LDAP Programming, Management, and Integration (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A straightforward and 'user accessible' computer programmer and system administrator's guide to LDAP . . . a commendable educational resource and reference." -- Midwest Book Review

Product Description

Focusing on the practical application of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, this tutorial is geared toward IS professionals and software developers who are responsible for getting the maximum potential from their directories by integrating them with existing processes and applications. As the Internet standard for directory services, LDAP is accepted as a critical service and is poised to become an important means of remote information access. Numerous examples in Perl demonstrate the best techniques for managing directory data in a network environment. Fundamentals of LDAP design and integration with applications, including messaging, XML, and security services, are provided with examples in Java.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications (November 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930110405
• ISBN-13: 978-1930110403
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #852,803 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good information, annoying format, August 27, 2003

By	Michael Ernest "JavaRanch Sheriff" (Corte Madera, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm waiting for a book on LDAP and directory services that believes the importance of these tools is not self-evident. When a book on this subject that persuades the reader to learn about it comes around, I'll buy two copies.

Clayton Donley, who details his involvement and contributions to the field in the introduction, is an expert; he might even be *the* expert. Certainly he's been called upon over time to promote these technologies and so has refined his understanding on many subtle issues. Thus the book has a comfortable way of introducing new terms and explains individual points well. The code examples are concise and clean. There are several instances, however, where the author assumes a point is self-explanatory when it isn't. Often the material doesn't seem to hold together for want of a short sidebar.

Some chapters seem stitched together from a collection of such notes and lack flow as well. The outline form of the chapters seems contrived, sometimes overwhelming the content. There are a fair number of forward references too, which I found very distracting. I had to use the index or google often enough that I got annoyed. A comprehensive glossary would have been really helpful.

With so many short, excerpt-like elements making up a chapter, I found it hard to focus. I wouldn't call it a promising reference either. While it is still one of the better books on LDAP I've come across, the weaknesses of make me think I won't consult it very often.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just what I wanted, April 26, 2004

By	Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I was looking for a book that covered the basics of LDAP, went through server configuration, schema basics and best practices, and access for a scripting language (e.g. Perl.) I got what I wanted with this book, save the server configuration portion. There was some information on servers, but nothing on how to set one up or get it going. Which makes sense because each server is different, but it would have been nice to see at least one, perhaps OpenLDAP.

Chapters one and two stand out as an ideal introduction to the history of LDAP, it's current structure, and the basics of LDAP schema. Chapter nine, on accessing LDAP operational data, is excellent. The explanations are great, graphics are used effectively, and the code samples are concise.

The only two drawbacks that I can think of are the lack of a server setup and configuration chapter, and the books slight emphasis on Perl as opposed to Java. I personally like the Perl side, but I can see how some folks might prefer Java. There are a lot of Java examples, but there are more examples in Perl.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch coverage of LDAP, May 19, 2003

By	Sunil Kothari (Ann Arbor, MI) - See all my reviews

Just picked this book up and was very pleasantly surprised at the richness of the code examples (lots of good java) as well as the crisp explanations of directory integration concepts and terminology.

I have used some of Clayton Donley's popular LDAP APIs such as PerLDAP on some of my projects and I thought I'd take a chance on a book written by him.

This is the 5th book in my library on LDAP / Directories and I find his book to be the most current and useful. Mr. Donley devotes quite a few pages to the whole issue of LDAP - XML integration and I was able to apply several of his DSML examples to my current work.