Creating an inventory database requires planning and choosing a DBMS such as MySQL, Microsoft Access, or Oracle. Decide what data to store, create tables, normalize the database, and test it. Choose a DBMS based on cost, platform, and learning curve. Use a GUI or SQL language to create tables and ensure normalization.
Creating an inventory database requires as much preparation and planning as the first selection of a database management system (DBMS) that you will use. MySQL, Microsoft (MS) Access and Oracle are among the most used systems. You will then need to decide what type of information you will need to store in the inventory database. There are three types of data: order information, product or service, and buyer or customer inventory. Your final steps will be to actually create the database and the tables it contains, complete the normalization process, populate the tables – even if only with test data – and test the newly created database.
Choosing which DBMS to use is generally based on the cost of the software, the platforms it can run on, how steep the learning curve is for you or the employees who will be responsible for managing inventory and troubleshooting inventory when they occur. MySQL is open source software that is freely available via Internet download and is often bundled with free distributions of server versions of the Linux operating system. Access may not be a good choice for large companies, and Oracle, which is quite expensive, has a very steep learning curve. Once you’ve determined the exact type of data you need, you’ll be ready to start building your inventory database, which can usually be accomplished using a graphical user interface (GUI) such as PHPMyAdmin or on the command line using the SQL language .
If you will be performing administrative tasks using a GUI, the process should be self explanatory and there should be program documentation for you to consult. Creating an inventory database on the command line requires at least a very strong basic understanding of the SQL language, which is almost always used to work with databases. The words “create database” followed by the name you choose to give your database are the command to issue. You will then need to issue the “use” command followed by the same name you chose to access it to start creating the necessary tables to hold all the necessary data types. This is started with the “create table” command, followed by the table name, along with other commands that set parameters, such as foreign keys, primary keys, null values, and character lengths.
These functions can almost always be performed via a GUI as well. It is very important that your inventory database is normalized, a process necessary to ensure that it can grow in size and be updated while maintaining integrity so that accurate reports are always available on what business decisions are being made. Depending on the number of tables and data types, normalization, which can be a very involved process, could be left to a database specialist. There are three forms of normalization: first normal form (1NF), second normal form (2NF), and third normal form (3NF). It is not recommended to attempt to achieve normalization after the inventory database has actually been created.
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