KCL • CCH • Minor programme • AV1000 • Relational analysis
This problem is to devise a means of organising information about a potentially very large collection of audio CDs in order to help the user browse and/or query the collection and to redirect him or her to further information about the music and its performers. Only a few examples are given below, but you are to imagine a collection of several hundreds if not thousands of CDs—too many to look through manually.
The sample data below comprises 15 records of traditional and contemporary African music. Each record gives the name of the artist(s) or group (if any), the title of the CD, the publisher, the ASIN or other ID number for that CD and the country or region of origin. Note that some items have more than one artist and that a single publisher will issue several CDs, but to keep matters simple assume that each CD is published by only one publisher.
A further problem is implicit in these data. Since most if not all of the performers are active musicians with a relatively small following world-wide, their details are unavailable in any standard reference book; furthermore, these details (such as scheduled performances) may in fact change as their careers develop. In the design, then, you should provide a working means for the user to find out these details so that, for example, answers to the sample questions posed above could include references to the additional information, wherever it may be.
revised February 2008