Directory start-up links e-comm apps, back-end data

Radiant Logic's virtual directory combines LDAP, SQL and XML technologies.

By JOHN FONTANA
Network World, 12/20/99

NOVATO, CALIF. - At their core, directories are no more than network plumbing. The really exciting stuff happens when applications are built upon that plumbing.

Start-up Radiant Logic last week attempted to tap into that excitement by launching a "virtual" directory dubbed RadiantOne. The product is middleware that allows clients or applications to query SQL databases using only the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

The intent is to provide an efficient way for enterprises to use back-end legacy data in Web-based e-commerce applications without having to hard-code database access into those applications.

"This technology allows us to complete our concept of a metahub directory for customer information by offering views of data based on customer profiles," says Ken Hoang, vice president of Inference, which develops e-commerce and customer relationship management software. Inference is offering RadiantOne as an add-on to its K-Commerce Sales application, which allows salespeople to pull together data regardless of its location.

RadiantOne is described as a virtual directory because it doesn't actually house any data. It stores addresses of database queries it calls information resource locators (IRL). IRLs are preconfigured queries that have been converted to LDAP objects. When those objects are triggered, the directory changes them back to SQL queries and fires them off to the appropriate database. The information is then returned to the user. The data can be formatted in any of three ways: LDAP, XML or SQL.

While IRLs remain static, retrieval of back-end data is done in real time, reflecting the most up-to-date database information. IRLs are universally available, and using directory-based authentication and access controls, custom blocks of IRLs can be created for each user.

"RadiantOne has gone beyond the standard database connector to create a relationship between records stored in a directory and the rows and columns of database information," says Larry Gauthier, an analyst with The Burton Group. "They are using the directory as a border between internal systems and the external exposure of data. They have really combined the best aspects of LDAP, XML and SQL."

RadiantOne includes a ViewDesigner, a point-and-click interface to create IRLs.

RadiantOne runs on Windows NT and will include plug-ins for Active Directory, Netscape's iPlanet and IBM's SecureWay products. The software, which ships next month, is priced at $50,000 for the first server.

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