LDAP: Attributes and Keeping Them Simple

January 31st, 2007 by Tom Adelstein

A consensus exists among many writers about jargon. Throw a bunch of undefined words at a reader and he or she will soon fall asleep. In fact, put one term in a paragraph that the reader doesn't understand and a page or two later sleep will start to creep and the reader will lose interest.

So, in spite of the what many technical writers practice, I thought I might give you a break. You don't need to know everything about LDAP directory components or the construction of an address book to begin understanding the technology behind directories.

To a person who wants to find the name and email address of someone, he or she wants to do a simple search to find it. Does that person need to know how the information got into the directory? Do they need to understand how the directory came into being? Think about that.

In Gerald Carter's book, "LDAP Administration", he addresses attributes in a way I find intimidating. Here's a little quote for you:

Attributes types and the associated syntax rules are similar to variables and data type declarations found in many programming languages. The comparison is not that big a stretch.

OK then. How about another way of discussing it. Attributes hold information you need in a directory. For example, they might contain someone's name, address, telephone numbers, employee numbers, the department in which he or she work, his or her job title, etc.

Many other attributes exist in directories and LDAP administrators organize those attributes using something we will discuss in the next installment.

So, get ready for the next bit of jargon called objectClasses. You should find that subject pretty interesting if I can manage to write about it without putting you into an altered state.

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linux

On October 2nd, 2007 enigma sadness mp3 free download (not verified) says:

kernel? What production a is . Best regards.

hi

On October 1st, 2007 oyun (not verified) says:

thank you

Using jargon

On September 12th, 2007 Lampy Kinkiety (not verified) says:

Using jargon is not bad. The point is to explain the words in glossary. Of course the glossary must be published.

Keeping Them Simple

On September 11th, 2007 Pozycjonowanie Stron (not verified) says:

Nicely put, interesting post.
Regards

thx

On November 13th, 2007 küvet (not verified) says:

thanks

Couldn't have said it better

On August 21st, 2007 Blogger (not verified) says:

You hit the nail on the head with this one. I always find myself disinterested in articles I read when I can't understand what the heck its talking about. Especially technical stuff. To be honest even some of your stuff. It just makes me feel dumb. Thats a compliment by the way :0

simple is better

On May 5th, 2007 maldeetuh (not verified) says:

Totally agree with you Tom, you nailed it
thank's
Maldee

linux

On October 2nd, 2007 enigmail download (not verified) says:

what I work anymore, kernel do? foo installed and package doesn't x.y.z should . Best regards.

LDAP

On February 9th, 2007 der-Vertrag (not verified) says:

Great,i think so to

Re

On September 29th, 2007 Anonymous (not verified) says:

Well thank you, i must agree..

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