LDAP
LDAP Basics LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) has a reputation for being complicated, but I hope to dispel that myth and explain exactly how LDAP works in this simple introduction of some of the basic concepts.. What is LDAP? LDAP is a lightweight protocol for accessing directory servers. Okay, so what is a directory server? It’s a hierarchical object orientated database. If that makes you want to run away screaming, don’t worry, it’ll get worse before it gets better. Only joking. This guide should make learning LDAP easy. Let’s go through that description bit by bit, starting at the end. It’s a database, which means we can store data in it. If you’ve used relational databases, like mysql, then it won’t look like anything you’re used to, but like a relational database, it allows you to store your data in a user defined structural way. The second part of our description was object orientated. In LDAP our database is a collection of objects. Like in OO programming,