The LDAP Players

On the server side of LDAP protocol is a directory tree of LDAP entries. LDAP entries are implemented in VA Smalltalk as instances of the class LdapEntry. The client gains access to the tree by starting an LDAP session. During the session the client sends various requests to the server, and the server sends responses in return. When the data is no longer required, the client sends an unbind request to the server.

LDAP Session (LdapSession) allows the LDAP client to access the data provided by the server. The data itself is represented on the Smalltalk application as instances of LdapEntry. An LDAP Search is described in VA Smalltalk as an LdapSearch object which is created by an LdapSession. The LdapSearch object is responsible for conducting a search.

The result of a successful search is essentially a pointer from which one or more LdapEntry instances can be extracted. “LDAP entry structure” describes how such entries are uniquely identified and what attributes they have. “LdapEntry Operations” provides example use cases which manipulate those attributes, locate parent or child components of the entry, and modify the location of the entry in the directory structure.