7 INTERNET-DRAFT Kurt D. Zeilenga
8 Intended Category: Informational OpenLDAP Foundation
9 Expires in six months 20 December 2002
12 LDAP: Requesting Attributes by Object Class
13 <draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-04.txt>
18 This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all
19 provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
21 This document is intended to be, after appropriate review and
22 revision, submitted to the RFC Editor as an Informational document.
23 Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Technical discussion of this
24 document will take place on the IETF LDAP Extensions Working Group
25 mailing list <ldapext@ietf.org>. Please send editorial comments
26 directly to the author <Kurt@OpenLDAP.org>.
28 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task
29 Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other
30 groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.
31 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
32 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
33 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
34 material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.''
36 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
37 <http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt>. The list of
38 Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
39 <http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html>.
41 Copyright 2002, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved.
43 Please see the Copyright section near the end of this document for
49 The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) search operation
50 provides mechanisms for clients to request all user application
51 attributes, all operational attributes, or attributes selected by
52 their description. This document extends LDAP to provide a mechanism
53 for LDAP clients to request the return of all attributes of an object
58 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 1]
60 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-04 20 December 2002
65 In the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) [RFC3377], the
66 search operation [RFC2251] support requesting a sets of attributes.
67 This set is determined by a list of attribute descriptions. Two
68 special descriptors are defined to request all user attributes ("*")
69 [RFC2251] and all operational attributes ("+") [OPATTRS]. However,
70 there is no convenient mechanism for requesting pre-defined sets of
73 This document extends LDAP to allow an object class identifier to be
74 specified in search request attributes list to request the return all
75 attributes allowed by object class. A plus sign ("+", U+002B) is used
76 to distinguish an object class identifier from an attribute
79 For example, the attribute list of "+country" is equivalent to the
80 attribute list of 'c', 'searchGuide', 'description', and
81 'objectClass'. This object class and its attributes are described in
84 This extension is intended to be used where the user is in direct
85 control of the parameters of the LDAP search operation.
87 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
88 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
89 document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119].
92 2. Return of all Attributes of an Object Class
94 This extension allows object class identifiers is to be provided in
95 the attributes field of the LDAP SearchRequest [RFC2251]. For each
96 object class identified in the attributes field, the request is to be
97 treated as if each attribute allowed by that class (by "MUST" or
98 "MAY", directly or by SUPerior) was itself listed.
100 If the object class identifier is unrecognized, it is be treated an an
101 unrecognized attribute description.
103 This extension redefines the attributes field of the SearchRequest to
104 be a DescriptionList described by the following ASN.1 [X.680] data
107 DescriptionList ::= SEQUENCE OF Description
108 Description ::= LDAPString
110 The Description is string conforming to the ABNF [RFC2234]:
114 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 2]
116 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-04 20 December 2002
119 Description = AttributeDescription | ObjectClassDescription.
120 ObjectClassDescription = "+" ObjectClass *( ";" options )
122 where <AttributeDescription> and <options> productions are as defined
123 in Section 4.1.5 of [RFC2251] and an <ObjectClass> is an object
124 identifier, in either <numericoid> or <descr> form [RFC2252], of an
127 <ObjectClassDescription> <options> are provided for extensibility.
128 This document only defines semantics of <ObjectClassDescription>s with
129 zero options in the attributes field of a SearchRequest. Other uses
130 may be defined in future specifications.
132 Servers supporting this feature SHOULD publish the Object Identifier
133 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.11.2 as a value of the 'supportedFeatures'
134 [FEATURES] attribute in the root DSE.
137 3. Security Considerations
139 This extension provides a shorthand for requesting all attributes of
140 an object class. As these attributes which could have been listed
141 individually, this short hand is not believed to raise additional
142 security considerations.
144 Implementors of this (or any) LDAP extension should be familiar with
145 general LDAP security considerations [RFC3377].
148 4. IANA Considerations
150 This OID 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.11.2 to identify the LDAP "OC AD List?
151 feature. This OID was assigned [ASSIGN] by OpenLDAP Foundation, under
152 its IANA-assigned private enterprise allocation [PRIVATE], for use in
155 Registration of this protocol mechansism is requested per BCP 64
158 Subject: Request for LDAP Protocol Mechansism Registration
159 Object Identifier: 1.3.6.1.4.1.4203.1.5.2
160 Description: OC AD Lists
161 Person & email address to contact for further information:
162 Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
164 Specification: RFCxxxx
165 Author/Change Controller: Kurt Zeilenga <kurt@openldap.org>
170 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 3]
172 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-04 20 December 2002
182 6. Normative References
184 [RFC2119] S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
185 Requirement Levels", BCP 14 (also RFC 2119), March 1997.
187 [RFC2234] D. Crocker, P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
188 Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.
190 [RFC2251] M. Wahl, T. Howes, S. Kille, "Lightweight Directory Access
191 Protocol (v3)", RFC 2251, December 1997.
193 [RFC2252] M. Wahl, A. Coulbeck, T. Howes, S. Kille, "Lightweight
194 Directory Access Protocol (v3): Attribute Syntax
195 Definitions", RFC 2252, December 1997.
197 [RFC3377] J. Hodges, R. Morgan, "Lightweight Directory Access
198 Protocol (v3): Technical Specification", RFC 3377,
201 [FEATURES] K. Zeilenga, "Feature Discovery in LDAP",
202 draft-zeilenga-ldap-features-xx.txt (a work in progress).
204 [X.680] ITU-T, "Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) -
205 Specification of Basic Notation", X.680, 1994.
208 7. Informative References
210 [RFC2256] M. Wahl, "A Summary of the X.500(96) User Schema for use
211 with LDAPv3", RFC 2256, December 1997.
213 [RFC3383] K. Zeilenga, "IANA Considerations for LDAP", RFC 3383,
216 [ASSIGN] OpenLDAP Foundation, "OpenLDAP OID Delegations",
217 http://www.openldap.org/foundation/oid-delegate.txt.
219 [PRIVATE] IANA, "Private Enterprise Numbers",
220 http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers.
226 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 4]
228 INTERNET-DRAFT draft-zeilenga-ldap-adlist-04 20 December 2002
231 Copyright 2002, The Internet Society. All Rights Reserved.
233 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
234 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
235 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
236 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
237 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
238 included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
239 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
240 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
241 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
242 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
243 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed,
244 or as required to translate it into languages other than English.
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282 Zeilenga Requesting Attributes by Object Class [Page 5]