Creating a vendor form to represent a collection of LDAP objects
A table in a database can be described as a collection of rows. The data associated with a AR System form is described as a collection of entries. A collection of objects in a directory service is similar to entries in a form or a collection of rows in a table. When working with a directory service, you can use a standard LDAP search URL to describe a collection of objects. An LDAP search URL looks something like this:
ldap://orangina/o=remedy.com??sub?(objectclass=inetorgperson)This URL contains the components described in the following table.
URL component | Description |
|---|---|
ldap:// | LDAP protocol |
orangina | Directory service host name |
o=remedy.com | Search base name |
sub | Search scope In this case, sub indicates that the search applies to the entire subtree under the base name. |
(objectclass=inetorgperson) | Filter that selects the objects Define the search URL to retrieve objects that inherit from a particular object class. Do not mix unrelated objects (for example, people and computers). They might have different sets of attributes, making the search difficult to manage and administer. |
The LDAP URL standard enables you to specify a list of attributes to be returned by the search. This attribute list would ordinarily fall between the base name and search scope in the URL. In the previous example, no attributes are listed because the LDAP plug-in ignores the attribute list. Instead, you identify attributes in the field properties. See Alternative method of adding a field to represent the uid attribute.
Each object that the LDAP search select can be represented as an entry in a vendor form. You use Developer Studio to create a vendor form and add fields to which you attach LDAP data.
By default, the AR System server returns the Short Description field (field ID 8) in a results list. Because vendor forms do not have a Short Description field, so you must define the fields that will appear in the results list. Include the vendor form's key field in the results list so that each record is uniquely identified. For more information, see Defining search results.
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