AN ENTITY-RELATIONSHIP MENU SYSTEM FOR MICROCOMPUTERS

Empirical studies have shown that relational databases are difficult to use, especially for novice users. Experimental studies have also shown that substantial improvements in user productivity can be obtained if the relational interface is replaced by an entity-relationship (ER) interface. Microcomputers and relational database products for microcomputers are increasing rapidly. It is important to enhance the user-database interaction by providing an ER interface. The design and implementation of a system that provides an entity relationship menu is described. With the objective that the system should be able to run on many microcomputers with minimal cost and changes, it was built as a front-end to dBASE. This allows it to be used by the large number of users of dBASE and dBASE compatible packages. The full implementation consists of 136 kbytes of codes. This small front-end can be easily added to a dBASE system. This system covers the full range of database interaction from database design to database retrieval. It is expected that this system will reduce the effort in developing new dBASE applications, since it already contains the basic functionality and integrity of the ER model. Being based on the ER instead of the relational model, it is also expected, as has been shown in empirical studies, to increase the user's effectiveness in interacting with the database. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.