How to get started on database

Awais Muhammed

Hey guys. I am building an application in c# for inventory management. It will be handling many orders, products, customers etc. This software will have a desktop and mobile versions (with the help of xamarin) all of which will be inputting and outputting information.
I am still learning c# with XAML but I have very limited knowledge when it comes to database and how I will go about storing all the information. There are many different database technologies that exist so don't know which one to opt for.

I would ideally like to store information offline somewhere on the computer or on an internal network server but also have the option to transfer the database to cloud (internet) without much setup.

I do know that MySQL is an actual data management software where it contains all the data and SQL is a (programming) language that is used to make queries and execute other commands to MySQL. Shall I start learning this technology and would I be able to use it with what I want to build? If yes, is this course (link below) comprehensive enough?
And once I am familiar with MySQL, how do I go about moving it to cloud?

https://www.udemy.com/the-ultimate-mysql-bootcamp-go-from-sql-beginner-to-expert/

Any guidance, advice or pointers will be much appreciated and my apologies if I wasn't clear enough or have made mistakes.

Thank You.

3 Replies

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Tushar Dikshit8y ago
Accepted answer
Hi,
Data or rather Database is very important part of any software application, web, mobile or desktop.
Inventory management means you are developing a software which will do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operation in database.

Step1.
Approach - Now days two types of databases used NOSQL /(DocumentDB) and SQL i.e. Relational database.
For your application it will be relational databse.

Step 2.
RDBMS
If you don't know much go through following links,
https://beginnersbook.com/2015/04/rdbms-concepts/
https://www.webucator.com/tutorial/learn-sql/relational-database-basics.cfm
https://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_intro.asp
Step 3.
Very important identify entities (data entities) and relations.
For example in invenotory system you would have a Product, Orders, Invoice etc.
So product will have details like ProductName, Price, Color etc.
Same, Order will have Date, Quantity, Product and Date etc.

So Product , Order ect will be your entities that will transform into tables.

Relation -:
Each order will have refernce to product.
Refer some simple examples here.
https://beginnersbook.com/2015/04/e-r-model-in-dbms/
Develop your E-R diagrams.

Step 4.
Choose Product : You can use MS SQL Server, Oracle or MySQL etc.
MySQL is free while others are paid.

Any of above database can work with any of fornt end .NET or Java or PHP.

Hope this gets you started.
Thanks,
Tushar
Tushar Dikshit8y ago
Awais Muhammed Thank for your words. Means a lot.
Awais Muhammed8y ago
You are awesome Mr. Dikshit.
Thanks for all your help and really appreciate your time.