How to build LDAP server?

Question

Hi all!
I do have address book of company based on Oracle tables, what
should I do populate them as LDAP entries? Does it true that
the only option is to copy address book entries to existing
LDAP server? Or I could use known API to build my own LDAP server
on top of available DB tables?
Thanks in advance,
Paul

Answer 1

You may be able to find something which sits in front
of your db and makes it "look like" an LDAP data store
to your jndi code. The only such thing I'm aware of is
something called "VDE" ("Virtual Directory Engine" I
think) from a company called "OctetString".
What you can do with their product (and it is a
commercial product) is configure an adapter which, on
one side, does SQL calls to your db and, on the other,
responds to JNDI calls. So the flow is something like:
(1) your program makes a jndi call, which (2) goes to
VDE which (3) translates the call into one or more sql
calls (which you configure inside the product), (4)
then VDE collects the resulting data, (4) swizzles it
into the appropriate objects and (5) responds to your
original JNDI call.
I've never used their product in this way but this is
my understanding, conceptually anyway, of what it
does. There may also be other gizmos available
elsewhere which work this way. Thanks a lot! It's exactly what I have been looking for!
I've downloaded evaluation copy, checked and right now
writing memo for finance guys asking to allocate financial
resources to buy VDE :)
Paul