Technological issues of storing dynamic data in a relational database on research projects

Abstract

The paper examines the possibility of storing dynamic data in a relational database. Under dynamic data the paper refers to data with variable structure and variable nature of different periods in terms of research projects. The relational model of databases, which is used everywhere, presents each entity of the system in a separate table. Reasonable, relationships and dependencies between them are described by defining the relationship between the relational tables. Thus, changes in nomenclatures which would lead to changes in the databases of information system will cause the need for new fields in relational tables, or even new tables and relationships that will inevitably lead to changes in software solutions. The paper focuses on how we can reorganize the data in the system, so changes in the database due to changes in database structure to be minimal. The aim of this paper is to examine the way the data for research projects is stored within the database. Specific for the data is that it has a different structure for each calendar year. For this reason, a relational database should often change its structure in order to determine proper functioning of the system. The paper presents a method of storing data on the principle of attribute – value, where the software part cares for the integrity of the data and the database takes care only for the storage. The paper presents a model for such a dynamic storage in a relational database and examines its advantages and disadvantages.