Hopefully, this is the last time I'll have to say this, but I doubt it. Nevertheless, listen up: LDAP is not a directory specification. LDAP does not define a directory structure or schema. There is no such animal as an "LDAP Directory."
LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. It was developed as an alternative to Directory Access Protocol (DAP), the defined protocol for exchanging information with an x.500 directory service. The primary reason for LDAP's development was to enable the use of TCP/IP for transport - DAP specifies (for some arcane reason) that the Open Systems Interconnection stack must be used for transport.
At the same time, LDAP simplifies the amount of information that has to be exchanged during a query of the directory. Otherwise, LDAP's references to the directory are the same as DAP's - it must be an x.500 directory or at least act like an x.500 directory.
For directory services that are not specifically x.500 implementations - and that's most of the services you'll work with, such as Novell Directory Services, Microsoft's Active Directory, Netscape's iPlanet and so on - the correct term is "LDAP-enabled."
LDAP-enabled means that the directory service can exchange data via the protocol defined as LDAP. An LDAP application is one that uses the LDAP protocol to query information from an LDAP-enabled directory.
So, repeat after me:
- LDAP is a protocol, not a directory specification.
- There's no such thing as an "LDAP directory."
- Directories that support the LDAP protocol are correctly termed "LDAP-enabled."
I feel much better now, and I hope you do too.
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Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. His most recent book is "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks" published by SAMS. Dave's company, Virtual Quill, provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more at Virtual Quill or by e-mail at info@vquill.com
Directories archive
Past newsletters.
Directory start-up links e-comm apps, back-end data
Network World, 12/20/99.
Novell leaps into open source market with LDAP software developer kit
Network World, 01/24/00.
