Creating databases using SQL Server Management

Studio Express
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With the release of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, TI students and professionals
began to have an efficient, professional and cheap solution for creation and
management of SQL databases. However, to the surprise of most, the Express
distribution is not accompanied by any front-end to manipulate the databases and its
objects. This happens because of the fact that all the Visual Studio tools have the
capability to manage the SQL Server from inside of its IDEs.
In order for the database administrators to use SQL Express, Microsoft released a
free tool called SQL Server Management Studio Express. This program, obtained
through download, substitutes the old “Enterprise Manager” and “Query Analyzer” of
SQL Server 2000, now centering all of the database management in a single tool.
In this article you will get acquainted with Management Studio Express and will
learn to create the database of a small library through the resources offered by the
tool. You will also see how to create a Database diagram, insert views and export the
database created.

Download and installation of the manager

To obtain the SQL Server Management Studio Express, just download directly from
Microsoft’s site at the http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql link. Having
done this, simply install the software. After its installation, a program shortcut is
created in the Start menu of Windows, inside the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 folder.

Gaining access to SQL Server 2005 Express

When you open Management Studio Express, a connection window with SQL Server
will be opened, as Figure 1 shows. In this window, you will enter the data for
connection with SQL Express existent in your machine. A detail to be observed is that
you can, through the Management Studio, connect to a server SQL Server which is in
another machine in the net. Just click in the Server name box and choose the
Browser for more option to search for the other server. In our example, we will
connect to the existing SQLEXPRESS instance in the machine itself (that, in this case,
has the name PND).
Figure 1. Connection window of the SQL Management Studio Express

Relative to the authentication mode, a warning: in case you have installed the SQL
Express along with the installation of an Express Tool or Visual Studio 2005, you will
not have the “sa” user password and will not be able to effect the authentication
through SQL Server Authentication. You will have to use the Windows Authentication
option to gain access to the program. In our example, we will connect using Windows
authentication.

Management Studio Work Area

After connected, the work area of Management Studio Express is then presented, as
Figure 2 shows. This window possesses the following areas: Menu Bar, Toolbar,
Object Explorer and Active Files.
Figure 2. SQL Server Management Studio Express Work Area
Through the Object Explorer box we can navigate among all of the SQL Server
parts, especially the Databases folder, where the created databases and their objects
are contained (tables, views etc.).
In order to create a new database, it is enough to right-click over the Databases
folder and choose
the New Database option.
The window for the creation of the database is then opened, where you insert the
name, choose the owner and configure the initial size of the data and log files. In our
example,we call our new database “Library” and leave the initial data file size at 3
MB, as you can verify in Figure 3. In the Options page, you will be able to set some
of the new database’sadvanced options, as: Compatibility level, where you choose
with which version of the SQL Server the new database will be compatible; Database
Read-Only, where you decide if the database created will be read-only; and Restrict
Access, where you set the database access restrictions. After performing all the
actions, click the OK button to finish our database creation.
Figure 3. The “New Database” Window

Creating tables
Created the database, we will visualize and add the desired tables, diagrams and
views. To visualize our database’s folders, we will expand the Databases objects and,
after that, Library, through the Object Explorer. Once the database is open, the
following folders’ structure is presented:

· Database Diagrams: the entity-relationship diagrams are stored in this location;

· Tables: folder where the database tables are;
· Views: here stay all the views that have been created;
· Synonyms: directory of the synonymous that have been created;
· Programmability: place where you set all of the database’s programming: stored
procedures, function, rules etc;
· Security: in this last item, you set all the security parameters, such as Users,
Schemes,
Certificates, etc.

We will begin by creating the Books table. To create a table, click the right hand
button over Tables and choose the New Table option. The new table’s data structure
then opens composed of three parts: the Table Designer toolbar, the spread sheet for
creation of the columns and the column’s properties’ box, as in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Creating a table in data structure mode
To insert a field, you must write the name of the column, choose the kind of data
and examine if it will accept null values. After, with the new field selected, you will
be able to set all its properties in the Column Properties box. Amongst the existing
properties, we can highlight the Identity Specification option, where you can
attribute the identity property and set the auto increment of the field, as shown in
Figure 4. To attribute a primary key to a field, just select it and click the Set
Primary Key button located in the Table
Designer toolbar.To finish the creation of the Books table, just click over the “X” in
the right hand side of the table structure window. The Management Studio Express
asks if you wish to save this table and what name should be attributed to this new
object. Once it is saved, the table begins to appear in the list of the Tables folder.
For our example, we will create the tables in accordance with Table 1.

Table Name Columns and Data Types

• categoryID – int
Categories
• name – varchar(200)
• publisherID – int
Publishers • name – varchar(200)
• email – varchar(MAX)
 • authorID – int
Authors • name – varchar(200)
• email – varchar(MAX)
• bookID – int
• category – int
• publisher – int
Books
• author – int
• title – varchar(200)
• summary – text
Table 1. List of tables to be created in the Management Studio

All the ID fields at the beginning of the tables are primary keys. After they are
created, fill in the tables with three categories, three editors, three authors and 10
books of your choice. To do this, click the right hand button over the table and
choose the Open Table option.

