[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 23 (Friday, February 3, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6698-6700]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-2688]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Institute of Standards and Technology
[Docket No. 940550-4335]
RIN 0693-AB28
Approval of Federal Information Processing Standards Publication
193, SQL Environments
AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce that the Secretary
of Commerce has approved a new standard, which will be published as
FIPS Publication 193, SQL Environments. On June 22, 1994 (59 FR 32186-
32188) notice was published in the Federal Register that a Federal
Information Processing Standard for SQL Environments was being proposed
for Federal use.
NIST reviewed written comments submitted by interested parties and
other available material. On the basis of this review, NIST recommended
that the Secretary approve the standard as a Federal Information
Processing Standard (FIPS), and prepared a detailed justification
document for the Secretary's review in support of that recommendation.
The detailed justification document which was presented to the
Secretary, and which includes an analysis of the written comments
received, is part of the public record and is available for inspection
and copying in the Department's Central Reference and Records
Inspection Facility, Room 6020, Herbert C. Hoover Building, 14th Street
between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues, NW., Washington, DC
20230.
This FIPS contains two sections: (1) An announcement section, which
provides information concerning the applicability, implementation, and
maintenance of the standard; and (2) a specifications section, which
deals with the technical requirements of the standard. Only the
announcement section of the standard is provided in this notice.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This standard is effective February 1, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties may purchase copies of this standard,
including the technical specifications section, from the National
Technical Information Service (NTIS). Specific ordering information
from NTIS for this standard is set out in the Where to Obtain Copies
Section of the announcement section of the standard.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mr. Leonard Gallagher, (301) 975-3251, Computer Systems Laboratory,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.
Dated: January 30, 1995.
Samuel Kramer,
Associate Director.
Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 193
(Date)
Announcing the Standard for SQL Environments
Federal Information Processing Standards Publications (FIPS PUBS)
are issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology after
approval by the Secretary of Commerce pursuant to Section 111(d) of the
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 as amended by
the Computer Security Act of 1987, Public Law 100-235.
1. Name of Standard. SQL Environments (FIPS PUB 193).
2. Category of Standard. Software Standard, Database.
3. Explanation. An SQL environment is an integrated data processing
environment in which heterogeneous products, all supporting some aspect
of the FIPS SQL standard (FIPS PUB 127), are able to communicate with
one another and provide shared access to data and data operations and
methods under appropriate security, integrity, and access control
mechanisms. Some components in an SQL environment will be full-function
SQL implementations that conform to an entire level of FIPS SQL and
support all of its required clauses of schema definition, data
manipulation, transaction management, integrity constraints, access
control, and schema information. Other components in an SQL environment
may be specialized data repositories, lagecy databases, or graphical
user interfaces and report writers, all of which support selected
portions of the SQL standard and thereby provide a degree of
integration between themselves and other products in the same SQL
environment.
This FIPS PUB is the beginning of a continuing effort to define
appropriate conformance profiles that can be used by both vendors and
users to specify and users to specify exact requirements for how
various products fit into an SQL environment. The emphasis in this
first FIPS for SQL Environments is to specify general purpose, SQL
external repository interface (SQL/ERL) profiles for non-SQL data
repositories. These profiles specify how a subset of the SQL standard
can be used to provide limited SQL access to legacy databases, or to
support SQL gateways to specialized data managers such as Geographic
Information Systems (GIS), full-text document management systems, or
object database management systems. All of the profiles specified
herein are for server-side products, that is, products that control
persistent data and provide an interface for user access to that data.
Subsequent versions of this FIPS PUB may specify SQL environment
profiles for client-side products, that is, products that access data
and then present that data in graphical or report-writer style to an
end user, or process the data in some other way on behalf of the end
user.
4. Approving Authority. Secretary of Commerce.
5. Maintenance Agency. Department of Commerce National Institute of
Standards and Technology (Computer Systems Laboratory)
6. Cross Index.
--Federal information Resources Management Regulations (FIRMR)
[[Page 6699]] subpart 201.20.303, Standards, and subpart 201.39.1002,
Federal Standards, April 1992.
--FIPS PUB 127-2, Fedeal Information Processing Standards Publication--
Database Language SQL, adoption of ANSI SQL (ANSI X3.135-1992) and ISO
SQL (ISO/IEC 9075:1992) for Federal use, U.S. Department of Commerce,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, June 2, 1993.
