Re: Fwd: LDAP backend

[Pierangelo Masarati <masarati@aero.polimi.it>]

> 
> I have made some changes the the LDAP backend that might be useful to 
> others.  The idea is to map attribute names and objectclasses from 
> the foreign server to different values on the local slapd.  The 
> reason is that some attributes might not be part of the local slapd's 
> schema, some attribute names might be different but serve the same 
> purpose, etc.  The ldap backend understands a new "map" config 
> statement:
> 
>     map {attribute | objectclass} {<local name> | *} [<foreign name> | *]
> 
> For example, Active Directory uses the objectclass "group", where 
> slapd might use "groupOfNames".  So you'd have a mapping line like 
> this:
> 
>     map objectclass groupOfNames group
> 
> Or, you might be interested in presenting a limited attribute set 
> from the foreign server, for example:
> 
>     map attribute cn *
>     map attribute sn *
>     map attribute manager *
>     map attribute description *
>     map attribute *
> 
> These lines map cn, sn, manager, and description to themselves, and 
> any other attribute gets "removed" from the object before it is sent 
> to the client (or sent up to the LDAP server).  This is obviously a 
> simplistic example, but you get the point.
> 

I think I do get the point, and it definitely sounds interesting to me.
I think the power of this backend can be tremendous, and in my company's
plans it might become the backbone of a meta-directory project I'm working on.

> If no maps are defined, the behavior is just like it is now.
> 
> So, is this of general interest?  Pierangelo, do you want to finish 
> your recent changes before I commit?

Well', I'm not a developer, at present, so you'd rather ask Howard or Kurt.
Anyway, in my opinion, you should definitely submit a snapshot; I don't
think it is going to conflict with my proposed patches because we're
working on different parts of the code in the repositoryi, I guess.
In case both patches are accepted, we could synchronize if needed.

Pierangelo Masarati