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Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Conformance
3. Environment Properties
4. Names
5. Attributes
6. URLs
7. Java Objects
8. Schema
9. Exceptions
10. API Mapping
11. Federation
12. Event Notification
13. SSL
14. Security Considerations

1. Introduction

This document describes the features of the LDAP service provider. A major portion of the description is couched in terms of how the LDAP service provider behaves with respect to the descriptions in Guidelines for LDAP Service Providers. For examples and descriptions of how to use this provider, please see the JNDI Tutorial.

The LDAP service provider implements the basic features for LDAP access. Additional functionality, such as support for a number of popular LDAP controls, for SASL authentication, and for storing and reading RMI and CORBA objects, can be added to the basic provider by installing a booster pack, available for download at the JNDI Web site.

2. Conformance

3. Environment Properties

3.1 JNDI Properties

3.2 LDAP-specific Properties

3.4 Provider-specific Properties

The Netscape Directory Server 4.0 and earlier releases do not support schema entries that comply with RFC 2252. Specifically, contrary to RFC 2252, the Netscape server requires OIDs (such as those for SUP and SYNTAX) be delimited by single quotes and MUST/MAY lists be enclosed by parentheses. When you update the schema of the Netscape Directory Server 4.0, you need to use this property to get around these problems.

The following values are defined for this property:

        true
           activate the workaround.
        false
           do not activate the workaround.

If this property is not set then its default value is false.

For example,

env.put("com.sun.jndi.ldap.netscape.schemaBugs", "true");

activates the workaround.

NOTE 1: This property may only be passed to the initial context and becomes fixed for the provider. It is unaffected by the addToEnvironment or removeFromEnvironment methods.

NOTE 2: If you are using Netscape Directory Server 4.1, do not use this property. The 4.1 server has problems parsing object class definitions that contain MUST/MAY clauses without parentheses. If you are creating or modifying an object class definition that contains a single MUST/MAY item, work around the bug by adding a superfluous value (such as 'objectClass') to the MUST/MAY list.

The value of this property is a java.io.OutputStream object into which a hexadecimal dump of the incoming and outgoing LDAP ASN.1 BER packets is written.

No default is defined for this property.

For example,

env.put("com.sun.jndi.ldap.trace.ber", System.out);

directs the LDAP protocol trace to the standard output stream.

NOTE: This property may only be passed to the initial context and becomes fixed for the provider. It is unaffected by the addToEnvironment or removeFromEnvironment methods.

4. Names

The name parser returned by an invocation of getNameParser() returns a parser that, when given a string name, parses it into components in accordance with RFC-2253.

5. Attributes

Some LDAP servers support attribute subtyping, attribute name synonyms, and language codes for specifying language preferences for attribute values. In such cases, the attribute name returned by an LDAP server may be different from the one which was requested.

In LDAP, attribute names are case-insensitive. Therefore, when creating a collection of attributes to be passed as a parameter to JNDI operations, it is recommended to use a case-insensitive attributes class. For example,

        Attributes attrs = new BasicAttributes(true); // ignoreCase=true

For all attribute values, regardless of whether they are String or byte[], you need to know the syntax and format of the attribute value. You can typically find this out by reading the schema document in which the attribute and its syntax is defined.

When attributes are supplied as arguments to JNDI calls then they must satisfy whatever schema is enforced at the LDAP directory.  In particular, the objectClass attribute is normally required when creating a new LDAP entry (for example, when using Context.bind, Context.rebind or DirContext.createSubcontext).

6. URLs

7. Java Objects

See the JNDI Tutorial for examples.

8. Schema

9. Exceptions

10. API Mapping

11. Federation

The LDAP service provider treats composite names as strongly separated. That is, it processes the first component of the composite name as a distinguished name and the rest of the components as names in the next naming system(s). For example, here are examples that lists the root of the next naming system federated beyond an LDAP context and looks up a name using a multicomponent composite name:

// List the root of the nns, 
// Note use of the trailing slash to indicate traversal into the nns
NamingEnumeration enum = ctx.list("cn=objects,ou=Sales/");

// A composite name lookup
Object obj = ctx.lookup("cn=objects,ou=Sales/some/x/y/z");

12. Event Notification

13. SSL

permission java.net.SocketPermission "host[:port]", "connect";

For each host/port identified in the java.naming.factory.initial property and in URL string names supplied to context methods.

permission java.net.SocketPermission "host[:port]", "connect,accept";

For each host/port named in the URL strings in References and javaCodebase attributes stored with Serializable objects.