CHAPTER

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Chapter Three: System Design – Nigerian Citizens Registration Management System In Sudan

SYSTEM DESIGN
PREFACE:
The goal of the Design phase is to transform the requirements specifications that
had been determined and documented into a structure that is suitable for
implementation. The Requirement Collection phase determined what the system
is supposed to do, while the Design phase decides how the system should do it.

3.1 ENTITY RELATIONSHIP (ER) DIAGRAM

Entity-relationship modeling is a database modeling method, used to produce a
type of semantic data model of a system, often a relational database, and its
requirements in a top-down fashion. An entity may be defined as a thing which
is recognized as being capable of an independent existence and which can be
uniquely identified. A relationship captures how two or more entities are related
to one another. [8]

Every entity (unless it is a weak entity) must have a minimal set of uniquely
identifying attributes, which is called the entity's primary key.

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3.1.1 ER DIAGRAM NOTATIONS

Fig 3.1 Types of ER Diagram Notations [9]

Usage of Chen notation is more prevalent in the United States, while usage of
Crow's Foot notation was used primarily in the UK.

In this project Peter Chen’s notation will be used and the convention requires
the use of the following symbols:

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NOTATION NAME DESCRIPTION

They are the "things" about which
Entity
we seek information.
Is an entity that must defined by a
ENTITY foreign key relationship with
Weak Entity another entity as it cannot be
uniquely identified by its own
attributes alone.
It provides the structure needed to
Relationship draw information from multiple
entities.

Recursive Is a relationship where entities are

Relationship self-linked.

They are the data we collect

Attribute about the entities. Attributes with
primary key are underlined.

Multi-valued They are attributes that can have

Attribute more than one value.

Is an attribute which value is

Derived Attribute
based on another attribute.

Table 3.1 - ER Diagram (Peter Chen) Notations

Cardinality specifies how many instances of an entity relate to one instance of

another entity. Ordinality is also closely linked to cardinality. While
cardinality specifies the occurrences of a relationship, ordinality describes the
relationship as either mandatory or optional. In other words, cardinality
specifies the maximum number of relationships and ordinality specifies the
absolute minimum number of relationships.

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3.1.2 LIST OF ENTITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS

Identifying entities and defining their relationships make a design easier to be
understood. Understandability of a design is a major factor which is used to
evaluate the goodness of a design, since a design that is easily understandable is
also easy to maintain and adapt changes. [3]

 Entities
o Citizen
o Staff
o Passport
o Sponsor
o State
o Qualifications
o Profession
o Kinship
o Notes
o Authority
o Country
o Photos
 Relationships
o Supervisor administers Staff
o Staff registers Citizen
o Citizen holds a Passport
o Authority issues Passport
o Passport holder originated from a Country
o Passport has a Photo
o Citizen was born in a State
o Citizen is sponsored by Sponsor
o Citizen has Qualifications
o Citizen specializes in Profession
o Kinship relates to Citizen
o Citizen has Notes

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Fig 3.2 ER diagram

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3.3 DATA DICTIONARY (DD)

UML Diagrams, ER-Diagrams, DFDs and other modeling diagrams define the
relationship between data flow, store, processes and the various inputs and
outputs. What they do not define are the details of the data. All the elements
mentioned need to be recorded to make the system description complete. The
data elements are the lowest level data items, which are the building blocks for
the data structure. All the elements are documented in the Data Dictionary
(DD).

Several definitions of Data Dictionary exist and vary among text books. One
popular definition is:

“A Data Dictionary is a central depository of all the elements that are used in a
system.”

As the name suggests, it is a place where the System Architect records all the
elements of the system. Just like the dictionary where you look up the meaning
of a word, its usage, spelling etc, the Data Dictionary is a place where you find
the details of an element.

Data Dictionary usage description:

 Name – is the original element name as used in the database.

 Type – is the data type used for the element
 Length – is the maximum length of the element
 Alias – is the field name that is displayed to the end user in the User
Interface
 Key – is the key (primary, foreign, index, unique) that is used for an
element
 Description – is a short description of the element

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Authority Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
Authority A unique code that identifies
AuthorityCode Char 4 Primary
Code each Authority
It represents the Authority that
AuthorityName Varchar 45 Authority Unique
issued passport to a citizen.

Table 3.2 Authority is a basic table that holds all the names of authorized
passport issuers (for Nigeria of course) all over the globe.

Country Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
Country A unique code that identifies
CountryCode Char 3 Primary
Code each Country
It represents passport
CountryName Varchar 45 Nationality Unique
holder’s country of origin.
Table 3.3 Country is a basic table that holds all the names of eligible countries
which their citizens can apply for a Nigerian Passport according to the Nigerian
constitution.

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Passport Table
NAME TYPE LENGTH ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
A unique number preceded
PassportNo Char 9 Passport No. Primary by a letter that identifies
each passport
A single character that
PassportType Char 1 Passport Type
categorized passport types
It links citizen with his
CountryCode Char 3 Foreign
country name
PersonalNo Int 8 Personal No Default is Null
It links passport with the
AuthorityCode Char 4 Foreign
name of its Authority
Surname Char 20 Second Name Index
Concatenation of citizen
GivenNames Char 41 Given Names Index ‘First Name’ and ‘Last
Name’ from citizen table
DOB Date Date Date of Birth Citizen date of birth
Citizen gender - Male or
Sex Enum ‘M’, ‘F’ Gender Index
Female
Citizen original place of
BirthPlace Varchar 30 Place of Birth Index
birth
IssueDate Date Date Date of Issue Passport date of issue
Date of
ExpiryDate Date Date Index Passport date of expiry
Expiry
Table 3.3 Passport is a transaction table that holds citizens passport data.

Kinship Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
Kinship A unique code that identifies
KinshipCode Char 3 Primary
Code each kinship
It represents the kinship
KinshipType Varchar 45 Kinship Unique (relationship) type between a
citizen and his next of kin
Table 3.4 Kinship is a basic table that holds kinship between a citizen and his
next of kin.

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Profession Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
Profession A unique code that
ProfessionCode Char 3 Primary
Code identifies each profession
It represents citizen’s
ProfessionName Varchar 45 Profession Unique
profession
Table 3.5 Profession is a basic table for all list of profession of citizens.

Qualification Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
A unique code that
Qualification
QualificationCode Char 3 Primary identifies each
Code
qualifications
It represents citizen’s
QualificationType Varchar 45 Qualifications Unique
qualifications

Table 3.6 Qualification is a basic table for all qualifications.

Sponsor Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
Sponsor A unique code that identifies
SponsorCode Char 4 Primary
Code each sponsor category
Sponsor It categorizes citizens
SponsorType Varchar 45 Unique
Type sponsors

Table 3.7 Sponsor is a basic table that holds all sponsor categories.

State Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
A unique code that identifies
StateCode Char 4 State Code Primary
each state of origin
State of The names of all the states of
StateName Varchar 45 Unique
Origin origin
Table 3.8 State is a basic table that holds all citizens state of origin.

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Citizen Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
A unique code that
identifies and links each
RegNO Int 6 Reg No Primary citizen with his other
records. And it’s
automatically incremented
Passport It links a citizen with his
PassportNo Char 9 Foreign
No passport data
First
FirstName Char 20 Index Citizen’s first name
Name
Second
Surname Char 20 Index Citizen’s surname
Name
LastName Char 20 Last Name Index Citizen’s last name
It links citizen with his
ProfessionCode Char 3 Foreign
profession name
It links citizen with his
QualificationCode Char 3 Foreign
qualifications
JobTitle Varchar 30 Job Title Citizen’s current job title
Job Citizen’s life time job
JobHistory Text 64kb
History history, if any, else Null
Sudan Citizen’s current Sudan
PhoneNo Char 14 Index
Phone phone no
Address in Citizen’s current address
Address Varchar 255
Sudan in Sudan
Place of Citizen’s original place of
BirthPlace Varchar 30 Index
Birth birth
State of It links citizen with his
StateCode Char 4 Foreign
Origin state of origin’s name
Sex Enum ‘M’,’F’ Gender Citizen’s gender
‘Single’,
‘Married’, Marital
MaritalStatus Enum Index Citizen’s marital status
‘Widowed’ Status
,‘Divorced’
Number of dependants on
Dependant
NoOfDependants Tinyint 3 citizen – e.g children, etc,
s in Sudan
if any, else Null
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Date of
DOB Date Date Citizen’s date of birth
Birth
Date of Citizen’s first date of
ArrivalDate Date Date Index
Arrival arrival to Sudan
Purpose of coming to
Purpose Varchar 45 Purpose
Sudan
The date and time that a
citizen is registered in the
Date & Registrati
RegDate Datetime system which is
Time on Date
automatically stamped by
the system
The date that a citizen is
expected to finish his
period of stay in Sudan.
Deactivati
DeactivateDate Date Date Index The system will
on Date
automatically change the
citizen’s activity status to
inactive after the date
The status that a citizen is
‘Active’, Current
ActivityStatus Enum Index believed to be staying in
‘Inactive’ Status
Sudan
It links a citizen with his
KinshipCode Char 3 Foreign
Next of Kin kinship type
Citizen’s Next of kin
KinName Varchar 45 Kin Name Index
name in Sudan
Kin Next of kin address in
KinAddress Varchar 255
Address Sudan
Kin Next of kin phone number
KinPhone Char 14 Index
Phone in Sudan
It links a citizen with his
SponsorCode Char 4 Foreign
sponsor category
Sponsor Name of citizen sponsor
SponsorName Varchar 45 Index
name in Sudan
Sponsor Address of citizen sponsor
SponsorAddress Varchar 255
Address in Sudan
Sponsor Sponsor phone number in
SponsorPhone Char 14 Index
Phone Sudan
Nigeria Citizen’s permanent
NGAPhone Char 14 Index
Phone phone number in Nigeria
Nigeria Citizen fax number in
NGAFax Char 14
Fax Nigeria, if any, else Null
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Nigeria Citizen’s permanent

NGAAddress Varchar 255
Address address in Nigeria
The last time a citizen
Last data was edited. This will
TimeSta Date &
LastUpdate Update be automatically changed
mp Time
Date by the system upon
change
Table 3.9 Citizen is a transaction table that holds all citizen information

Notes Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
A unique code that identifies
NoteID Int 9 Primary each note and it’s
automatically incrementing
RegNo Int 6 Foreign It links a citizen with his notes

Note Text 64kb Remarks Content of the notes

An automatic timestamp of the
Date & Remarks
NoteDate Timestamp Index date the note is recorded in the
Time Date
system

Table 3.10 Notes is a transaction table that holds all remarks on citizen, if any.

Photos Table
NAME TYPE LENGHT ALIAS KEY DESCRIPTION
A unique code that identifies
PhotoID Int 6 Primary
each Photo
Passport It links a citizen with his
PassportNo Char 9 Foreign
No photograph
The size of the photograph in
PhotoSize Int 10
bytes
Medium Citizen photograph file saves
PhotoFile 16MB Photo
Blob in bytes

Table 3.11 Photos is a transaction table that holds citizens photographs.

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