--ANSI/ISO/IEC 9579, International Standard for Remote Database Access
(RDA), Part 1: Generic RDA and Part 2:SQL Specialization, ISO/IEC 9579-
1:1993 and ISO/IEC 9579-2:1993, published December, 1993.
--ANSI/ISO/IEC DIS 9075-3, (Draft) International Standard for Database
Language SQL, Part 3: Call Level Interface (SQL/CLI), JTC1 Draft
International Standard (DIS), document SC21 N9117, 13 October 1994.
--ANSI/ISO/IEC CD 9075-4, (Draft) International Standard for Database
Language SQL, Part 4; Persistent Stored Modules (SQL/PSM), JTC1,
Committee Draft (CD), CD Ballot document SC21 N8897, August 1994.
7. Related Documents. SQL Environment specifications depend upon
existing standards and stable specifications (see Cross Index above)
and upon emerging SQL and SQL Multimedia standards. The following items
identify formal ISO/IEC international standards projects for which
preliminary specifications and base documents exist, but where the
development effort has not yet reached a complete and stable stage
(i.e., the Committee Draft (CD) stage). AS these specifications mature
and move through the standards process, they can be referenced more
reliably in procurement requirements.
(Working Draft) Database Language SQL (SQL3)
Part 1: Framework
Part 2: Foundation--including Abstract Data Types and Object SQL
Part 3: Call Level Interface--extensions to ISO/IEC CD 9075-3
identified above
Part 4: Persistent Stored Modules--extensions to ISO/IEC CD 9075-4
identified above
Part 5: Language Bindings--extensions to the binding clauses of
ISO/IEC 9075:1992
Part 6: Encompassing Transactions--to support X/Open XA-interface
(Working Draft) SQL Multimedia (SQL/MM)
Part 1: Framework
Part 2: Full Text
Part 3: Spatial
Part 4: General Purpose Facilities
Other Parts: Reserved for other SQL/MM sub-projects with no current
base document (e.g., images, photographs, motion pictures, sound,
music, video, etc.)
For information on the current status of the above Working Drafts,
contact NIST personnel working on SQL Standardization at 301-975-3251.
For document references to the above and for additional related
documents, see the References section of the SQL/ERI Server Profiles
specification (attached).
8. Objective. The primary objective of this FIPS PUB for SQL
Environments is to specify SQL profiles that can be used by Federal
departments and agencies to support integration of legacy databases and
other non-SQL data repositories into an SQL environment. The intent is
to provide a high level of control over a diverse collection of legacy
or specialized data resources. An SQL environment allows an
organization to obtain many of the advantages of SQL without requiring
a large, complex, and error-prone conversion effort; instead, the
organization can evolve, in a controlled manner to a new integrated
environment.
9. Applicability. This standard is applicable in any situation
where it is desirable to integrate a client-side productivity tool or a
server-side data repository into an SQL environment. It is a non-
mandatory standard that may be invoked on a case-by-case basis subject
to the integration objectives of the procuring department of agency. It
is particularly suitable for specifying limited SQL interfaces to
legacy databases or to specialized data repositories not under the
control of a full-function SQL database management system. It can be
used along with other procurement information to specify SQL interface
requirements for a wide range of data management procurements.
One special area of application envisioned for this standard is
Electronic Commerce, a National Challenge Application area of the
National Information Infrastructure. The primary objective of
Electronic Commerce is to integrate communications, data management,
and security services in a distributed processing environment, thereby
allowing business applications within different organizations to
interoperate and exchange information without human intervention. At
the data management level, electronic commerce requires a logically
integrated database of diverse data stored in geographically separated
data banks under the management and control of heterogeneous database
management systems. An over-riding requirement is that these diverse
data managers be able to communicate with one another and provide
shared access to data and data operations and methods under appropriate
security, integrity, and access control mechanisms. FIPS SQL provides a
powerful database language for data definition, data manipulation, and
integrity management to satisfy many of these requirements. It is
unrealistic to expect that every data manager involved in electronic
commerce will conform to even the Entry SQL level of the FIPS SQL
standard; however, it is not unrealistic to require that they support a
limited SQL interface, even a read-only interface, provided by one of
the SQL/ERI Server profiles specified herein. New procurements to add
components to the National Information Infrastructure, or to upgrade
existing components, can define the necessary SQL schemas and point to
appropriate SQL/ERI Server profiles as procurement requirements.
