Can we cheat?

[John Lederer <johnl@ibm.net>]

Open ldap doesn't yet support returning sorted results.

We have an PHP application that often returns quite a few entries but these are sorted before being presented to the user.  Normally, the sort order is alphabetical off of last name though we do give the user the option of sorting otherwise.

The initial last name sort is fairly crucial from the perceived speed to the user.  We are too slow using a PHP sort.

We have noticed that OpenLDAP seems to return results in order of entry.

I am wondering whether:

(1) the underlying database has some facility for sorting records? If so we could possibly use that presumably faster service

(2) Whether there is any facility for "inserting" records in the database.  If so, I could dump the existing database out in an ldif file, sort the ldif file, reload the server and have my entries sorted.  Then when the occasional new entry comes along I could "insert" it in the sorted database.  This assumes, of course, that the behavior we have observed, OpenLDAP returning entries in order of entry, is reliable.

3) Is there another way to skin the cat?


Thanks.

John Lederer