Message from Chairman PEC Engr. Dr. Muhammad Akram Sheikh

ENGINEER PEC September 2007Data Modeling is a basis for all the subsequent work in thedevelopment of the database and their applications. GFPSmay be defined as a self-describing collection of integratedrecords. GFPS is composed of a set of programs that areused to define, administer and process the financialinformation. A partial schema for request of developmentexpenditure is shown in Figure 2.Figure 2 Partial view of development schema in GFPSIf the data model incorrectly represents the users view ofthe data, they will find application difficult to use,incomplete and very frustrating. Economy, reliability,responsiveness and modularity are taken into accountwhile designing; system has been designed on the basis ofuser requirements to meet the needs of respectiveenterprise. The data is processed by the GFPS, which isused by the database developers and the database users;both can use the GFPS either directly or indirectly via theapplication programs.Software developmentA simulator has been developed in DBMS for automatingfinancial procedures. It contains four major modules (i.e.CODE, EXPENDITURE, POSTING and CUT). In GFPSpull down operated menu interface has been designed toprovide a good interface to the users.The main components of a GFPS system are the GFPSManagement and the Application Programs which areutilized by both developers and users. The database isprocessed by the GFPS, which is used by the databasedevelopers and database users. The GFPS is composedof a set of programs that are used to define, administer andprocess the information. The facilities of DMBS can beused to create table structure to define relationships and tocreate forms, reports and the menus [10,11]. The GFPSalso include the facilities for interacting with applicationprograms written in either DBMS specific language – SQLor standard languages like COBOL. The design of GFPSdefines the database and the structure of applications. Thedesign tool comprises a set of tools to facilitate the designand to create the database and its applications [1]. Itincludes the typical tools for creating tables, designingforms, answering queries and generating the reports. TheGFPS developer uses the ‘Design Tools’ sub-systemssuch as data, free tables, queries, documents, forms,reports, code, and programs. The GFPS processes theapplication components that are developed by usingdesign tools. During run-time, all the functions areautomatic, neither the users nor the developers need to putany effort once the form is created. The runtime processorsanswer the queries and print the reports. There is a runtimecomponent also that processes the applicationprogramrequests for reading and writing the databaseinformation. GFPS receives requests from the other twocomponents stated in terms of tables, rows and columns. Itthen translates these requests into commands and sendsthem to the operating system to read and write the data onphysical media. The GFPS is also involved in transactionmanagement, locking, backup and recovery. GFPS hasintegrated selection of data which is organized to meetrequirements of different users within an enterprise. It canalso be defined as a self-describing collection of integratedrecords. GFPS itself is a collection of data that is treated asa unit. It is composed of logical and physical structures,which are designed to store and retrieve the relatedinformation.A GFPS schema defines a database’s structure its tables,relationships, domains and the business rules. A databaseschema is a design, the foundation on which the databaseand the applications are built [6]. For creating thedatabase, we need to build the schema, and afternormalization create the tables. A schema is a descriptionof the structure of a database [9]. The database schemadefines the database’s structure, its tables, relationships,domains and the business rules. The rows of one table canbe related to the rows of other tables. A domain is a set ofvalues that a column may have. One must specify adomain for each column of each table. The business rulesare restrictions on the business activities that must bereflected in a database and the database applications.Once the schema has been designed, the next step is tocreate the ‘GFPS Tables’ using the DBMS’s Data option.Each table’s column name is typed in the field ‘ColumnName’ and the data type is specified in the field ‘DataType’. The used DBMS is very powerful which cancoordinate with other DBMS as well [7] for data sharing.The additional information about the column, such aswidth, field format, and caption and data constraints arespecified in the remaining entry fields of the table creationform. The final component of a GFPS application is theapplication program. The application program is written in14