Re: preserve value order with referential integrity overlay?

[Howard Chu <hyc@symas.com>]

Zhang Weiwu wrote:
> One dump question, the draft you composed expires at end of 2006, does
> that mean this draft will no longer become RFC and (thus?) have no
> implementation yet?

The draft is intended to document what we've already implemented in OpenLDAP. 
The OpenLDAP implementation will continue to exist regardless of the document 
status.

There are some flaws/errors in that draft that make it unsuitable for general 
purpose usage. I haven't had time to address those points, and since what we 
have already works for us, I haven't had much incentive to make time for it.
> Having to require client modification might be the big reason to not
> having it implemented, I guess.
>
> å 2007-08-14äç 02:01 -0700ïHoward Chuåéï
> > Zhang Weiwu wrote:
> > > Hello.
> > >
> > > I deployed an LDAP system and a set of applications around it that is
> > > highly sensitive to the order of values, e.g first telephoneNumber must
> > > be the main contact method, first value of companyRepresentative must be
> > > the DN of the main contact person.
> > That is a complete misuse of LDAP. Attributes are *SETS* of values. "Sets" are 
> > inherently unordered. The LDAP and X.500 specs and plenty of other docs tell 
> > you not to rely on the order in which values are returned.
> >
> > > What's the best way to solve this problem? I can only think of 1) try to
> > > modify source code of slapo-refint to make it maintain order (big
> > > problem, never worked on C source code before, 
> > Obviously not the way to go.
> >
> > or 2) try to use several
> > > attributes like "FirstCompanyRepresentative",
> > > "SecondCompanyRepresentative", "ThirdCompanyRepresentative"
> > Clumsy, and only feasible if you have a fixed limit on the number of values you 
> > want to manage.
> >
> > You might consider something like
> > http://www.highlandsun.com/hyc/drafts/draft-chu-ldap-xordered-xx.html
> > which is only slightly less clumsy, and that spec needs to be revised anyway.
> > Whatever solution you choose is going to require your clients to be modified to 
> > adapt to the solution.


--
  -- Howard Chu
  Chief Architect, Symas Corp.  http://www.symas.com
  Director, Highland Sun        http://highlandsun.com/hyc/
  Chief Architect, OpenLDAP     http://www.openldap.org/project/