[Fedora-directory-users] I'm feeling like I'm drowning!

[Ben Steeves]

On 7/21/06, Per Kristiansen <perk at funcom.com> wrote:

> But...I'm feeling like I'm drowning, I've read the o'reilly book, and
> I've googled my behind off.

The O'Reilly book is OK as far as it goes but it barely scratches the
surface.  It's also focussed on OpenLDAP which is almost, but not
entirely unlike FDS.  "Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory
Services" by Howes, Smith & Good is an excellent reference, especially
when you get to dealing with the internals...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672323168/sr=8-1/qid=1153505689/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-6902275-7741413?ie=UTF8

> Do I have to write my own data entry interface ?

It depends on entirely on what you need and how much power you're
willing to give to people.  The built-in web interface is fairly
robust, but there's also phpLDAPAdmin (http://phpldapadmin.sf.net/)
which I really like.  Our account admins use it.

> I had hoped to let the people at HR do the data entry on the "soft"
> information , while the operations people do the "hard" information.

If people are going to need access to just a few attributes, or you
need to apply business rules to the process before it hits the
directory, you're probably best off building your own interfaces (or a
framework on which to build multiple interfaces).  In our case I built
a PERL module that our devs use to talk to the directory that
implements our directory organization principles, neatly abstracting
it out so that they don't have to worry about mundate directory
matters but can concentrate on the business rules and user interface.

-- 
 _  Ben Steeves                                    bcs at metacon.ca
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