Background
The LDAP specification allows the use of attribute options. Attribute options can provide metadata about values for the attribute. Multiple options can be provided for a given attribute/value.
The classic example is language. displayName;lang-en
tells you that this is the English version of displayName. displayName;lang-jp
would be the Japanese version.
displayName;lang-en: Hideki Matsui
displayName;lang-jp: 松井秀喜
Generally, options behave intuitively. A query without specifying an option should match all relevant attributes (ie: displayName
matches both displayName;lang-en
and displayName;lang-jp
), while a more specific query matches only relevant attributes (so displayName;lang-fr
would not match either of the above examples).
Documents
- Use Cases
- Proposed Set of Options
- Proposed eduperson Language
- Draft RFC
- Best Practices for Implementation
- Results of Interop Testing of Existing Servers and Client Libraries
References
- Notes from ACAMP 2012 session
- RFC 3866: Language Tags and Ranges in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
- RFC 4512: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): Directory Information Models (see §2.5)
- RFC 4520 (BCP 64): Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Considerations for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
- As per §3.5, "All other options require Standards Action or Expert Review with Specification Required to be registered."
- RFC 4522: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): The Binary Encoding Option
- RFC 5646: Tags for Identifying Languages (Best Current Practice)
- IANA Attribute Description Options Registry