S305/S520 -- Database Management
Videos Unlimited, Inc. (VUI) Case Study
Overview
Videos Unlimited, Inc. (VUI) is a regional video store franchise, serving the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan and selected portions of Northern Wisconsin with 50 stores. Currently, VUI is
represented by individually owned and operated stores in small-to-medium-sized cities and
towns (approximately 1000 - 15000 in population size). Transactions have been conducted on a
cash basis and customer records have been kept manually on 3X5 cards contained in small recipe
boxes. The VUI stores do not have membership plans nor do they require deposits. The movie
and tape inventory of each store is maintained on hand-written journal sheets stored in a threering binder and updated on a quarterly basis.
The VUI store managers pride themselves on their ability to maintain a level of comfortable,
"hometown" service to their customers: being able to greet customers by name, engaging
customers in conversation about their favorite movies, special ordering of movies for frequent
customers, and "grace periods" for returns of movies from frequent customers. Although the
"hometown" flavor to customer service is noted as a strength of these video stores, their profits
are slowly being eroded by such national video chains as Blockbuster Video and Captain Video
Rentals that can more readily stock the recent releases, can provide a greater variety of movies in
a single store, can locate hard-to-find movies in their nationwide database, and are open for
longer hours each day.
At a recent day-long meeting of all managers, the topic of how to improve store operations (and
thus profits) was debated at great length. The president and CEO of VUI, Joe Warner, challenged
the managers to identify how the "hometown" service could be maintained while competing with
the national video rental chains. After much discussion, the managers and the president agreed
that it was time for VUI to use information technology in support of their business objectives. In
particular, VUI wants to develop a region-wide database application for tracking customers,
movies, and rentals in all of their stores.
A team of consultants was hired to develop preliminary information requirements based on
interviews with VUI store managers and clerks. The preliminary information requirements (i.e.,
what data is currently captured, what is the current organization of the data, what events need to
be supported by the system) have been documented in the textual narrative in the remainder of
this document.
Your assignment is to take the next steps in the analysis/design process: (1) refine the initial
information requirements; (2) develop the conceptual data model; (3) translate the conceptual
data model into the logical design (for a relational model); and (4) use Microsoft Access to
produce a prototype of the VUI Video Rental System (see last page for prototype requirements).
VUI Operations
Rental information: The standard time period for a rental is two days after the borrowed tape is
issued. However, "new release" tapes are due back within 24 hours after the borrowed tape is
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issued. From time to time, individual stores run weekend or holiday promotions which permit
customers to check-out 4 tapes for 3 days. If the customer fails to return the borrowed tapes
within a one-day grace period from the agreed-upon return date noted on the rental receipt, then
it is time to contact the customer by phone to request return of the items.
A rental is the borrowing of a tape to a particular person in exchange for cash. A rental has a
check-out date, a return date, and a rental charge. If a tape is late, there is a late charge of $2.00
per day. The rental fee is not the same for all movies; some are higher than others (e.g., new
releases, special orders). Customers can rent more than one tape at a time.
Movie information: A movie is a cassette of video tape with a pre-recorded movie that can be
rented. Selected movies can also be bought by customers at certain stores. Each movie has an
identification number, a name, a release date, a type (western, adventure, action, comedy, science
fiction, true crime, family, musical, biography, etc.), a purchase price, names of key
actors/actresses, and rental rate. There can be more than one copy of each movie.
A movie copy can be rented, it can be sitting on the shelf waiting to be rented, it can be new (not
entered into the system yet), it can be overdue from rental period, it can be reserved for a
customer, or it can be available for sale (but not rental). Movie copies are purchased from
national wholesalers on a monthly basis to replenish each store's inventory. The store price for
all movies for sale is calculated based on a 10% markup from the price paid by VUI to the
wholesaler.
Customer information: Customers have an identification number, names, address, and phone.
VUI would like to track the renting history of its members and reward those members who
maintain a frequent renting record (at least 2 tapes per week) or a yearly record (more than 100
tapes a year). Further, in keeping with the "hometown" service aspect of VUI, there is a need to
allow for: customer reservation of movies, customer searching for movies by actor/actress, and
store tracking of customer movie type preference.
