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Re: Dereferencing Match draft for the repository...



> There is a lot of pressure to use LDAP for a wide variety of
> things. One class of applications attempts to store in the
> directory the object-oriented equivalent of associations and
> aggregations. These describe relationships between two objects. A
> natural way of describing this is with DN pointers. However, the
> existing data model of LDAP doesn't have this capability. 

John we all recognise that there are some deficiencies in the 
existing X.500 data model which LDAP uses. It is for this reason that 
some extensions are being worked on for the 2000 edition of X.500. 
One of them, the compound (families of) entries model can 
specifically cater for aggregations I believe, so you might find it 
useful. (I have written an ID on this). Another extension, that of 
hierarchical groups is used to model hierarchical associations, and 
an extension to the x.500 DAP has been added for this. There is no 
equivalent LDAP work in this area at the moment, and it seems from 
your Dereferencing ID that you might want a more general type of 
association than a purely hierarchical one. The approaches are not 
conflicting I believe, but rather are complimentary. Still you might 
find the hierarchical associations useful.

 >So, > rather than tweaking the existing data model (which would 
raise > interesting interoperability problems), we propose an 
extension > that avoids revising the existing LDAP data model. > > 

I think you will still find the same interoperability problems with your 
approach too. If the new matching rule is not supported in one 
server, and is in another, then the question of interoperability is still 
the same I believe , providing of course any changes to the model 
are made as purely optional extensions.

David


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David Chadwick
IT Institute, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT
Tel +44 161 295 5351  Fax +44 161 745 8169
*NEW* Mobile +44 790 167 0359 *NEW*
Email D.W.Chadwick@iti.salford.ac.uk
Home Page  http://www.salford.ac.uk/its024/chadwick.htm
Understanding X.500  http://www.salford.ac.uk/its024/X500.htm
X.500/LDAP Seminars http://www.salford.ac.uk/its024/seminars.htm
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