MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION 4.5-DEVELOPING WEB, Develop Manual

Page: 276 / 380

250 Developing Web Applications with ColdFusion
What is LDAP?
LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a protocol that enables organizations
to arrange directory information in a hierarchy. Note that in this case, "directory"
refers to a collection of information something like a telephone directory, not a
collection of files in a folder on a disk drive.
An LDAP directory is, in essence, a database, which is usually a hierarchical structure,
(although this is not a requirement). It offers performance advantages over
conventional databases, and its operations are familiar to database users. LDAP
supports a flat, or one-level, structure as readily as multiple levels. The illustration
below shows a simplified tree of entries from the root level to the individual level.
The complexity and flexibility allowed in this structure is a key to LDAP’s success. A
directory’s structure abstracts the structure of the organization it represents. Properly
devising and maintaining this structure is the LDAP server administrator’s
responsibility. The type, quantity, and accessibility of the information for individual
entries will obviously vary widely across organizations and their LDAP servers.
World
ITALY USA
Ferrari Allaire
R&D Sales
Jack
Alan
Sales R&D
Ben
Amy
Sophia
Marco
Gina
Enzo
Root
Country
Organization
Unit
Individual