as the main example throughout the book. The glossary is adequate and the index is quite useful. A CD-ROM contains the database as developed in various chapters, as well as S-Designer Data Architect demos. Because the other facilities, namely, Process Analyst and AppModeller, are not covered in detail, the usefulness of the demos concerned with those two topics is limited.

The comparison of the database design method with the layers of OSI model in chapter 1 has limited value, given that there are no further references to it. SYBASE as an RDBMS is given little emphasis; it is mentioned only after ten chapters out of fourteen.

The absence of section and subsection numbers is sometimes confusing. The chapters’ titles do not give the reader a clear idea of their contents. Some of the chapters seem to have more description than explanation in the form of examples or screen outputs. Fundamentally, any data modeling approach relies on the entity-relationship diagram. It would have been useful to mention the concept and introduce it briefly in chapter 3. More references on ER diagrams as well as client/server design would have been helpful. This is not intended as a textbook (and there are no exercises), so Bean should not have stopped at third normal form in chapter 4. At least Boyce-Codd normal form should have been mentioned. I would have appreciated an appendix that described all of the details of S-Designer’s Data Architect for ready reference.

This book is good for programmers, systems analysts, and EDP managers who want to know about client/server design using SYBASE and Power Builder.