Entry; Attribute; Distinguished Name (Dn) - MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION MX 61-DEVELOPING COLDFUSION MX Develop Manual

Entry

The basic information object of LDAP is the entry. An entry is composed of one or more
attributes. Entries are subject to content rules defined by the directory schema (see
on page 481).
Each node, not just the terminal nodes, of an LDAP directory is an entry. In the preceding
figures, each item is an entry. For example, in the first diagram, both USA and Ferrari are entries.
The USA entry's attributes could include a Language attribute, and the Ferrari entry could
include an entry for the chief executive officer.

Attribute

An LDAP directory entry consists of one or more attributes. Attributes have types and values. The
type determines the information that the values can contain. The type also specifies how the value
is processed. For example, the type determines whether an attribute can have multiple values. The
mail attribute type, which contains an e-mail address, is multivalued so you can store multiple e-
mail addresses for one person.
Some commonly-used attribute types have short keyword type names. Often these correspond to
longer type names, and the two names can be used interchangeably. The following table lists
common attribute type keywords used in LDAP directories:
Keyword Long name
c CountryName
st stateOrProvinceName
l LocalityName
street StreetAddress
o OrganizationName
ou OrganizationalUnitName
cn CommonName
sn SurName
dc domaincomponent
mail mail
At the time this chapter was written, Netscape provided a list of standard Attribute names on its
website, at:
http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/directory/schema2/41/contents.htm
For more information, see

Distinguished name (DN)

An entry's distinguished name uniquely identifies it in the directory. A DN is made up of relative
distinguished names (RDNs). An RDN identifies the entry among the children of its parent entry.
For example, in the first figure in
480 Chapter 23: Managing LDAP Directories
Comment
typically, city, but can be any geographical unit
typically, first and last name
e-mail address
"Attribute type" on page
"About LDAP", the RDN for the Ferrari entry is "o=Ferrari".
482.
"Schema"