[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

Re: ActiveDirectory schema



David Boreham wrote:
Erik Skovgaard wrote:

> For whatever it is worth, nor is OK to create funny non-standard Structural
> Object Classes (i.e. inetOrgPerson) that people get tempted to use instead
> of the basic ones.  All extensions to the standard schema should be Aux.
> Object Classes, IMHO.  Or else there's only pain to gain.

For the X.500 challenged among us, could you tell us
the difference between "structural" and "aux" object classes
please ?

  RFC 2252 (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax Definitions) says:

4.4. Object Classes

   The format for representation of object classes is defined in X.501
   [3]. In general every entry will contain an abstract class ("top" or
   "alias"), at least one structural object class, and zero or more
   auxiliary object classes.  Whether an object class is abstract,
   structural or auxiliary is defined when the object class identifier
   is assigned.  An object class definition should not be changed
   without having a new identifier assigned to it.
 

Erik Skovgaard wrote:

> For whatever it is worth, nor is OK to create funny non-standard Structural
> Object Classes (i.e. inetOrgPerson) that people get tempted to use instead
> of the basic ones.  All extensions to the standard schema should be Aux.
> Object Classes, IMHO.  Or else there's only pain to gain.
 

  I think there is a place for both inheritance and aggregation in schema extensions. For inetOrgPerson, the inheritance chain is:

top
   person
      organizationalPerson
          inetOrgPerson

  I don't see anything worse in the final inheritance step than in the previous one. inetOrgPerson has been described in I-Ds for a while, it has demonstrated its usefulness in widespread use, and it is approaching informational RFC status (see draft-smith-ldap-inetorgperson-03.txt).

Rob