What is a Database User?
Those users that use the database and avail of the benefits are called users of the database.
Or in other words, any person who can access the database of a part of the database using an application is called a database user. The users can be authorized and unauthorized depending upon the allowability to access the information to the user in the database.
Types of Users in Database
Based on the interaction with the database, the users can be categorized into the following types –
- Database Administrators
- Application Programmers / Back-End Developers
- Naive Users / Parametric Users
- Sophisticated Users
- Casual Users / Temporary Users
Database Administrator
Database Administrator which is commonly known by its short form i.e., DBA is a person or a team who defines the schema and also controls the three levels of the database.
The DBA will then create a new account id and password for the user if he/she needs to access the database.
DBA is also responsible for providing security to the database and he allows only authorized users to access or modify the database
DBA also monitors the recovery and backup and provides technical support
The DBA has a DBA account in the DBMS which is called a system or superuser account.
System Analyst
Those users that check whether the requirements of the end users are fulfilled or not are known as System Analysts.
Naïve Users
Naive users are unsophisticated users who interact with the system by invoking one of the application programs that have been written previously. For example, a bank teller who needs to transfer $50 from account A to account B invokes a program called transfer. This program asks the teller for the amount of money to be transferred, the account from which the money is to be transferred, and the account to which the money is to be transferred.
As another example, consider a user who wishes to find her account balance over the World Wide Web. Such a user may access a form, where she enters her account number. An application program at the Web server then retrieves the account balance, using the given account number, and passes this information back to the user. The typical user interface for naive users is a forms interface, where the user can fill in appropriate fields of the form. Naive users may also simply read reports generated from the database.
Application Programmers
Application programmers are computer professionals who write application programs. Application programmers can choose from many tools to develop user interfaces. Rapid application development (RAD) tools are tools that enable an application programmer to construct forms and reports without writing a program. There are also special types of programming languages that combine imperative control structures (for example, for loops, while loops, and if-then-else statements) with statements of the data manipulation language. These languages, sometimes called fourth-generation languages, often include special features to facilitate the generation of forms and the display of data on the screen. Most major commercial database systems include a fourth-generation language
Sophisticated Users
Sophisticated users interact with the system without writing programs. Instead, they form their requests in a database query language. They submit each such query to a query processor, whose function is to break down DML statements into instructions that the storage manager understands. Analysts who submit queries to explore data in the database fall in this category.
Specialized Users
Specialized users are sophisticated users who write specialized database applications that do not fit into the traditional data-processing framework.
Casual Users
These are the type of users that use the database very less or occasionally.
So, in this article, we learned about the various types of users that use the database. Each different type of user has a specific task and contributes their part to a database.
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