The Northwind database is a typical mail order management system.
The core of the database is composed of two tables: Orders and Order Details. Each sale is recorded in the Orders table. Items purchased are recorded in the Order Details table.
![Orders and Order Details tables from Northwind database Orders and Order Details tables from Northwind database](/blog/2012/03/understanding-project/image02.png)
Orders table has references to Customers, Employees, and Shippers. Orders table also contains information about Order Date, Required Date, Shipped Date, Freight Amount, and the shipping details.
![Orders table and foreign keys in Northwind database Orders table and foreign keys in Northwind database](/blog/2012/03/understanding-project/image04.png)
Order Details table refers to Products and indirectly references Categories and Suppliers. Order Details will contain a few fields taken from all of these foreign key relationships.
![image image](/blog/2012/03/understanding-project/image06.png)
This is the baseline version of the orders screen, created automatically by the web application generator.
![Baseline version of Orders screen Baseline version of Orders screen](/blog/2012/03/understanding-project/image08.png)
We will create a custom version of this form, to make the order entry process as friendly as possible.