Re: ldap newbie

[Andrew Findlay <andrew.findlay@skills-1st.co.uk>]

On Thu, Oct 10, 2002 at 01:59:16PM +0200, Yonah Russ wrote:

> even if I used the full attribute name instead of the abbreviation, I
> will still have to explain to all my superiors (who will only learn LDAP
> after the experimentation stage has been completed) what common name
> means- an attribute FullName, on the other hand is readily
> understandable.

There is a simple answer to that one: don't expose the internal
attribute names to the users. LDAP has suffered over the years from
having attribute names appear in the protocol that are almost
meaningful enough to be displayed - the result is that they often
*are* displayed. You would not think of displaying the OID for an
attribute on a user interface (or document) intended for non-technical
people, and attribute names should be treated similarly. It is very
easy to provide a lookup table to convert to more understandable
strings - that allows you to provide multi-lingual user interfaces
too.

Andrew
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|                 From Andrew Findlay, Skills 1st Ltd                 |
| Consultant in large-scale systems, networks, and directory services |
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