Chapter 1 An Overview Of Directory Server Plug-Ins; What Are Directory Server Plug-Ins - Netscape DIRECTORY SERVER 6.02 - PLUG-IN Manual

This chapter introduces you to Netscape Directory Server (Directory Server)
plug-ins and discusses the different types of plug-ins that you can write. The
chapter covers the following topics:
•

What Are Directory Server Plug-Ins?

• How Directory Server Plug-Ins Work
• Types of Directory Server Plug-Ins
If you have already written a plug-in for Directory Server, refer to the section
"Using Directory Server Plug-In APIs" on page 11 for information on migrating
your plug-in to the latest version of the Directory Server.
What Are Directory Server Plug-Ins?
If you want to extend the capabilities of the Directory Server, you can write your
own Directory Server plug-in. A server plug-in is a shared object or library (or on the
Windows NT platform, a dynamic link library) that contains custom functions that
you write.
By writing your own plug-in functions, you can extend the functionality of the
Directory Server. For example, here are some of the things you can do with
Directory Server plug-ins:
• You can design an action that the Directory Server performs before the server
processes an LDAP action. For example, you can write a custom function to
validate data before the server performs an LDAP operation on the data.
An Overview of Directory Server
Chapter 1
Plug-Ins
19