LDAP server in Python

[Cameron Laird]

In article <3cllelqc.fsf at morpheus.demon.co.uk>,
Paul Moore  <gustav at morpheus.demon.co.uk> wrote:
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>> Then I'd recommend to run OpenLDAP 2.1.16 as test server because
>> it's the most strict LDAP server around. You will definitely learn
>> the right things.
>
>Hmm. I'm not sure "strict" is what I want. The background is that
>Oracle are moving their database naming service from a proprietary
>protocol (Oracle Names) to LDAP. The trouble is that (as is usual with
>Oracle) the documentation is a bit opaque, so I'd rather try it out
>and experiment.
>
>But Oracle's LDAP server takes a bit of setting up (specifically, it
>needs a server machine bigger than my laptop :-() so I thought I'd try
>something smaller and simpler for experimenting with.
>
>My idea was that a Python implementation would be helpful as I could
>follow the implementation if I needed to, to understand what was going
>on.
>
>> Hmm. Depends on what you're planning to do. If you plan to do serious
>> development of LDAP applications you SHOULD test against the full
>> stuff.
>
>As you see, it's pretty much the opposite. When (if) I go live, it
>will be with Oracle Internet Directory, or Active Directory, and I
>won't have much choice. I'm just trying to get a feel for whether what
>I can do with the client-side justifies the server-side pain, or
>whether I should stick with Oracle Names until it's finally
>desupported for good.
>
>Oracle Names is basically a fairly trivial name->value mapping,
>whereas LDAP looks far more complex. I'm not sure if I can justify the
>extra complexity. On the other hand, I may be able to do useful extra
>things with LDAP, such as storing extra data for other clients. At the
>moment, none of the "overview" documents on LDAP which I've seen have
>given me a feel for how to make "trivial" use of it (understandably,
>they focus on the richness of the structure, which is precisely what
>I'm not interested in...)
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Your description is clear.

You're right--OpenLDAP isn't documented at all well
for working programmers like us.  I have hopes of
changing that, but it won't be any time soon.  

Meanwhile, I also recommend you install OpenLDAP on
your laptop.  You'll be glad you did.  Once you be-
come comfortable with it, you'll find you use LDAP
for quite a bit more than the minimum.
-- 

Cameron Laird <Cameron at Lairds.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://phaseit.net/claird/home.html