7 INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga
8 Intended Category: Informational OpenLDAP Foundation
9 Expires in six months 18 July 2005
13 Requesting Attributes by Object Class in the
14 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
15 <draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-11.txt>
20 This document is intended to be, after appropriate review and
21 revision, submitted to the RFC Editor as an Informational document.
22 Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical discussion of this
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25 author <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>.
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48 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005). All Rights Reserved.
50 Please see the Full Copyright section near the end of this document
58 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 1]
60 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-11 18 July 2005
65 The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) search operation
66 provides mechanisms for clients to request all user application
67 attributes, all operational attributes, and/or attributes selected by
68 their description. This document extends LDAP to support a mechanism
69 that LDAP clients may use to request the return of all attributes of
73 1. Background and Intended Use
75 In the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [Roadmap], the
76 search operation [Protocol] support requesting the return of a set of
77 attributes. This set is determined by a list of attribute
78 descriptions. Two special descriptors are defined to request all user
79 attributes ("*") [Protocol] and all operational attributes ("+")
80 [RFC3673]. However, there is no convenient mechanism for requesting
81 pre-defined sets of attributes such as the set of attributes used to
82 represent a particular class of object.
84 This document extends LDAP to allow an object class identifier to be
85 specified in attributes lists, such as in Search requests, to request
86 the return all attributes belonging to an object class. The
87 COMMERCIAL AT ("@", U+0040) character is used to distinguish an object
88 class identifier from an attribute descriptions.
90 For example, the attribute list of "@country" is equivalent to the
91 attribute list of 'c', 'searchGuide', 'description', and
92 'objectClass'. This object class is described in [Schema].
94 This extension is intended primarily to be used where the user is in
95 direct control of the parameters of the LDAP search operation, for
96 instance when entering a LDAP URL [LDAPURL] into a web browser. For
97 example, <ldap:///dc=example,dc=com?@organization?base>.
101 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
102 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
103 document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].
105 DSA stands for Directory System Agent (or server).
106 DSE stands for DSA-specific Entry.
109 3. Return of all Attributes of an Object Class
114 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 2]
116 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-11 18 July 2005
119 This extension allows object class identifiers is to be provided in
120 the attributes field of the LDAP SearchRequest [Protocol] or other
121 request values of the AttributeSelection data type (e.g., attributes
122 field in pre/post read controls [ReadEntry]) and/or
123 <attributeSelector> production (e.g., attributes of an LDAP URL
124 [LDAPURL]). For each object class identified in the attributes field,
125 the request is to be treated as if each attribute allowed by that
126 class (by "MUST" or "MAY", directly or by "SUP"erior) [Models] was
129 This extension extends attributeSelector [Protocol] production as
130 indicated by the following ABNF [ABNF]:
132 attributeSelector /= objectclassdescription
133 objectclassdescription = ATSIGN oid options
134 ATSIGN = %x40 ; COMMERCIAL AT ("@" U+0040)
136 where <oid> and <options> productions are as defined in [Models].
138 The <oid> component of an <objectclassdescription> production
139 identifies the object class by short name (descr) or object identifier
140 (numericoid). If the value of the <oid> component is unrecognized or
141 does not refer to an object class, the object class description is be
142 treated an an unrecognized attribute description.
144 The <options> production is included in the grammar for extensibility
145 purposes. An object class description with an unrecognized or
146 inappropriate option is to be treated as an unrecognized.
148 While object class description options and attribute description
149 options share the same syntax, they are not semantically related.
150 This document does not define any object description option.
152 Servers supporting this feature SHOULD publish the object identifier
153 (OID) 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.2 as a value of the 'supportedFeatures'
154 [Models] attribute in the root DSE. Clients supporting this feature
155 SHOULD NOT use the feature unless they have knowledge the server
159 3. Security Considerations
161 This extension provides a shorthand for requesting all attributes of
162 an object class. As these attributes which could have been listed
163 individually, introduction of this shorthand is not believed to raise
164 additional security considerations.
166 Implementors of this LDAP extension should be familiar with security
170 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 3]
172 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-11 18 July 2005
175 considerations applicable to the LDAP search operation [Protocol], as
176 well as general LDAP security considerations [Roadmap].
179 4. IANA Considerations
181 Registration of the LDAP Protocol Mechanism [BCP64bis] defined in
182 document is requested.
184 Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechanism Registration
185 Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.2
186 Description: OC AD Lists
187 Person & email address to contact for further information:
188 Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
190 Specification: RFC XXXX
191 Author/Change Controller: Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
194 This OID was assigned [ASSIGN] by OpenLDAP Foundation, under its
195 IANA-assigned private enterprise allocation [PRIVATE], for use in this
204 Email: Kurt@OpenLDAP.org
209 [[Note to the RFC Editor: please replace the citation tags used in
210 referencing Internet-Drafts with tags of the form RFCnnnn where
214 6.1. Normative References
216 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
217 Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (also RFC 2119), March 1997.
219 [ABNF] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
220 Specifications: ABNF", draft-crocker-abnf-rfc2234bis, a
226 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 4]
228 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-11 18 July 2005
231 [Roadmap] Zeilenga, K. (editor), "LDAP: Technical Specification
232 Road Map", draft-ietf-ldapbis-roadmap-xx.txt, a work in
235 [Protocol] Sermersheim, J. (editor), "LDAP: The Protocol",
236 draft-ietf-ldapbis-protocol-xx.txt, a work in progress.
238 [Models] Zeilenga, K. (editor), "LDAP: Directory Information
239 Models", draft-ietf-ldapbis-models-xx.txt, a work in
242 [LDAPURL] Smith, M. (editor), "LDAP: Uniform Resource Locator",
243 draft-ietf-ldapbis-url-xx.txt, a work in progress.
245 [X.680] International Telecommunication Union -
246 Telecommunication Standardization Sector, "Abstract
247 Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) - Specification of Basic
248 Notation", X.680(2002) (also ISO/IEC 8824-1:2002).
251 6.2. Informative References
253 [RFC3673] Zeilenga, K., "LDAPv3: All Operational Attributes", RFC
256 [Schema] Dally, K. (editor), "LDAP: User Schema",
257 draft-ietf-ldapbis-user-schema-xx.txt, a work in
260 [BCP64bis] Zeilenga, K., "IANA Considerations for LDAP",
261 draft-ietf-ldapbis-bcp64-xx.txt, a work in progress.
263 [ReadEntry] Zeilenga, K., "LDAP Read Entry Controls",
264 draft-zeilenga-ldap-readentry-xx.txt, a work in
267 [ASSIGN] OpenLDAP Foundation, "OpenLDAP OID Delegations",
268 http://www.openldap.org/foundation/oid-delegate.txt.
270 [PRIVATE] IANA, "Private Enterprise Numbers",
271 http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers.
277 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
282 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 5]
284 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-11 18 July 2005
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338 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 6]