Abstract:

In order to formulate valid queries on a relational database, one must be fluent in SQL (Structured Query Language), the concepts that it involves (entities, relations, attributes) and the stored data schema describing the elements of the domain. However, casual users are not familiar with query languages and database structures, but would like to access data in a more user friendly way.  The goal of this paper is to present a tool that allows casual users to easily build a query using an almost natural language, on a step by step basis, guided by the tool. The tool described here was actually implemented based on two requirements: all relationships of the ER (Entity-Relationship) Model must be described as roles and the same level of semantic information available in the conceptual model must be available in the physical model.