JNDI API Tutorial and Reference: Building Directory-Enabled Java™ Applications [Paperback]

Rosanna Lee (Author), Scott Seligman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201705028 | ISBN-13: 978-0201705027 | Publication Date: June 12, 2000

Directory services are the key applications which provide a means to locate and organize users and resources on a network. Directories are repositories (like a phone book) containing information on users such as email addresses, phone numbers, security passwords and access rights to things like printers and servers. Using Sun's Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI), Java developers and network professionals can build powerful and portable applications throughout the enterprise. Now, JNDI's architect and one of its lead developers team up to present the first comprehensive JNDI tutorial and reference: everything developers need to build world-class directory-enabled applications with Java. Starting from the basic foundations, the book introduces key JNDI concepts and techniques needed to write, compile, and run JNDI applications. The tutorial then moves to more sophisticated topics, walking developers through building their own service providers, accounting for security, and creating schema and attributes. There are detailed comparisons between JNDI and LDAP, as well as practical techniques for integrating with DNS, NDS, NIS+, and other directory services. The book also contains a comprehensive JNDI reference covering every element of the API.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at the Java developer who wants to program with corporate directories, the JNDI API Tutorial and Reference provides a notably comprehensive tour of basic and advanced topics in JNDI programming. Featuring dozens of useful code excerpts that show just how to do it, this practically minded guide is all you need to use this powerful API standard effectively.

This book includes a printed version of Sun's online JNDI tutorial that is bundled with a comprehensive guide to JNDI classes. First, the authors show you how to get and up and running with JNDI and how to handle basic look-ups in directories. (A practical note is that this title is excellent when describing the actual error messages and "common problems" that you might face in your code, and how to resolve them.) While many programmers will use this book to learn how to search, read, and write directory entries, they'll find it good at explaining how JNDI fits in with other directory standards, too (such as LDAP). The authors also cover how to access multiple "federations" of directories, as well as hooking into directory "events" or notifications. For experts, more advanced sections look at the ins and outs of creating your own directory servers. The last 300 pages provide a worthy reference to every JNDI class (with over 80 classes) and every property and method, along with links to the examples in the first tutorial section that illustrate each class in action.

Whether you're someone who just wants to get started with directory programming, or if you'll be designing JNDI servers from the ground up, you'll find the JNDI API Tutorial and Reference to be a solid resource for effective directory programming for Java developers of all levels. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Basic and advanced tutorial for the Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI), naming conventions using strings and URLs, directory basics: attributes, directory services, and searches; directory and object stores, JNDI overview: architecture, context, names, bindings, and references; LDAP support, federations, basic JNDI programming examples, common problems and solutions, tutorial for simple naming and directory operations, storing and retrieving Java objects in directories, state and object factories, tips for combining JNDI and LDAP directory programming, creating a JNDI-enabled service provider, and reference to all JNDI classes.

From the Inside Flap

How to Use This Book

This book teaches you how to write directory-enabled Java™ applications by using the Java Naming and Directory Interface™ (JNDI). It is divided into two parts: a tutorial and a reference.

It is intended as a tutorial and reference only for the JNDI and not for the rest of the Java Platform. For a tutorial-style presentation of the class libraries in the rest of the Java Platform, see The Jav™ Tutorial and The JFC Swing Tutorial, by Mary Campione and Kathy Walrath, and The Java™ Tutorial Continued, by Mary Campione, Kathy Walrath, Allison Huml, and the Tutorial team. For a reference-style presentation of the class libraries in other parts of the Java Platform, see The Java™ Class Libraries books by Patrick Chan, Rosanna Lee, and Douglas Kramer. This book also does not explain any part of the Java programming language. Several books are available for learning the language. These include The Java™ Programming Language, by Ken Arnold and James Gosling, and The Java™ Language Specification, by James Gosling, Bill Joy, and Guy Steele.

Following is an overview of this book. Tutorial

The first part of this book is a tutorial. It is modeled after The Java Tutorial, by Mary Campione and Kathy Walrath. Trails and Lessons

The tutorial consists of six trails-programming lessons grouped together by topic. To learn about a certain topic, go to the Table of Contents, decide which trail meets your needs, and go through the lessons in that trail. For example, if you are interested in writing a service provider, select the Building a Service Provider trail.

