Re: null values

[Dan Morrill <morrill@crd.ge.com>]

Mark Wilcox wrote:
> 
> null values will simply not be added to the server. I'd recommend a simple
> binary system of 0 or 1 to reflect a value as either "on" (1) or "off" (0)

Under what context?  I have a small LDAP server set up that contains only about
20 users or so and demographic information.  I have a custom schema, and I
manage the LDAP database via re-building the ldbm backend (since writing the
admin tools for this application is very low priority and the DB is so small.)

I'm using Netscape Directory 3.0, and if I specify attributes that have no
values, they are still added with null values.  For example:

dn: myCN=Joe Cool, ou=CRD, o=GE
objectclass: myCN
myCN: Joe Cool
professionalInterest: one
professionalInterest: two

dn: myCN=Joe Internet, ou=CRD, o=GE
objectclass: myCN
myCN: Joe Internet
professionalInterest:
professionalInterest:


The second entry does *not* violate schema checking, and actually adds two
blank professionalInterest entries to the LDAP backend database.  Now, again,
this is Netscape Directory;  I don't know how OpenLDAP behaves.  Directory does
not seem to be trimming null attributes, so is Netscape not compliant with
the LDAP standards, or is there no standard on this?

Dan Morrill
Computer Scientist
GE Corporate R&D
******************
My views are my own, and may not reflect those of my employer.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: William L Anderson <band@eng.mc.xerox.com>
> To: openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org <openldap-general@OpenLDAP.org>
> Date: Monday, May 10, 1999 2:44 PM
> Subject: null values
> 
> >here's a question: can attributes have null values? or are null-valued
> >attributes simply deleted? I ask because we're trying to use a field
> >in an entry representing a system to signify whether or not the system
> >is up and running.
> >
> >I know this is probably not the best way to use an LDAP service, but
> >we don't think that the updates will be very frequent.
> >
> >Bill Anderson