Glossary

application program interface (API) – a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other.

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise – manages multiple databases and multiple users, keeps track of the actual location of data on disks, maintains mapping of logical data description to physical data storage, and maintains data and procedure caches in memory.

Certicom Security Builder GSE-J – a Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) software cryptographic provider that supports FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic algorithms.

CyberSafe TrustBroker – a Generic Security Services (GSS) Manager that can be used by jConnect.

Database Server – the back-end system of a database application using client or server architecture.

datatype – a defining attribute that describes the type, values and operations that are legal for a variable.

deadlock – a situation that arises when two users, each having a lock on one piece of data, attempt to acquire a lock on the other's piece of data.

DirectConnect – the ECDA component that provides basic connectivity to non-SAP datasources. In particular, it provides access management, transaction management, and remote systems management through DirectConnect Manager.

distinguished name (DN) – a string that uniquely identifies an entry in the Directory Server. A DN comprises of zero or more relative distinguished name (RDN) components that identify the location of the entry in the directory information tree (DIT). A DN is similar to an analog to an absolute path in a file system in that it specifies both the name and hierarchical location.

GSS library – a library that implements Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSS-API).

IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force. The main standards organization for the Internet. A large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.

SAP jConnect driver – a JDBC driver for SAP servers such as Adaptive Server Enterprise that use Tabular Data Stream (TDS) communication protocol.

Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) – an API that provides a uniform framework for the implementation of security features in Java.

JDBC – Java Database Connectivity. JDBC is a Java API that enables Java programs to execute SQL statements.

JDK – Java Development Kit . An SDK for producing Java programs.

Java Generic Security Services (GSS) Manager – provides a generic interface for authentication and secure messaging.

JNDI – Java Naming and Directory Interface. JNDI enables Java platform-based applications to access multiple naming and directory services.

JNDI is an API from Oracle for connecting Java programs to naming and directory services such as DNS, LDAP, and NDS.

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) – part of the Java Development Kit (JDK), a set of programming tools for developing Java applications. May be called Java Runtime.

Java Transaction API (JTA) – an API that allows applications and J2EE servers to access transactions.

Java Transaction Service (JTS) – specifies the implementation of a transaction manager that supports Java Transaction API (JTA) and implements the Java mapping of the Object Management Group Object Transaction Service 1.1 specification at the level below the API.

Java Virtual Machine (JVM) – a virtual machine that provides a platform-independent execution environment that converts Java bytecode into machine language and executes it.

J2EE – Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition. J2EE is a platform-independent, Java-centric environment for developing, building, and deploying Web-based enterprise applications online.

Kerberos – Kerberos is a secure method for authenticating a request for a service in a computer network.

key distribution center (KDC) – part of a single sign-on (SSO) setup that performs authentication and ticket generation duties.

large object (LOB) datatypes – typically large character objects (text) or binary objects (image).

large object (LOB) locator – contains a logical pointer to LOB data rather than the data itself, reducing the amount of data that passes through the network between Adaptive Server and its clients.

LDAP – Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. LDAP is a software protocol for enabling anyone to locate organizations, individuals, and other resources such as files and devices in a network, whether on the public Internet, or on a corporate intranet.

LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) – a mechanism form representing directory data in text form. The LDIF specification is contained in RFC 2849 and describes a format not only for representing directory data but also a mechanism for making changes to that data.

native-protocol – the native protocol supported by the DBMS to exchange request or response between clients and the server.

net-protocol – a protocol used to exchange request or response between a middle tier gateway that in turn communicates with the database.

object identifier (OID) – an identifier used to name an object. Structurally, an OID consists of a node in a hierarchically-assigned namespace.

primary server – in a high availability (HA) environment, primary server is the server where the client should first attempt to connect.

Replication Server® – maintains replicated data in multiple databases while ensuring the integrity and consistency of the data. It provides clients using databases in the replication system with local data access, thereby reducing load on the network and centralized computer systems.

relative distinguished name (RDN) – a single component within a distinguished name. An RDN comprises of one or more name-value pairs, in which the name and the value are separated by an equal sign (for example, for an RDN of "uid=ann", the name is "uid" and the value is "ann"), and if there are multiple name-value pairs, they should be separated by plus signs (for example, for an RDN of "cn=Jon Doe+employeeNumber=12345", the name-value pairs are "cn=John Doe" and "employeeNumber=12345"). In practice, RDNs containing multiple name-value pairs (called "multivalued RDNs") are rare, but they can be useful at times when either there is no unique attribute in the entry or you want to ensure that the entry's DN contains some useful identifying information.

RPC – Remote Procedure Call. A protocol that one program can use to request a service from a program located in another computer in a network without having to understand network details. (A procedure call is also sometimes known as a function call or a subroutine call.) RPC uses the client/server model. The requesting program is a client and the service-providing program is the server. Like a regular or local procedure call, an RPC is a synchronous operation requiring the requesting program to be suspended until the results of the remote procedure are returned. However, the use of lightweight processes or threads that share the same address space allows multiple RPCs to be performed concurrently.

RSA encryption – a highly secure cryptography method.

secondary server – in a high availability (HA) environment, secondary server is the server where client should attempt to connect if connection fails on the primary server.

single-sign-on (SSO) – a session or user authentication process that permits a user to enter one name and password in order to access multiple applications. The process authenticates the user for all the applications they have been given rights to and eliminates further prompts when they switch applications during a particular session.

SAP SQL Anywhere – a fully-featured relational database and data management tool.

SSL – Secure Sockets Layer. SSL is a commonly-used protocol for managing the security of a message transmission on the Internet.

SAP IQ – a high-performance decision-support server designed specifically for data warehousing.

SAP IQ is part of the SAP product family that includes SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise and SAP SQL Anywhere. Component Integration Services within SAP IQ provide direct access to relational and nonrelational databases on mainframe, UNIX, or Windows servers.

Tabular Data Stream (TDS) – TDS is an application-level protocol that describes the transmission of data between two computers. TDS defines the types of messages that can be sent, as well as the order in which they are sent. TDS relies on a connection-oriented transport service.

TDS-tunnelling servlet – A servlet that passes through a TDS stream via HTTP or HTTPS packets.

UCS-2 – Universal Character Set is an ISO/IEC format for coding character sets. ISO/IEC 10646 was synchronized with Unicode; however, Unicode adds additional constraints, and compliance with 10646 does not guarantee compatibility with Unicode.

UTF-16 – Unicode Transformation Format-16 (UTF-16) is a two-byte format in the Unicode coding system.

Wedgetail JCSI – a Generic Security Services (GSS) Manager that can be used by SAP jConnect.