You can read the tutorial sequentially or select trails in any order. However, some of the beginner trails are prerequisites for the more advanced trails.

The first page of a trail contains a high-level overview of the trail. It lists, describes, and provides references to all of the lessons on the trail. It also provides a detailed table of contents of the lessons in the trail.

Each lesson begins with an introduction to the material in the lesson. Most lessons contain many examples. Trying the examples as you go along will help you to understand the concepts discussed in each lesson. Links

The online version of this tutorial is filled with hyperlinks to sections inside and outside of the tutorial. In this hardcopy version of the tutorial, these hyperlinks have been handled as follows.

A link to a section, lesson, or trail within the tutorial is replaced by a cross reference, annotated by a page number. A link to a method, class, interface, or package in the JNDI has been removed. Use instead the reference part of this book to look up the item. A link to an Internet RFC or Internet-draft has been removed. These documents may be accessed both from the CD that accompanies this book and the Web site at ietf. A link to an external document or software has been replaced by the item's URL. These files may also be found on the accompanying CD. A link to a sample program or configuration file has been removed. Simply find the file on the accompanying CD (see later in this Preface for instructions). Examples

All of the code examples in the tutorial have been compiled and run by using the following software.

The FCS version of the Java™ 2 SDK, Standard Edition, v1.2 on either Solaris or Windows NT or both The 1.2.1 version of the JNDI class libraries The 1.2.2 version of the LDAP service provider The 1.This tutorial is located in the Tutorials/jndi directory on the CD. Each trail resides in its own directory, under which are located subdirectories for each lesson within the trail. The examples and related files used in a lesson are found in the src subdirectory of the lesson's directory. For example, the examples in the Naming Operations lesson in The Basics trail are found in the Tutorials/jndi/basics/naming/src directory. Tools and utilities for configuring the examples are found in the directories Tutorials/jndi/config/fs and Tutorials/jndi/config/LDAP.

We strongly encourage you to try the examples that accompany this tutorial as you go along. To do that, you will need the JNDI classes and a v1.1.The JDK provides a compiler that you can use to compile Java programs. It also provides an interpreter for running Java applications. To run Java applets, you can use the JDK Applet Viewer or any Java-compatible Web browser, such as the HotJava™ browser. Online Version

The complete online tutorial is available both on the accompanying CD and from the JNDI Web site. The title page of each lesson contains a URL for the corresponding lesson online. Reference

The second part of this book is a reference. Its format is similar to a dictionary's in that it is designed to optimize the time that it takes for you to look up information about a class or class member. Package Overviews

The package overviews briefly describe each package and its classes. Each overview includes a general description about the package, as well as diagrams that show the inheritance hierarchy of its classes. Alphabetical Reference of Classes

This part covers the alphabetical listing of the classes from the following five packages: javax.naming
javax.naming.directory
javax.naming.event
javax.naming.ldap
javax.naming.spi

The classes are ordered alphabetically without regard to package. Each is described in its own chapter that contains a picture of the class hierarchy, a class description, a member summary, and descriptions for each member. Most examples for the class or items within the class are found in the tutorial part of this book. Class Hierarchy Diagram

Each chapter starts with a class diagram like that shown in Figure i. This diagram shows all of the ancestors of the class, its siblings, its immediate descendents, and any interfaces that it implements. In these diagrams, if a package name precedes a class or interface name, then the class or interface is not in the same package as the current class.

In the diagrams, the different kinds of Java entities are distinguished visually as follows:

The interface: A rounded rectangle The class: A rectangle The abstract class: A rectangle with an empty dot The final class: A rectangle with a black dot Classes with subclasses: A rectangle with a small black triangle in the lower-right corner

The class or interface being described in the current chapter is shaded grey. A solid line represents extends and a dotted line represents implements. Class Description

In the class description, we describe all of the properties of the class. For example, the discussion of the properties of the Context interface includes information on how names and environment properties are treated. Describing in one place all of a class's available properties and how they behave makes learning all of the class's capabilities much easier than if that data is scattered throughout the member descriptions.

