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Module 12: Database/CMS Exercise

What You'll Learn

In this exercise you will gain some insight into how databases work and just how they important they are to our routine experiences on the web. You will also get some hands-on practice writing inside a content management system and see how single-sourcing works.

What You'll Produce

You will produce a short blog post detailing your analysis of an activity that involves a database.

Step-by-Step Instructions
  1. Identify one activity in your daily life that involves a database. Don’t think too big: “Facebook” or “online banking” are too big. Think of a smaller, more digestible activity that you can observe and write about in 20 minutes or so. Here are some examples of small activities:
  • Posting a photo to Facebook (how many different places can you see it?)
  • Checking the balance of your checking account (from the web or an ATM)
  • Posting an update to Twitter (how many different ways to see it?)
  • Adding a contact into your smart phone (how do your contacts get sorted? Displayed?)
  • Looking up movie showtimes (how do you look up the same movie at many theaters?)
  • Searching for something on Amazon (how many ways to sort results? Recommendations?)
  1. Analyze how that activity is dependent on a database. As you think about and observe this action, ask yourself the following questions:
  • What data is being saved, retrieved, or deleted as part of your action? How do you know?
  • How does the app / service display that information? What do you see? What do other users in the system see (if applicable)?
  • How, if at all, would that action be handled without a database? Is it even possible?

  1. Find an image that represents the action you’re describing. Document the action so that you’ll have some graphic support to accompany your writing. Consider taking a screenshot of your computer of your mobile device.

  2. Save your document as an HTML document and upload to your AFS space. Do not submit a Microsoft Word document – at this point, you should be prepared to easily produce an HTML document. Save your report as an HTML document with proper, standards-compliant markup to your AFS space and link to it from your course page.