Re: Just some ideas

[Todd Graham Lewis <tlewis mindspring net>]

On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Miguel de Icaza wrote:

> > Has anyone considered using ldap?  Or at least providing support to
> > it?  It would give access to an already defined and extensible
> > directory architecture that is on its way to becomming an internet
> > standard.
> 
> Apparently a lot of people want to see LDAP support for various GNOME
> tools, it would be worth investing some time researching this. 

I for one think it would be very valuable.

> Do we
> have free client code for LDAP? 

Netscape is pushing their LDAP client code very strongly.  It has the
wacky free Netscape license, which is open-source but which does not
interact well with the GPL.  It is the best one out there, bar none.

Miguel, it'd probably be your call as to whether we should use it.

> Are there free LDAP servers
> available? 

UMich has their old LDAPv2 server available.  Netscape hired out the
entire UMich LDAP team to work on their server.  The Netscape server
is:
	- very good
	- supports the newer, much better LDAPv3
	- commercial
	- apparently without Linux support, although this will
		probably change soon.

The new LDAP standard is much improved over the old one; the UMich code
is open-source and could possibly be enhanced, but v2->v3 was not a
trivial protocol change, but rather a major overhaul.  Not sure how
much work would be needed.  FWIW, there are many people other than
GNOME who lament the unavailability of a free LDAPv3 server.

> Where can we find more information about this?

If JWZ is still lurking, maybe he could send some of Netscape's LDAP
people our way to talk about the matter.  Other than that, we have
looked at LDAP within MindSpring; I know a little about it, and I know
some other people here who know a lot about it if we need to pull
in some expertise.

For people interested in it, LDAPv3 is documented in RFC2251.

--
Todd Graham Lewis       Manager of Web Engineering    (800) 719-4664, x2804
******Linux******         MindSpring Enterprises      tlewis@mindspring.net