Data Column Access - 2.2

Extension ID

com.castsoftware.datacolumnaccess

What’s new?

Please see Data Column Access - 2.2 - Release Notes  for more information.

Description

The Data Column Access extension provides the following features:

• Data sensitivity checks on table columns (custom and predefined)
• Creation of access links for table columns

In what situation should you install this extension?

• If you need to check that the application is data sensitive compliant using custom and predefined indicators for table columns
• If you need to see Access Read and Access Write links for columns on SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and MERGE statements
• If you need to see Access Write links between columns and Cobol data, from INSERT, UPDATE and SELECT .. INTO statements
• If you need to see Access Write links for columns selected in the DECLARE cursor statement and the Cobol data fetched in FETCH cursor statement

Compatibility

Supported client languages

All supported client languages are listed in the SQL Analyzer extension documentation. From a technical point of view, the following list of Embedded SQL Queries are supported:

Download and installation instructions

This extension will be automatically downloaded and installed when SQL source code is delivered for analysis. It can be managed using the Application - Extensions interface:

Note that if you are using the legacy workflow without Fast Scan in CAST Console (not required when using the Fast Scan workflow where this option is automatically enabled), you must also manually enable the Data Sensitivity option as part of the source code delivery process - see Application onboarding without Fast Scan - Standard onboarding - perform all actions - choose objectives:

Data sensitivity configuration

See Data Sensitivity  for more information about setting a property on specific objects for the following:

• custom sensitivity
• GDPR
• PCI-DSS

What results can you expect?

Table/column properties for data sensitivity (custom and predefined)

• Data Sensitivity Indicator: displays the most sensitive value (Sensitive, Very Sensitive, Highly Sensitive) for any of the columns in the selected table.
• List of the specific Sensitive / Very sensitive / Highly sensitive columns

Example:

Links

• Links are created for transaction and function point needs.
• You can expect the following links on the DDL side within the same sql file:
  • accessRead from View / Procedure / Function / Trigger / Event  to Column
  • accessWrite from Procedure / Function / Trigger / Event to Column
• You can expect the same links for the client technologies supported by the SQL Analyzer, for more details please refer to SQL Analyzer documentation.

Cobol additional links

When Cobol Data are created during Cobol Analysis and the production option Save data and links to other data is activated, you can expect the following links: - accessWrite from Cobol Data to Column, for the case of insert into and update. For example, for insert into table1 (col1, col2, ...) values (:data1, data2) the data1, data2 will access write the col1, col2. And for example for Update table1 set col1 = :data1, col2 = :data2 the data1, data2 will access write col1, col2 - Sometimes those links have bookmarks but sometimes the bookmarks are missing, for details refer: Limitations. When the bookmark exists, it will pointing to the Cobol Data definition and not to the SQL statement. - accessWrite from Column to Cobol Data, for the case of select into. For example for, select col1, col2, ... into :data1, :data2 the col1, col2 will access write the data1, data2.  - Those links have no bookmarks, for details refer: Limitations. - accessWrite from Column selected in DECLARE cursor to Cobol Data fetched in FETCH cursor. For example for, declare toto_curs cursor for select col_toto from toto, followed by fetch toto_curs into :var1. The col_toto will access write the var1.  - Those links have no bookmarks, for details refer: Limitations.

Why does CAST not create accessRead links between COBOL data variables and SQL columns ?

CAST does not create links between the COBOL data variables and selected columns in the WHERE clauses because those links are not significant for “how data circulates in an application”. To resume, CAST only creates accessWrite links as follows:

• SELECT: Only the INTO clause is considered because the SQL Column will write into the Cobol Data variables
• UPDATE: Only the SET clause is be considered because he Cobol Data variables will write into the SQL Column
• INSERT: Only the Cobol Data variables that will write into the SQL Columns is considered
• FETCH: The SQL columns selected in the declare cursor will write into the fetched Cobol Data variables

Example

Select Into, Move, Update

The value we have in the column COL_TOTO will be written in the Cobol data VAR1. What we have in VAR1 will move into the Cobol Data VAR2. At the end, VAR2 will update the column COL_TOTO, here is the source code :

       IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.                                         00010000
       PROGRAM-ID.   TESTMOVE.                                          00020000
       DATA DIVISION.                                                   00340000
       WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.                                         00010000
       01 VAR1 PIC X.                                                   00010000
       02 VAR2 PIC X.                                                   00010000
                                                                        00010000
       PROCEDURE DIVISION.                                              00010000
                                                                        00010000
       EXEC SQL                                                         00010000
        SELECT COL_TOTO                                                 00010000
            INTO :VAR1                                                  00010000
        FROM TOTO                                                       00010000
       END-EXEC                                                         00010000
                                                                        00010000
       MOVE VAR1 TO VAR2                                                00010000
                                                                        00010000
       EXEC SQL                                                         00010000
       UPDATE TITI                                                      00010000
        SET COL_TITI = :VAR2                                            00010000
       END-EXEC                                                         00010000

Performance

When using the Data Column Access extension 1.0.0, analysis execution time is slightly different (usually slightly longer). Here are some details of the performance we have experienced using AIP Core 8.3.24 and SQL Analyzer 3.4.4-funcrel: