Adobe 38043740 - ColdFusion Standard - Mac Development Manual page 456

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS
Accessing and Using Data
This complexity and flexibility is a key to the usefulness. of LDAP. With it, you can represent any organizational
structure.
LDAP offers performance advantages over conventional databases for accessing hierarchical, directory-like
information that is read frequently, and changed infrequently.
Although LDAP is often used for e-mail, address, telephone, or other organizational directories, it is not limited to
these types of applications. For example, you can store ColdFusion Advanced Security information in an LDAP
database.
The LDAP information structure
Several LDAP concepts are the basis of the LDAP information structure:
• Entry
• Attribute
• Distinguished name (DN)
• Schema, including the object class and attribute type
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 "Schema" on page 452).
Each node, not just the terminal nodes, of an LDAP directory is an entry. In the preceding images, 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 short keyword type names
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
Comment
Typically, city, but can be any geographical unit
Typically, first and last name
Last updated 1/20/2012
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