Abstract
A key area of focus in recent Computer Science education research has been block-based programming. In this approach, program instructions are represented as visual blocks with shapes that control the way multiple instructions can be combined. Since programs are created by dragging and connecting blocks, the focus is on the program's logic rather than its syntax. In this demonstration we present DBSnap, a system that enables building database queries, specifically relational algebra queries, by connecting blocks. A differentiating property of DBSnap is that it uses a visual tree-based structure to represent queries. This structure is, in fact, very similar to the intuitive query trees commonly used by database practitioners and educators. DBSnap is also highly dynamic, it shows the query result and the corresponding relational algebra expression as the query is built and enables the inspection of intermediate query results. This paper describes DBSnap's main design elements, its architecture and implementation guidelines, and the interactive demonstration scenarios. DBSnap is a publicly available system and aims to have a transformational effect on database learning.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Proceedings - International Conference on Data Engineering |
Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
Pages | 1472-1475 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Volume | 2015-May |
ISBN (Print) | 9781479979639 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 26 2015 |
Event | 2015 31st IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE 2015 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of Duration: Apr 13 2015 → Apr 17 2015 |
Other
Other | 2015 31st IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE 2015 |
---|---|
Country | Korea, Republic of |
City | Seoul |
Period | 4/13/15 → 4/17/15 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Signal Processing
- Software