Re: LDAP

> From php-general-return-2521-rodgers=nlm.nih.gov@lists.php.net Wed Jun 21 14:23:52 2000 > > Can someone explain to me what the benefits of using LDAP are? I'm reading > Professional PHP Programming and have reached the chapter on LDAP and don't > understand how it is beneficial, or different than using alternate > programming options. > > Thanks in advance, > > Chris You're welcome in advance 8^) You're not alone in being confused. You can think of LDAP as a sort of salvage operation, left over from the Titanic-like wreck of ISO/OSI, which had this very elaborate directory services protocol, X.500, which is still in use esp. in Europe. It was aimed at offering phone-book like services, as betrayed in the names and hierarchical structure of its database components. Because LDAP is there, and open source working code is available, it has often been repurposed for other tasks, by my group among many others. But in fact, there are very few things you can do with it that you can not do with other tools such as MySQL. People might use it because they are not aware of other tools, or they are familiar with X.500 and want to stick with a data structure they already know, its data structure is suited to a particular problem they are attacking, or they are mandated to use it, or ... [fill in the blank]. There is no special magic about it, really... Cheerio, Rick Rodgers