Where to begin?

[William L Anderson <band@eng.mc.xerox.com>]

Daryl Biberdorf writes:

 > I have to admit that I'm stymied as to where to begin
 > designing the data model for an LDAP directory.
 > I'm an experienced data modeler with relational databases
 > and have a good bit of experience with object-oriented
 > design and programming. But I just don't see how to begin
 > designing this LDAP stuff.
 > 
 > Can anyone point to any good literature (preferably free)?

Daryl, I've found myself in this position with probably less data
modelling experience than most folks trying to use LDAP. I found the
documentation for Netscape's Directory Server is quite good:

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/ldap/ldap.html

I've also found the tutorial documentation accompanying JNDI to be
quite helpful:

www.javasoft.com/products/jndi/tutorial/

And, of course, there's nothing like trial and error (my
favorite). Start small, be ready to throw everything away a few times, 
then I think you'll see how LDAP can work.

Bill Anderson