Overview of Adapter for LDAP TIBCO ActiveMatrix Adapter for LDAP brings LDAP servers into the TIBCO interoperability framework. The adapter allows applications configured for the TIBCO environment to communicate with LDAP servers without any knowledge of LDAP protocol, LDAP APIs, and LDAP server implementation. Applications can retrieve information from or update LDAP servers. The adapter provides publication services, subscription services, and request-response services. The publication service publishes the changes occurring on the LDAP server to the TIBCO environment. The subscription service receives messages from the TIBCO environment, and updates the LDAP server appropriately. The request-response service receives requests for LDAP information from applications, contacts the configured LDAP server for it, and sends the results in its response to the TIBCO environment for the applications. TIBCO ActiveMatrix Adapter for LDAP helps organizations to move transparently from proprietary, application-specific directories to organization-wide LDAP directories. Integration With LDAP LDAP is a client-server protocol for accessing a directory service. LDAP lets you locate organizations, individuals, and other resources such as files and devices in a network, whether on the Internet or on a corporate intranet. An LDAP directory can be distributed among many servers on a network, then replicated and synchronized regularly. The adapter is a bidirectional gateway between an LDAP server and the TIBCO environment. The distributed architecture of a typically-deployed TIBCO ActiveMatrix Adapter for LDAP makes seamless integration into an LDAP-served enterprise possible. The following figure is a high-level view of how the adapter is integrated with LDAP in the TIBCO environment. Figure 10 Logical architecture for integration with LDAP Directory Store In LDAP terminology, a directory store is a repository of information, typically including information on resources, services, users, applications, devices and configuration. Unlike a database, a directory is used mostly for read operations and is rarely updated. A server, which implements the directory store and supports the LDAP protocol and API is typically referred to as an LDAP server. Data on an LDAP server is stored as entries, each of which stores information about some object or entity. Each entry has a number of attributes. Each attribute has a type. Each LDAP entry belongs to one or more object classes. An object class defines what attributes entries can have, so object classes define the schema on an LDAP server. All entries on an LDAP server are organized into a tree structure, which is called the Directory Information Tree (DIT). LDAP servers allow users to add, update, delete, look up, and search for entries. LDAP clients can be configured to connect to LDAP servers with or without authentication.
