Available LDAP APIs

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Available LDAP APIs

The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) files allow for great flexibility in implementing new entries and modifying existing entries. However, to help fuel the proliferation of LDAP-based directories via developer support of the standard, a software development kit (SDK) is needed.

RFC-1823 defines the LDAP C API for LDAP v2, whereas a standard SDK is emerging for version 3 LDAP directories. It is important to note that the SDK defined by the standards documents proposes only the API structure and leaves SDK implementation up to the reader of the RFC.

Several companies and organizations have implemented these SDKs, which are freely available from the Web in both binary and open -source formats. See Appendix B for the resource locations if you have experience with the C programming language or maintain a more than casual curiosity about the LDAP SDK standard proposal.

For those who are not C programmers, these SDKs do little to clarify programmatic LDAP directory manipulation. Meanwhile, managing an enterprise directory by editing text files is rather daunting by today's GUI-reliant standards. However, to bring programmatic manipulation of LDAP directories to the masses, several companies have created Java, Perl, C++, and Visual Basic implementations of the LDAP SDK.

Of particular interest and relevance to this text is Microsoft's implementation, which is contained within ADSI.

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