Creating entity-relationship diagrams

One of the most interesting Management Studio’s resources is the creation of entity-
relationship
diagrams (the database diagrams). These diagrams, besides favoring the
visualization of the
tables and their relations, allow the user to understand the whole database.
With all of the tables created, we will now add a database diagram to our database
and create
all the necessary relations. To do so, right click over Database Diagrams and choose
the New
Diagram option. Automatically, it will open a blank diagram and ask which tables you
wish to
insert in the new diagram. For our example, we will select all the tables available,
clicking the
Add button to add them and then the Close button. In your screen you will have all
the tables
and their respective fields, as Figure 5 shows.
Figure 5. Window with the Entity-Relation Diagram
In case it is the first time you are using the database diagram resource in
Management Studio Express, you will be asked to install some files necessary to the
proper functioning of the diagrams module. Just click Yes so that these files are
installed.
In our example, we will now create a relation between the Authors and Books tables.
To add a relation between two tables, select the table that contains the foreign key
(in our case, the Books table) and click the Relations button located in the
Database Diagram toolbar. Clicking the Add button, a new relation is created with the
name FK_Books_Books, according to Figure 6.
Figure 6. Relations’ Window
In this window, you will be able to set all the properties of the new relation, such
as: name of the relation, description, referential integrity rules, the tables that are
part of the relation and the respective fields.
To edit the relations’ definitions, click the Tables and Columns Specifications
property and then the button. The box where you will determine which tables and
fields will take part in the relation is opened, as Figure 7 shows.
Figure 7. Determining the tables and fields in the relation
Notice that the Foreign key table field for table choice is disabled, making the
alteration impossible.
This is the reason because of which you selected the table with the foreign key to
start the relationship window, and not the one that contained the primary key.
Modify the Primary key table field for the Authors table and, after that, choose the
authorID field. After, in the Books table, choose the author field and confirm the new
relation clicking over the OK button. With this, the relationship is created.
In case it is necessary to set the referential integrity in the relationship, just open
the window of relations and expand the INSERT and UPDATE Specification option.
When you expand, you will be able to choose the relation’s rules of update and
delete. In our example, we will choose, in the Delete Rule field, the Cascade option,
this assures that, when removing an author, all the work belonging to this author will
be removed from the table Books.
With this, we create the first relation. Create the other relationships so that we have
the same diagram as the one in Figure 8. After that, save the diagram with the
name “Library Diagram” and close the window.
Figure 8. Diagram after the creation of all the relations
Tip: You can select a field in the table and drag it until the referenced table primary
key,
to visually set the relation.

Creating views
View has always been a very useful and very practical feature for the creation of
reports integrating data from the various tables of the database. In our example, we
will create a View for a report of book titles organized by author.
Right-click over Views and choose the New View option. Automatically it will open a
blank diagram and ask to which tables you wish to insert inside the new diagram. For
our example, we will select Books and Authors tables; we click the Add button to add
them and finally the Close button. You will have on your screen the Views setting and
testing window, as Figure 9 shows.
Figure 9. Setting and Views test window
The Views window is divided in four parts: Diagram Panel, Criteria Panel, SQL Panel
and Results Panel. Through these panels you can assemble its views through SQL
language or through mouse selection.
In our report, will be displayed the authors (in alphabetical order), their respective e-
mails and books. For this matter, in Diagram Panel, select the fields name and email
in the Authors table; and the title field in the Books table. Notice that, as you go
along selecting the fields, the Management Studio Express assembles the entire
query in the SQL Panel.
Having done this, select the Execute SQL button in the View Designer toolbar. It
will already show, in the Results Panel, the data of both the tables.
But we are not yet finished: we need to put the name field in alphabetical order. In
the Criteria Panel, go to the Sort Type field of the line of the name column and
choose the Ascending option. When you execute the query, the result will be a listing
by order of author, with their respective e-mails and books.
To finish, go to the Alias column and type “Author Name”, “E-mail” and “Book Title”
on their respective fields (see Figure 10). Alias will make these texts appear at the
heading of the results table, avoiding the user from visualizing the names of the
fields in the report. When finished, your Views window will look like Figure 10. Save
with the name “view_books_author” and close the window.

Figure 10. Views window, after field selection and setup

Exporting the database

After creating the database in your machine, there might be the necessity to export
it to a SQL Server, or to generate a backup for later use. We will show you here the
exportation of the Library database to a Script (*.sql) archive. Click with the right
hand button over Library. Go to Task > Generate Scripts. The Management Studio
will show a wizard for the script generation. Click Next and choose the Library
database. After selected, mark the Script all objects in the selected database option
and click the Finish button, as Figure 11 shows.
Figure 11. Scripts generation assistant
After executing the processing on behalf of the Management Studio, a window with
the entire script of the generated database is opened. To save this script, just go to
File > Save, choose the folder and name the file.