Topic 3 - Database Structure
The School and Career Database is a relational database, with several related files that are connected. The Main Menu, shown on the right, provides access to most of the main files in the database. The diagram below illustrates the main files and relationships in the database.
The STW (School to Work Participation) file contains information about who did what. Layout 1 of the STW file is the "Placement Screen" which is the most familiar screen in the database. Records in this file identify an activity, a student, an employer, a contact/supervisor, a school, and sometimes a school contact.
The Employer file contains one record for each employer you work with. Employers don't need to be job or internship sites to be included here. You may include anyone who you'd like to have on a mailing list or phone list. For each employer, you can have one or more contacts (such as a president, an HR manager, and an internship supervisor) who will be stored in the Contacts file.
The Schools file contains one record for each school in your region. The School Contacts (SContact) file can contain one or more contacts at each school ... such as teachers, career specialists, MCAS coordinators or guidance counselors.
The Activity file contains one record for each activity that you will track in your database. For example, it might contain a record for Classroom in the Workplace Summer 2007, Project Success 2007-2008, Prostart Internships 2007-2008, and Career Day 2008.
The Work-Based Learning Plans file (AllPlans.skl) contains work-based learning plans. These may be linked to the STW file via a JobNumber, so that you'll know which plan belongs with which job.
The MCASScores file contains data on student MCAS scores, with one record for each test taken for each student. MCAS data is linked to the STW.skl file using the Student ID field (StudID).
The database uses the following ID numbers to link these files:
- STW file - StudID (Students) and JobNumber (for each placement or other record)
- Schools - SchoolID
- School Contacts - StaffTeacherID
- Activities - RecordID
- Employer - EmplID
- Contacts - ContactID or RN
Close the database and use "My Computer" to look in the folder MassSTW2008.
The following types of files make up the database:
- *.SKL files (data files) such as:
- STWMenu.SKL (the menu)
- STW.SKL (School to Career Participation)
- Activity.SKL
- Employer.SKL
- Etc.
- MassSTW.EXE (the executable file that runs the database... it does not contain any data)
- Other FileMaker Pro system files (usually ending with *.dll)