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Goal
Request for Comments
Experience with SQLI
Prospects for SQLI
View the RFC
See a slide show
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Goal
"In March 1995, a goal was established for Software Services
to provide ODBC/SQL access to the DHCP database. This feature would be
of benefit to sites intending to employ commercial relational database
tools for ad hoc queries and to use SQL queries to fetch data for use within
Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products. Delivery of such open access
to DHCP data will be a significant step toward opening up DHCP.
To meet this goal, Software Services/Production, based at the San Francisco
IRMFO will contract a programmer/analyst to build a "mapping tool"
for use with VA FileMan. This tool will provide a relational view of VA
FileMan files such that commercial tools (e.g., Microsoft Access, Oracle)
can access the data within those files via ODBC/SQL queries. The intended
tool will, to the greatest extent possible, use the File Access security
model as established within DHCP to permit user access to data." (Extract
from Department of Veterans Affairs document "Generic Mapper for ODBC/SQL",
June 1996.
SQLI Request For Comments
Jule Meyn Consulting, Inc. was awarded the contract to build the
"mapping tool". The first product of the initiative was a request
for comments (RFC) which presents detailed specifications of the relational
meta-data for FileMan, now named SQL Interface (SQLI), as well as a good
deal of technical background and other food for thought. For a more visual
teatment see the slide show!
Experience with SQLI
Jule Meyn Consulting, Inc. has written a prototype mapper which
converts SQLI data to a commercial vendor's data dictionary format. Queries
against FileMan from Access and Crystal Reports run at speeds comparable
to native files. SQLI and several vendor's mappers will be tested during
the validation phase of the SQLI contract, which is scheduled for completion
in first quarter 1997.
Prospects for SQLI
Several vendors provide SQL/ODBC interfaces to FileMan now; each
has it's proprietary meta-data (data dictionary) format. It's expected
that all vendors will map SQLI data into their own formats. SQLI provides
consistent object names and business rules across all DVA sites, so that
a query that works in one site can be used in another using the same application(s).
In fact, distributed queries across multiple sites are possible with today's
technology and will be efficient with tomorrow's.
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