Your Favorite Browser Speaks LDAP

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The following example demonstrates that your browser speaks LDAP. For this exercise, you need

1. A directory server running on a machine (call it "ldap.mycompany.uk")

2. A Web browser installed on your machine

That is all you need. Open your favorite browser and type in the following:

 ldap://ldap.mycompany.uk/o=LdapAbc.de 

I assume that the directory is named that way, but if you use a different baseDN, change it according to your installation. Exhibit 20 shows what I see on my machine (SuSE Linux with the Konqueror browser). It also works with Netscape or IE.

Exhibit 20: Base URL via Web Browser

Now that you have located the directory, you can navigate the whole tree. In the Konqueror browser, one simply clicks on the icons and the correct LDAP URL opens. On other browsers, you have to do the typing yourself. Either way, the information you get is the same. Exhibit 21 shows the view after opening the Human Resources object. Exhibit 22 shows the view for one of the inetOrgPerson entries in the Human Resources object. Note that it is possible to specify selected values for an entry, such as the cn, sn, and mail attributes.

Exhibit 21: Human Resources DN via Web Browser

Exhibit 22: InetOrgPerson Entry via Web Browser

The LDAP URL format is standardized and defined in RFC 2255, "The LDAP URL Format." It is treated in Chapter 4 of this book when we discuss the details of LDAP. For now, we will, just for completeness, show the syntax of the command:

 "ldap://"[hostname [":" portNumber] ] "/" baseDN [ query ] 

where the query is:

 ["?" attributeList ["?" scope "?" filter ["?" extensions ] ] ] 

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