Need some help understanding LDAP

HomerSimpson · l33t Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 869 Location: Ohio, USA

I have an LDAP server running.

I created ou=AddressBook,dc=mydomain,dc=com

...thinking that I would want to use LDAP for something other than an AddressBook. For instance I could create

ou=MailUsers,dc=mydomain,dc=com or
ou=FTPUsers,dc=mydomain,dc=com and so on.

First of all, am I understanding the structure of an LDAP tree properly?

In Thunderbird I can set the search base to ou=AddressBook,dc=mydomain,dc=com and it finds the addresses in ou=AddressBook,dc=mydomain,dc=com. I can't set the search base in Evolution to ou=AddressBook,dc=mydomain,dc=com. It will only allow me to set it to dc=mydomain,dc=com. Am I just not understanding how to setup LDAP or is this a limitation of Evolution?

Thanks
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adaptr · Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 2:36 am Post subject:

Since Evolution is, by definition, an Outlook replacement - therefore emulating the behaviour of an Exchange client - this is a limitation of the application, not of LDAP.

If Thunderbird works fine with it, why bother ?

Of course, if you care to implement the LDAP schema of Exchange then Evolution should work as well.

The full Exchange schema is something like 1500 attributes ;-)

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HomerSimpson · l33t Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 869 Location: Ohio, USA

I used to use Evo and liked it but recently it has become too unstable so I switched to Thunderbird. I set up an LDAP server so I could move my contacts over. Unfortunately they were not in my AddressBook so I moved them one by one with phpldapadmin. I am new to LDAP. I just wanted to make sure I was understanding LDAP OK. If Evo ever becomes stable enough to use again then I will want to find a way to get it to work with my LDAP set up.

Thanks
_________________
The strong must protect the Sweet.

adaptr · Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 12:32 pm Post subject:

I'm quite sure someone out there has the full Exchange schema needed for Evolution to work with addresses...

Google for it, it's bound to hit on something.

If you need to do some sort of transformation (i.e. one attribute to another) then you may be SOL, of course....
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HomerSimpson · l33t Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 869 Location: Ohio, USA

I am going to stick with Thunderbird for a while (I think).

I can't create an address book entry for my LDAP server from Thunderbird. Is that normal? I could from Evolution if I was creating it in the base dn. That is how I transfered my addresses from Evo to Thunderbird.

Thanks.
_________________
The strong must protect the Sweet.

adaptr · Posted: Sat May 21, 2005 10:08 pm Post subject:

You need to grant access to thunderbird to create new entries under that specific dn.
Re-check your slapd.conf for your access control.
_________________
>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

HomerSimpson · l33t Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 869 Location: Ohio, USA

OK. I messed with it a bit and couldn't get TB to add a card to the LDAP server. I searched over on the mozilla forums and found out that TB doesn't support this. Which really stinks because I do not have a good way of adding entries to my LDAP server. I can use phpldapadmin but my wife can't.

adaptr, thanks for all your help! You have 5264 posts and a good portion of those are from you helping me with something.
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The strong must protect the Sweet.

adaptr · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 8:49 pm Post subject:

Dammit you're right - that is a turnoff for sure.
If thunderbird offered a decent LDAP interface that would convert so much more people to the Light Side.
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>>> emerge (3 of 7) mcse/70-293 to /
Essential tools: gentoolkit eix profuse screen

HomerSimpson · l33t Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Posts: 869 Location: Ohio, USA

I know. It would help to get more people using the software. I think it works OK in corporate environments where you have IT professionals keeping the LDAP directory up to date. In my case, I just want to share my address book with my wife. Having the interface to add addresses in TB would be ideal.
_________________
The strong must protect the Sweet.

sandcrawler · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:45 pm Post subject:

I'm currently using Evolution (2.2.1.1) to access an openldap server I've been working on the last week. It has been quirky, but I've found that once you connect to the ldap server anonymously you simply hit "clear" on the search bar and it will list all your contacts.

I also found that it was acting funny adding the ldap like Homer was talking about. To make any changes in Evolution I've had to delete the ldap server in the list, delete the Evolution cache for the ldap servers (~/.evolution/cache/addressbook) then re-add the ldap server. On the page where you select the base, simply find, select the option you're given, and then add to the front of it what you want... (ie, it says dn=mydomain,dn=com and you change it to dn=Addressbook,dn=mydomain,dn=com)

Finally I am able to use the "login by dn" option and login as the manager and edit contacts on the fly. I had to setup a separate LDAP listing so that I have one anonymous to search and the other to manage.

Hope this helps...