On Friday 05 Dec 2003 4:27 pm, Marc Perkel wrote:
> So - many people are using LDAP for a number of things. I don't really
> know much of anything about it - but I'm begining to become aware that I
> should. So - for those of you who are really into it - I have two
> questions:
>
> 1) Why do I want it?
>
> 2) Where do I start learning about it.?
Q2 is the easier to answer: Here are a few starting points
http://www.KingsMountain.com/ldapRoadmap.shtml
http://quark.humbug.org.au/publications/ldap_tut.html
http://www.openldap.org
Q1. Here goes...
LDAP provides a network-accessible container for pretty much any kind of
information. Unlike database servers, where there is no standard way of
communicating with the database server (ie you need to load the right
connectivity software, configure interfaces, etc, etc), LDAP is a standard
Internet protocol for accessing information held in a directory server. So
if you have some software that can "talk LDAP" it can communicate with pretty
much any other server that supports the LDAP protocol.
LDAP supports the same kind of authenticated login procedures you would use
with a database server, and if you want can also support unauthenticated
access.
LDAP uses a "tree" structure for storing information, rather than the table
structure of a database. Sometimes this is a better fit with the information
you want to store.
LDAP also supports "referrals" and a master/secondary system (similar to but
not the same as DNS) so that information can be distrbuted over several LDAP
servers.
There are also a number of commony used LDAP schema which are useful in an
email processing environment - particularly the "InetOrgPerson" schema, which
is supported by most email client software that has LDAP query support.
For me the key plus point is the standard protocol for accessing the server
and querying the information, irrespective of what LDAP server you use.
My 2p!
Regards
- Nick
--
Nick Talbott, Powys County Council (UK)
IT Policy and Strategy Manager/Rheolwr Polisi a Chynllunio TGCh
email: nickt@???
fax: 01597 824781
web: www.powys.gov.uk and www.powysweb.co.uk