Other details
At a later date, VUI would like to enlarge their base of operations to include outlets at gas
stations and 24-hour food marts. Key to this operational expansion will be the database for
tracking customers/members, movies, and rentals so that VUI operations can continue outside of
the franchise stores. Management anticipates that the prototype database will provide a means of
quickly tracking inventory and customers regardless of the rental site.
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There are a number of standard events that the Video Rental system must accommodate. The
following table provides a sample set of events that the Video Rental system must support:
Sample Events for the Video Rental System
Event 1
Customer requests tape for rental from VUI store.
Event 2
Customer makes rental payment.
Event 3
VUI store clerk adds new movie to store inventory.
Event 4
VUI store manager retires old movie copies from store inventory.
Event 5
Customer pays late charge.
Event 6
VUI store manager submits a rental rate change to a movie.
Event 7
Customer returns tape to VUI store.
Event 8
VUI store clerk needs to produce a report of current movie rentals from the
store.
Event 9
VUI store clerk adds a new customer to the store database.
Event 10
VUI store clerk changes a customer's phone number.
Event 11
VUI store manager needs to view a list of active customers.
Event 12
VUI store manager needs to review the store's movie inventory and determine
what additional movie copies to order from the wholesaler.
Event 13
Customer requests a movie to be reserved from a VUI store.
Event 14
Customer buys a movie from a VUI store.
Event 15
VUI store manager needs to review current members and their rental history to
determine upcoming rental promotions.
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You have been provided with a Movies database (Courtesy of Bruce Rollier). The database
contains a superset (over 1,200 titles) of the movies titles in your store so you will not need to
enter movie title information. The following is the data model for the database.
DIRECTOR
PK
CATEGORY
PK
DIRNAME
CNTRYID
DIRBORN
DIRDIED
SEX
COUNTRY
CATID
PK
CNTRYID
CategoryDesc
CountryName
MOVIE
PK
FK3
FK1
FK2
DIRNUM
STAR
MVNUM
PK
MVTITLE
MVYEAR
CATEGORY
MPAA
LEN
NOMS
AWRDS
WWGROSS
USGROSS
CNTRYID
DIRNUM
BESTDIR
BESTPIC
BESTEDIT
BESTFOR
BESTWRITE
FK1
STARNUM
STARNAME
BIRTHPLACE
CNTRYID
STARBORN
STARDIED
SEX
DEATHCAUSE
MOVSTAR
PK,FK1
PK,FK2
MVNUM
STARNUM
BESTM
BESTF
SUPM
SUPF
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DATABASE REQUIREMENTS:
1. Modify the existing Movies database tables as necessary and create the appropriate
tables.
2. Create the relationships between the tables specified in the relational schema provided.
Referential integrity should be enforced for all relationships.
3. Populate the newly created tables. Although there are 50 stores, only include the holdings
for three of the locations with 10-20 titles per location.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
1. Your system should be able to respond the previously listed events. You should also
gather additional data on video store operations from other sources.
2. Use the following scenario as a means for validating your system.
An existing customer, Juan Dos, has visited one of your store locations and performs the
following queries (note that the first two queries can be completed without any modifications to
the Movie database so you may get started on those immediately)
Query Name
Canadian and
Mexican
Actresses
Description
List (in this order) the Movie name, the star, and the year of all movies
featuring stars from Canada or Mexico. The query should sort the
result by Movie name in ascending order.
Best Female
Directors
List (in this order) the movie title, the director, and the year of all
movies that both received a best picture award and were directed by a
woman.
Customer
Favorites
List (in this order) the favorite movie, and customer name of each
customer. The results should be sorted first by movie title, then by
customer name.
PG Comedies
at Each
Location
List (in this order), the store name and the number of PG comedy
movies at that store. Sort the results by number of PG movies (in
descending order) then by store name (ascending order).
Later that same visit, Juan rents the following three movies (He also updates his favorite movie
to “The Matrix”)
Movie
Toy Story (1995)
Vertigo (1958)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
He also returns a movie he rented 3 weeks ago and pays the fine.
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3. At the end of each transaction (rentals, returns, and sales), the system should be capable
of generating a summary report. Create the following rental receipt as an MS Access
Report (see rental receipt example below). You should make your report look as much
like this sample as possible. Hint: The fastest way to create this report is to use the Report
Wizard first, then modify the wizard output to match the sample. The calculated fields
can be created in the wizard.
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