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 Different Types of Database Users and Administrators

People who work with a database can be categorized as database users or database administrators.

Different Types of Users:

Depending on the way of interaction with the system, the user may be differentiated into the following categories-

Naive Users

# Are unsophisticated users

# Interacts with the system by invoking already written application programs.

# User Interface used: Forms interface. Ex, A person who wishes to see his/her balance over World Wide Web, may access a form and gives an account number. An Application program on the webserver retrieves the balance and gives it back to the user.

Application Programmers

# Computer Professionals who write Application Programs.

# Rapid Application Development (RAD) are tools that facilitate an Application Programmer to construct forms and generate reports without writing a program.

# Imperative control structures (such as for loop, while loop, etc) can be combined with DML [This combination is also known as Fourth Generation Language] in order to generate forms and display data on the screen.

Unsophisticated users

# Interact with the system without writing programs.

# They submit each query to a query processor that breaks DML statements into instructions.

# They are also known as Analysts.

Specialized Users

# Are sophisticated users.

# They write specialized database applications that do not fit into the traditional data-processing framework

Database Administrators:

To have central control over data and programs in the DBMS system, a person called Database Administrator (DBA) is allocated. 

The functions of a DBA include:

a)  Schema definition is created using a set of DDL statements by DBA.

b)  Storage structure and access-method definition is carried by the DBA to improve performance.

c)  Granting of authorization for data access

# The authorization grants given to different users are kept in a separate special system structure, that is consulted at the time of data access.

d)  Routine maintenance

# Periodically backup the database either onto tape or onto remote servers.

# Monitoring jobs running in the database to ensure better performance

# Ensuring that enough free disk space is available for normal operations, and upgrading disk space as required.