This standard may also be applicable, on a case-by-case basis, in
many of the following areas:
Legacy databases
Full-Text document databases
Geographic Information Systems
Bibliographic information retrieval
Object database interfaces
Federal data distribution
Operating system file interface
Open system directory interface
Electronic mail repositories
CASE tool repositories
XBase repositories
C++ sequence class repositories
Object Request Broker interface repository
Real-time database interface
Internet file repositories
Further detail on each of these potential application areas can be
found in Section 8, ``Applicability'', of the FIPS specification for
SQL Environments.
10. Specifications. See the Specifications for SQL Environments--
SQL External Repository Interface (SQL/ERI)--Server Profiles
(attached).
11. Implementation. Implementation of this standard involves four
areas of consideration: the effective date, acquisition of conforming
implementations, interpretation, and validation.
11.1 Effective date. This publication is effective beginning
February 1, 1995. Since it is a non-mandatory specification, based on
the established [[Page 6700]] FIPS SQL standard, and used at the
discretion of individual Federal procurements, no transitional period
or delayed effective date is necessary.
11.2 Acquisition. All conforming implementations of a specific
SQL/ERI profile will support some aspects of the FIPS SQL standard.
However, such implementations will not normally be full function
database management systems and conformance will often be dependent
upon SQL schema definitions and other requirements provided as part of
each individual procurement. In most cases, a procurement will not be
able to simply point to an SQL/ERI profile and demand conformance to
it. Instead, successful procurements will normally use an appropriate
SQL/ERI profile, together with an application-specific schema
definition, as one aspect of overall procurement requirements. In many
cases, vendors of products that provide a limited SQL interface will
define their interfaces in terms of a fixed SQL schema definition. In
those cases, procurements can point to the vendor-provided schema
definition and to an appropriate SQL/ERI profile as a procurement
requirement. In some cases, especially in those situations where schema
definitions and requirements are not known in advance, a request for a
proposal (RFP) may require that an SQL schema, and adherence to one of
the SQL/ERI Server profiles, be presented as part of the response
proposal.
11.3 Interpretation. NIST provides for the resolution of questions
regarding specifications and requirements of the FIPS for SQL
Environments, and issues official interpretations as needed, Procedures
for interpretations are specified in FIPS PUB 29-3. All questions about
the interpretation of FIPS SQL Environments should be addressed to:
Director, Computer Systems Laboratory, Attn: SQL Environments, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899,
Telephone: (301) 975-2833.
11.4 Validation. Implementations of the FIPS for SQL Environments
may be validated in accordance with NIST Computer Systems Laboratory
(CSL) validation procedures for FIPS SQL (FIPS PUB 127). Recommended
procurement terminology for validation of FIPS SQL is contained in the
U.S. General Services Administration publication Federal ADP &
Telecommunications Standards Index, Chapter 4 Part 2. This GSA
publication provides terminology for three validation options: Delayed
Validation, Prior Validation Testing, and Prior Validation. The agency
may select the appropriate validation option and may specify
appropriate time frames for validation and correction of
nonconformities.
Implementations may be evaluated using the NIST SQL Test Suite, a
suite of automated validation tests for SQL implementations. Although
this test suite was designed to test conformance of full-function SQL
database management systems, it can be modified to accommodate testing
of SQL/ERI Server implementations. The results of validation testing by
the SQL Testing Service are published on a quarterly basis in the
Validated Products List, available from the National Technical
Information Service (NTIS).
Current information about the NIST SQL Validation Service and the
status of validation testing for SQL Environments is available from:
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Computer Systems
Laboratory, Software Standards Validation Group, Building 225, Room
A266, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, (301) 975-2490.
12. Where to Obtain Copies. Copies of this publication are for sale
by the National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161, telephone 703-487-4650. When ordering,
refer to Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 193
(FIPSPUB193), SQL Environments. Payment may be made by check, money
order, or deposit account
[FR Doc. 95-2688 Filed 2-2-95; 8:45 am]
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