Before you use DB/Assist to build the database portion of your ESL application, we recommend that you allocate time for the following:

•Planning the application

•Designing the database

We recommend that you plan your application before building it with DB/Assist. During the planning stage, you should consider the following.

•Definition of your business problem

•Functional requirements

•General design

•Detailed design

•Database design

•Interface design

•Environmental requirements, such as memory, disk space, and software

•Application architecture

Before implementing your application, we strongly recommend that you develop a well-designed database. Flaws in the database design can impact the overall performance of your ESL application.

In order to design an effective database, we recommend that you become familiar with the following database concepts:

•Database normalization

•Primary keys

•Foreign keys

•Indexes

•Cursors