Re: creating entries from netscape

[jeremy+openldap@vsm.com.au]

>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

We use Netscape Global Roaming here with Netscape Communicator running on
PCs and Macintoshes.  The LDAP server is Innosoft's, and I got it to work
quite quickly.  The only catch was that Netscape Communicator tests the
entry's last-modified-time when determining if the configuration has been
changed or not, and the Innosoft server didn't create this attribute until
I manually modified the entries.

The way Communicator stores personal address books in the LDAP server is
pretty attrocious -- it makes the address book into one large "blob" which
can take a long time to download over a slowish link, even with a modest
number of entries in the address book.

But otherwise, I find it to be a very useful feature.  I was rather
disappointed to see it omitted from Netscape 6.

Regards,

        Jeremy Begg

  +---------------------------------------------------------+
  |            VSM Software Services Pty. Ltd.              |
  |                 http://www.vsm.com.au/                  |
  |       "OpenVMS Systems Management & Programming"        |
  |---------------------------------------------------------|
  | P.O.Box 402, Walkerville, |  E-Mail:  jeremy@vsm.com.au |
  | South Australia 5081      |   Phone:  +61 8 83592155    |
  |---------------------------|  Mobile:  0414 422 947      |
  |  A.C.N. 068 409 156       |     FAX:  +61 8 82231777    |
  +---------------------------------------------------------+