Announcements

Please check this page regularly (meaning at least once a week, more if possible)!

Dec 16, 2007 Small error posting Assignment 3 marks has been corrected

• A small error was made posting the A3 marks. As a result, students, whose student number ended in a 3 could not see their mark. This has been corrected. My apologies for any anxiety this may have caused you.
• Again - please check that your mark is there, and that it is correct.

Dec 15, 2007 Assignment 3 marks have been posted

• Your mark for Assignment 3 has been posted. Please verify that your mark is there, and that it is correct. We will be returning your assignment, and any other uncollected work, to you at the final. When you get it back, check that your mark is the same as the one available on the web.

Dec 10, 2007 Sample solution to Assignment 3

• Since the assignments will not be returned until the day of the exam, you may find it useful to look at the sample solution to the assignment. Note that your answer may not exactly match the proposed solution - but there are more ways than one to achieve the same goal. There is more than one correct solution.

Dec 2, 2007 Sample Exam from last year

• We will be reviewing parts of last year's exam in tutorial this week. You should print off a copy of it before coming to class. You can find old exams online at the library

Nov 30, 2007 Assignment 2 automarker and sample solutions have been posted

• The TA responsible for marking your second assignment have made the solution and automarker scripts available to you. These have been posted for you to download here. This may help you understand the rationale used in the marking process.

Nov 27, 2007 Assignment 3 clarifications and revised week 12 notes

• A3 clarifications have been posted on the A3 FAQ page.
• The notes for Week 12 of lecture have been modified slightly. Please download a revised version

Nov 21, 2007 Assignment 3 has been modified significantly!!

Please note that Assignment 3 has just been changed. Please download the newest version of the assignment and discard the old one. The older version is no longer valid and will not be marked.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Nov 19, 2007 Assignment 3 clarifications have been posted

Some clarifications and suggestions for A3 have been posted on the A3 FAQ page. Be sure to check both the A3 FAQ page and the course bulletin board on a regular basis.

Nov 10, 2007 Assignment 2 submission extension

The submission date for assignment two has been extended by a day to Tuesday, November 13th at 1:00 p.m..

Nov 9, 2007 New Assignment 2 DDL and clarifications and sample Midterm Solutions have been posted

A few more clarifications for A2 have been posted on the A2 FAQ page.
Sample solutions to the midterms are available on the Marks page.

Nov 8, 2007 Assignment 2 clarifications have been posted

Some clarifications for A2 have been posted on the A2 FAQ page.

Oct 31, 2007 Tuesday Section - No Tutorial on November 1

Just a reminder that there is no tutorial on Thursday this week for the Tuesday section.

Oct 28, 2007 Material covered by the midterm

The midterm covers all course material up to and including embedded SQL (lecture 6). Some exam questions will be similar to ones you did for assignment 1, also textbook questions covered during tutorials. In addition, there are short questions that test your breadth of knowledge of course material.

The best preparation for the midterm consists of attending lectures and tutorials, reading the textbook and doing exercises such as those you were shown in class and during tutorials.

We won't post past tests on the course website.

Oct 26, 2007 Answers to Odd-Numbered Questions in Text

Some of you were trying to find the student webpage for the text which contains solutions to odd-numbered questions from the text.  You can access this and other information at McGraw Hill.

Oct 26, 2007 Wednesday Section Only- Change in Pre-Midterm Office Hours

Due to a previous committment, I cannot hold office hours on Tuesday as we discussed in class. Instead, I will be in my office on Monday from 4 - 7. If you need help with any of the material, I will be pleased to help you then … faye

Oct 26, 2007 Assignment 2 is now posted

Assignment 2 is posted and can be accessed at the Assignment page

Oct 26, 2007 Volunteers needed for

Make yourself feel good this holiday season! Epilepsy Toronto’s Annual Gift Wrap Campaign turns 16 this year!  Urgent! They still need hundreds of Volunteers!

• From December 1st to December 24th, 2007, Epilepsy Toronto will provide Gift Wrapping Services at: Scarborough Town Centre, Toronto Eaton Centre, Erin Mills Town Centre, Hillcrest Mall, and The Promenade Shopping Centre.
   
• The sixteenth Annual Gift Wrap Campaign promises to be the best campaign to hit the malls.  We expect this holiday season to be a busy one and we need your help as a Volunteer for this event.
 
• If you have any questions or concerns regarding this posting or volunteering for Epilepsy Toronto and the Gift Wrap Campaign, please contact: Lee Conley. Director, Social Services and Volunteers, 416-964-9095 or go to their webpage at http://www.epilepsytoronto.org/
 
• We are so lucky that we are healthy enough to be here at U of T, most of their clients are not so fortunate. Epilepsy Toronto operates on a shoestring budget and offers support to many people in the community - assisting anyone with epilepsy who needs their help. Thank you for any assistance you may offer - if you could find the time to volunteer for this (or any cause) it would be great … Sincerely, faye  
 

Oct 7, 2007 Assignment 1 clarifications

The following should clear up some questions you may have:

• Some students have noted that we refer to Vendor ID or Employee ID. Though these fields have not been explicitly specified, they are implicitly required. Therefore, it is recommended that you create an ID field as a primary keythat uniquely identifies each Employee or Vendor.
• In question 2, a dependency is missing. Again, it is implicit and obvious, but just in case, here it is:
     PatientRoomAssignment(prDoctor) Employee(employeeID)

Oct 5, 2007 Assignment 1 Testing DDL

Suggestions have been added to the A1 FAQ page which may help you to verify that your DDL for question 1 works correctly.

Oct 2, 2007 Assignment 1 Clarification

In the first paragraph on the top of page 2, question 1, it states:
… A single purchase order item received at the warehouse may be distributed to ten different locations.
This is not a constraint. This statement was added to illustrate how one item from a shipment may be distributed to many different locations, not to limit the number of distribution locations You should NOT add a constraint which limits the distribution to 10 items.

Oct 1, 2007 Course schedule change

We have rearranged the scheduled order in which we will present the topics for this course. Both the lecture and the tutorial webpages have been modified to reflect this new order.

Sep 28, 2007 PostgreSQL is available on CDF

PostgreSQL is now available to you on CDF. Please follow the instructions available to on the PostgreSQL page. Pay special attention to the Environment Instructions and to which server has been assigned to you.
Students who are new to CDF see the announcement on this page (Sep 10, 2007) which tells you how to acccess your account on CDF.
If you are having problems connecting to your database, Faye Baron will be available during office hours (Wednesday 4 - 5 p.m. in BA4261) to walk you through the process and make sure you are actually set up ok. Students from either section are welcome to drop by.

Sep 27, 2007 Relational Algebra Symbols

If you are using Microsoft Word to format your first assignment, you may download this Word document which contains some of the relational algebra symbols you will require.

September 21 2007 Assignment 1 is posted

Assignment 1 is now posted on the assignment page of this website. You are encouraged to get started early to make sure that you have a proper grasp of the material you must understand for this assignment.

Sep 10, 2007 Your CDF Account

When you register for this course you are given an account on the CDF computer network. You will use this account to electronically submit assignments.

Look up your CDF username: http://www.cdf.toronto.edu/cgi-bin/webfinger

Sep 10, 2007 Using Stylus Studio to verify your XML this term

This term you may download a trial version of Stylus Studio — from their website.
This will enable you to verify your XML queries for Assignment 3 and reinforce your XML skills. They have given us an activation code which you can use to the end of the term. It will be distributed to you in class.