Basic email lookup directory—flat

The simplest application of LDAP is for email-address lookups within a group or company. All you need is an entry for each local user, with at least a name and email address. Depending on the client programs being used, various other attributes (phone, department, etc.) may optionally be used and viewed.

A flat directory structure is simplest and often works great. Each entry's distinguished name consists of two parts: the user's identifier (usually common name), and naming context (usually your country).

• Examples of distinguished names from three different flat directories:
  cn=Betsy Ross, c=US
  cn=William Shakespeare, c=UK
  uid=12345, c=US
  

Outline of a flat directory. The naming context is "c=US." The two shaded entries are required and automatically created in each new datafile (see Special Entries ).

You can put all your entries at the "top" level of the directory simply by avoiding the "New Child" command.

• The directions in Setting Up A Directory result in a flat directory.