Re: schema newbie question

[David Smith <davidsmith@byu.edu>]

srgqwerty wrote:

> What is the best 'SYNTAX' for an attributetype for store a positive 
> integer value between 1 and 65535?
> What is the best 'SYNTAX' for an attributetype for store a string?


Take your pick from Table 8.3 found here:

   http://www.openldap.org/doc/admin21/schema.html

For your integer attribute, I would recommend (drumroll...) an 'Integer' 
(1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.27).

The choice for your string is a little more difficult. Do you plan to 
use more than the ASCII character set? Will your strings be less than 
32,768 characters in length? If so, use 'directoryString' 
(1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.15), otherwise you may be satisfied with the 
ASCII-only 'IA5String' (1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.26).

The best way to determine which syntax to use is to look at the schema 
files provided with OpenLDAP and copy-cat those attributes whose purpose 
resembles your own.

LDAP schema specification is generally not quite as particular as it is 
for most relational DBMSs (judging from your question, it seems that is 
your background). For example, in MySQL, you would be very careful to 
distinguish between a 'varchar(10)' and a 'text' field. OpenLDAP is 
quite differnet. In fact, I don't really know why I bothered comparing 
the two: it's like apples to oranges. Oh well. Take it for what it's 
worth. :-)

--Dave