Re: creating entries from netscape

[ichbin@heidegger.rprc.washington.edu]

Quoting Craig Longman <craigl@begeek.com>:

> is netscape just not capable of writing to ldap servers? 

Netscape distinguishes between two types of ldap data stores:
directories and addressbooks. A directory is a static, searchable table
of names, email addresses, phone numbers, etc, that a corporation, for
example, might provide to its employees. It is not supposed to be
client-alterable. An addressbook is a similiar affair, but is
personalizable for each user. 

Setting up a directory is a simple affair, and the same LDAP directory
can be used not only from Netscape Communiator, but also from MSIE,
Mozilla, Silkymail, and just about every other email client out there.

It is actually possible to store Netscape addressbooks (as well as
bookmarks, histories, etc) on an LDAP server, which is what Netsape
calls "Roaming Access". Implementing roaming acess is a relatively
complicated affair (unless -- surprise! -- you use Netscape's propriatry
LDAP server), ivolving importing custom schema into the LDAP server and
messing around in Netscape's preferences.js file. After you're done, the
addressbook information is only accessable via Netscape Communicator,
which is enough to disuade most sites from ever starting such a project.
But if you are still interested, take a look at

http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-09/lw-09-ldap-netscape.html