SIF-enabled Application 1.5
Product Standard

NAME

SIF-enabled Application 1.5

LABEL FOR LOGO

SIF-enabled Application 1.5

DESCRIPTION

The SIF-enabled Application Product Standard defines the requirements for an application to be considered conformant to the SIF Implementation Specification (see below). The following definitions are used in this document:

• The SIF Implementation Specification is the Schools Interoperability Framework Implementation Specification, Version 1.5r1, supplemented by any Interpretations applicable to this particular version and revision of the Specification. For a description of Interpretations, see Section 9 of the Schools Interoperability Framework Certification Policy.
• A SIF-enabled Application is a software product or service that communicates with a SIF Zone Integration Server (see below). See Section 3.4.4 of the SIF Implementation Specification.
• A SIF Zone Integration Server (ZIS) manages SIF-enabled Applications within a logical entity known as a Zone. See Section 3.4.5 of the SIF Implementation Specification.
• TLS is version 1.0 of the Transport Layer Security protocol, as specified in IETF RFC 2246.
• SSL3 is version 3.0 of the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, as specified in the IETF Internet Draft The SSL Protocol Version 3.0. For a discussion of TLS backward compatibility with SSL3, see Appendix E to IETF RFC 2246.
• SSL2 is version 2.0 of the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, as specified in the Netscape Draft RFC The SSL Protocol. For a discussion of TLS backward compatibility with SSL2, see Appendix E to IETF RFC 2246.
• HTTP is version 1.1 of the Hypertext Transport Protocol, as specified in IETF RFC 2616.
• The SIF HTTPS Protocol defines a transport protocol that combines a subset of HTTP with TLS, SSL3 and/or a limited subset of SSL2. See Section 3.6 of the SIF Implementation Specification.
• XML is version 1.0, Second Edition, of the Extensible Markup Language, as specified in the W3C Recommendation of 6 October 2000.
• The SIF Message Handling Protocols define the sequencing and processing of SIF messages. See Section 3.5 of the SIF Implementation Specification.
• The SIF Message Specification defines an XML Document Type Definition (DTD) for messages exchanged between a SIF ZIS and a SIF-enabled Application. See Section 4 of the SIF Implementation Specification.
• The SIF Data Model defines an XML Document Type Definition (DTD) for data exchanged between a SIF ZIS and a SIF-enabled Application. See Section 5 of the SIF Implementation Specification.
• A GUID is a Globally Unique Identifier (also known as a UUID or Universally Unique Identifier), as specified in the IETF Internet Draft, A UUID URN Namespace, based on the earlier IETF Internet Draft, UUIDs and GUIDs.

CONFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS

The conformance requirements for a SIF-enabled Application are derived from the SIF Implementation Specification. A SIF-enabled Application must demonstrate that it can:

• Encrypt, transport, and authenticate encapsulated SIF data objects in a manner that conforms with the SIF HTTPS protocol.
• Exchange messages that are uniquely identified by a GUID and sequenced and processed in a manner that conforms with the SIF Message Handling Protocols.
• Exchange messages that conform to the data definitions of the SIF Message Specification. Required and mandatory elements must be supported; optional and conditional elements may be supported at the discretion of the implementer.
• Exchange messages containing data objects that conform to the SIF Data Model and that, with the exception of Common Elements (see Section 5.1 of the SIF Implementation Specification), are uniquely identified by a GUID. Required and mandatory elements must be supported; optional and conditional elements may be supported at the discretion of the implementer.

There are no requirements placed upon a SIF-enabled Application that constrain the way that the conformance requirements are met, and in particular there are no requirements concerning how any software components are integrated together to constitute a conforming product or service.

OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

None.

PORTABILITY ENVIRONMENT

None.

OVERRIDING STANDARDS

None.

INDICATORS OF CONFORMANCE

A test report from a currently approved formal release of the SIF-enabled Application Test Suite is required. The Test Suite will be hosted on SIF’s web server and accessed over the Internet.

MIGRATION

There are no migration issues from prior versions of this Product Standard.

Products certified against this Product Standard after the release of this issue must use the latest version of the SIF Certification Logo with the label specified above.

Revision History: