LDAP is a key technology for web applications.  It can be used for both security and for other personal data on the users that

use a web application.  At it's heart LDAP is the protocol to talk to compliant directories.  There are a number of directories that are LDAP compliant.  These include Active Directory, eDirectory, and OpenLDAP.  The best way to think of LDAP directories is to think of a big oversized feature rich phone book.  You can store just about anything about a user in the directory. LDAP is the language you use to get to that data. 

 

The book goes into great detail discussing the specifics of LDAP.  It talks about what attributes are, and about schemas, and how to extend them.  It also goes into the OpenLDAP directory (this is a free open source directory).  This is all in part 1 of the book.  Part 2 is about application integration.  This is the part of the book I was looking forward to, and was totally disappointed in.  The bulk of part 2 was talking about Unix directory replacement and email integration.  There was one small chapter about getting to the directory using Perl.  There was no discussion about PHP, Python, Java, or VBScript/Visual Basic.  It is a shame that they had such a limited amount of information on programming to LDAP in the book.  

 

Another thing that was majorly missing in the book was a discussion of LDIFs.  LDIF is a way to bulk load new objects (users) and to make bulk changes and deletions in the directory.  Anyone that administers an LDAP directory will tell you how important LDIF is to them.  This program was completely lacking in information on how to do LDIFs. 

 

The book also did not cover any sort of administration tools that are available for LDAP.  There should have been mention of programs like Softerra's LDAP Browser and LDAP Administrator. There should have also been mention of command line LDAP tools.  Along with this should have been a detailed discussion of LDAP search filters.  This was also missing. 

 

In the age of web applications and web 2.0 technology LDAP is a very important component.   Programming skills for web applications is a very important part of LDAP.  However, it is very important for truely administering and securing LDAP directories to be able to program scripts for management.  Third party tools needed to be mentioned.  All in all, I think it is time for me to write my own book.  I was surprised that either the book is clueless or I am a bigger guru than I thought I was.