[snip] As I understand it, LDAP and MySQL offer two different ways of setting up a networked address book. So I take it they can be compared as far as that is concerned. Actually, I normally run Linux, so Active Directory would not be a priority for me. I didn't say LDAP was a database. However, the principal usage of LDAP, as far as I can see (by googling for LDAP) is in fact to set up a network address book of some kind. It may be used for other purposes, but they are not really relevant to my enquiry. [/snip] The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an application protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP. A directory service is a software application - or a set of applications - that stores and organizes information about a computer network's users and network resources, and that allows network administrators to manage users' access to the resources. Additionally, directory services act as an abstraction layer between users and shared resources. A directory service should not be confused with the directory repository itself; which is the database that holds information about named objects that are managed in the directory service. The directory service provides the access interface to the data that is contained in one or more directory namespaces. The directory service interface acts as a central/common authority that can securely authenticate the system resources that manage the directory data. Like a database, a directory service is highly optimized for reads and provides advanced search possibilities on many different attributes that can be associated with objects in a directory. The data that is stored in the directory is defined by an extendible and modifiable schema. Directory services use a distributed model for storing their information and that information is usually replicated between directory servers. I suspect for your purposes it is better (easier) to create an address book using MySQL and access it with PHP's library of MySQL functions. Using LDAP to access the directory service that access data namespaces may be a little over the top for an address book. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