Any terminology used in the member descriptions is introduced and described in the class descriptions. For more information at any time, you should go to the class description. Member Summary

The member summary is intended to help you quickly grasp the key points of the class. It groups the members into categories that are specific to that class. For example, in the Name interface the Update Methods category lists all methods concerning updates. It is intended as a quick summary of the class's members, so it does not contain any syntax information other than the name of the member.

As an example, following is the member summary for Attributes. Notice that all overloads of a method or constructor share the same entry.

MEMBER SUMMARY

Update Methods

 

put()

Adds a new attribute to this

attribute set.

remove()

Removes an attribute from this

attribute set.

Copy Method

 

clone()

Makes a copy of this attribute

set.

Query and Access Methods

 

get()

Retrieves the attribute with

the given attribute identifier from this attribute set.

getAll()

Retrieves an enumeration of

the attributes in this attribute set.

getIDs()

Retrieves an enumeration of

the identifiers of the attributes in this attribute set.

isCaseIgnored()

Determines whether the attribute

set ignores the case of attribute identifiers when retrieving or adding

attributes.

size()

Retrieves the number of attributes

in this attribute set.

Member Descriptions

The member descriptions appear in alphabetical order within a class chapter regardless of what kind of method or field they are. This is done to make locating a member proceed as fast as possible.

Overloaded methods are grouped in one member description because they share very similar functionality. The different overloaded forms are typically provided as a convenience for the programmer when specifying parameters. For instance, some overloads eliminate parameters by providing common defaults. To describe overloads with missing parameters, we use a phrase of the form "if the parameter p is not specified, then it defaults to the value 3.14." Other overloads take different representations of a value. For example, one overload could take a particular parameter as an integer, whereas another could take the same parameter as a string that contains an integer.

Each member description contains some or all of the following fields.

PURPOSE

A brief description of the purpose of

this member

SYNTAX

The syntactic declaration of this member

DESCRIPTION

A full description of this member

PARAMETERS

The parameters accepted by this member,

if any, listed in alphabetical order

RETURNS

The value and its range returned by this

member, if any

EXCEPTIONS

The exceptions and errors thrown by this

member, if any, listed in alphabetical order

SEE ALSO

Other related classes or members, if

any, listed in alphabetical order

OVERRIDES

The method that this member overrides,

if any

EXAMPLE

A code example that illustrates how this

member is used (usually a reference to an example in the tutorial part of this

book)

Typographical Conventions Used in This Book Lucida Sans Typewriter is used for examples, syntax declarations, class names, method names, values, and field names. Italic is used when defining a new term and for emphasis.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall (June 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201705028
• ISBN-13: 978-0201705027
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #807,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but..., August 31, 2000

By 

"_nagabhushanam_" (Redwood Shores, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JNDI API Tutorial and Reference: Building Directory-Enabled Java™ Applications (Paperback)

I have gone through this book, and find that it lacks systematic detailed information on the Preparations section, before being able to attempt the examples in the book. In my opinion this is a very serious drawback, and can throw off readers new to JNDI. So, in essence this book can be further improved upon by the authors with due consideration to the initial preparedness and loading of seed data sections, to enable the readers who attempt the examples, a more fruitful and enjoyable experience.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars get it online, November 8, 2001

By 

Gary (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: JNDI API Tutorial and Reference: Building Directory-Enabled Java™ Applications (Paperback)

I heard the material was the same, but was hoping for a more thoughtful layout and more of a teaching perspective. No such luck.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars only book so far with the JNDI lesson GO FOR IT if you need a book on JNDI, January 11, 2007

By 

seventhGene - See all my reviews

This review is from: JNDI API Tutorial and Reference: Building Directory-Enabled Java™ Applications (Paperback)

This book is basically the same thing as on the sun website. It came without a cd although the authors mentioned a cd in the book for source code lookup.I have the impression the book was out of print because of the already mentioned cd issue and the fact that amazon had to wait for long time to get this book from the publishing warehouse(This is the reason amazon gave me for delaying the shipping)
This book is half tutorial(0-396) half API(397-756) with some bonuses like LDAP schemas.