[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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