Re: Submission of Internet Draft - Complex DirectoryLookupusingJavabased LDAP Query Extension

[Vishal Goenka <vgoenka@novell.com>]

>There are certainly many applications that can be addressed via nested searches >without generalized scripting. 

I agree, there would be many applications that can be addressed this way, and I believe that would still leave us with many that wouldn't be.

>For cases of the sort that you mention LDAP provides a framework via the >'matchingRuleAssertion' to extend a server(s) with specific capabilties. 

I have mentioned this in the document. Clearly, the problem with this approach is that there would be just too many extensions to each server, for each application. With the java approach, there is only one extension to the server, specific rules are implemented by clients as they desire. The other problem of that approach is its static in nature, in that you have to statically add extensions to server, for each new extension. 


>In this conjuction it would be perhaps interesting to explore a matching rule expression >language; 


Yes, this is certainly possible. I doubt however that one would like to invent yet another language for this, with so many scripting and high level languages already known, and then have a compiler/interpreter for it available on all platforms. The biggest advantage of Java is that its already out there, with lots of useful classes for users to start using right away, so that you could have as complex a logic as you want, and reuse code written by others. Plus, there are already people trying to make sure that its available on all platforms, with reasonable success. Moreover, with Directory as being widely deployed as browsers, it makes sense to have something that browsers can initiate too, where again Java has an advantage.

>however, a great deal of mileage could be gained by simply addressing 
>nested searches as a means of improving overall system performance.
Yes. How great is the mileage in the overall sense is however a question?

To summarize, I agree that there are other approaches, and let me assure that I have considered almost all of them. Java sounded the most promising on a long term, and with minimum amount of additions required to the server. I would continue to welcome critical comments however.

Vishal


>Vishal Goenka wrote:

> It wouldn't be possible to take care of searches based on an arbitrary function of an attribute in the way you suggest. e.g., to search for an employee whose social security number is a prime (this might look a contrived example, but I hope you get the idea), you would have to convey the primality test function to the server. Scripts (like javascript) aren't too good to handle complex logic, and do not have a rich set of interfaces/classes available, as Java does. I'm not aware of the patent/license issues with Java however.
>
> Thanks for your comments, and I welcome them,
>
> Vishal
>
> >>> Chris Tomlinson <christine.tomlinson@INNOSOFT.COM> 01/08 5:13 AM >>>
> Perhaps rather than sending code to a server it would be reasonable to
> identify an extension to the filter syntax so that nested searches could be
> expressed in a manner similar to the nesting of 'selects' within an SQL
> 'where' clause.
>
> ciao,
> Christine Tomlinson
>
> Paul Leach wrote:
>
> > Is Java patent and license free, so that it can be incorporated in a
> > standards-track item?
> >
> > Regardless of the answer tothat, I think JavaScript is a more reasonable
> > form in which to send the code to the server.
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Tim Howes [mailto:howes@netscape.com] 
> > > Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 1999 10:44 AM
> > > To: Vishal Goenka
> > > Cc: ietf-ldapext@netscape.com 
> > > Subject: Re: Submission of Internet Draft - Complex Directory Lookup
> > > usingJava based LDAP Query Extension
> > >
> > >
> > > LDAPEXT people, we need to decide whether this work
> > > should be added to our charter or not, and if so,
> > > what our exact goals and deliverables relatec to
> > > it should be. Does anybody have an opinion on this?
> > >       -- Tim
> > >
> > > Vishal Goenka wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > I've a draft of a proposal on LDAP Extensions, entitled
> > > "Complex Directory Lookup using Java based LDAP Query
> > > Extension", which I would like to submit for consideration as
> > > an Internet Draft. This proposal has been reviewed internally
> > > at Novell, and deemed suitable to be pursued as an Internet
> > > Standard. The document is enclosed in the recommended format.
> > > I would appreciate comments/feedback on the contents as well
> > > as layout of the document.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > > Vishal Goenka
> > > > Novell, Inc.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > > ----------
> > > >                                                     Name:
> > > draft-ietf-ldapext-java-complex-search-01.txt
> > > >    draft-ietf-ldapext-java-complex-search-01.txt    Type:
> > > Plain Text (text/plain)
> > > >                                                 Encoding:
> > > quoted-printable
> > >