Instructions on Phase P1: Conceptual Model (ERD)
Create an Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) for the database of your project.
The recommended software for creating ERDs is TerraER (the software is open and freely available from the authors, but we recommend using the version compiled by the teacher with additional adjustments available at https://bazi.finki.ukim.mk/resources/Software/), because it directly allows you to draw with one of the notations learned in lectures. Pay attention to which connecting lines you use where. Make sure to use the appropriate types of diagram elements. At this point, we do not recommend other software. If you decide to use another software, make sure to use the same notation as in TerraER so that there are no misunderstandings.
The ERD should correspond to your project description from the previous assignment and include the data requirements that are appropriate for the project described in this way.
The ERD must be made correctly according to the notation that has been taught. The most important thing is that each entity set must have a clearly defined primary key, and for the relational connections between the entity sets, foreign keys should not be specified, but only if there are additional attributes. And all the other rules that have been taught.
Arrange the ERD to be visually readable, clear and condensed to save as much space as possible without loosing readability:
- Rearrange the most important entities to clearly visible positions
- Rearrange the relationship lines so that they do not cross too much and are not too jagged
- Use shorter and more precise names, the names of entity sets are always plural
- Since the presentations and consultations will be in electronic form, save as much space as possible in the diagram so that there is no need to do a lot of "zooming" and a lot of "scrolling" to read and explain the diagram
TerraER saves in XML format, do not forget to put an .xml extension to the file so that it can be processed and displayed correctly.
Expect that there will be many changes to the ERD. Keep all versions, naming them as follows: ERModel_v01.xml, ERModel_v02.xml, ...
Document the Entity-Relationship Model for the database of your project.
Create a Wiki page in your project site called 'ERModel (be careful with capitalization). Link it to the contents of the front page in Phase P1.
Attach all the different versions of the ERD as files to the ERModel page both as original source format (ERModel_v01.xml, ERModel_v02.xml, ...) and also attach an exported image of each of the versions of the ERD in PNG format under the names (ERModel_v01.png, ERModel_v02.png, ...)
The ERModel wiki page should be created according to the following template:
AI Use
You are free to use an AI to improve your modeling, provided that you adhere to the following rules:
- you use AI in this phase of the project only to improve your own initial model
- you use AI to create an alternate model for ideas that you can borrow and use in your own model
- you document the changes you have made to your own model based on the ideas from the AI tool in the model history above
- you document the entire usage of the AI tool in a new wiki page named ERModelAIUsage linked here, that you structure according to the following template
