Object Classes; Required And Allowed Attributes; Object Class Inheritance - Netscape DIRECTORY SERVER 6.0 - SCHEMA Reference

Schema Definition

Object Classes

In LDAP, an object class defines the set of attributes that can be used to define an
entry. The LDAP standard provides some basic types of object classes, including:
• Groups, including unordered lists of individual objects or groups of objects.
• Locations, such as the country name and description.
• Organizations.
• People.
• Devices.

Required and Allowed Attributes

Every object class includes a number of required attributes and of allowed
attributes. Required attributes include the attributes that must be present in entries
using the object class. All entries require the objectClass attribute, which defines
the object classes assigned to the entry.
Allowed attributes include the attributes that may be present in entries using the
object class.
Example: Object Class = person
Required Attributes
object class
cn (common name)
sn (surname)
Allowed Attributes
description
seeAlso
telephoneNumber
userPassword

Object Class Inheritance

An entry can have more than one object class. For example, the entry for a person is
defined by the person object class, but may also be defined by attributes in the
inetOrgPerson, groupOfNames, and organization object classes.
14 Netscape Directory Server Schema Reference • December 2001