Welcome to ldap-abook
Tired of having to keep all of your addressbooks in sync?
Introduction
ldap-abook is an LDAP based addressbook application, intended for users wishing to maintain
a centralized server-based addressbook.
ldap-abook arose out of my frustration at being unable to easily share one
addressbook across all the email applications, computers, operating systems, and
users in my household.
LDAP is rapidly becomming the standard protocol for directory services on the internet,
and is already supported by most major email client applications. As such it
was the obvious choice for a generally accessible backend.
I hope that you find ldap-abook as useful as I have.
ldap-abook provides a schema for an LDAP (v2 & v3) directory and a cgi script which runs under
any web server. Once the LDAP server and cgi script is installed, the web interface is
used to view, add, modify, and delete entries.
Any LDAP-aware email client (eg. Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc...)
can be configured to look up email address on the LDAP server.
If you already have an LDAP directory, ldap-abook can also be configured to work with your schema.
If there is something about ldap-abook that you don't like, some enhancements that
you'd like to see, or some comments that you have, please let us know!
News
- 01/28/2001
- Version 1.01 released.
LDAP-abook is now based on the
perl-abook library. The Abook perl module which was previously included in ldap-abook has
been removed, as have the utility scripts (e.g. abook.palm), most of which are now included as
part of the perl-abook distribution (in the /examples directory). By using perl-abook,
ldap-abook now has a many new features (see below).
Features
- Configurable attribute mapping and "dn" calculation - ldap-abook can be used with
virtually any LDAP schema.
- Attributes may be calculated "on the fly", (e.g. based on other attributes).
- Addressbook entries may contain multiple attributes of the same type
(ie. one or more name or mail attributes).
- Attribute type support: text, boolean, list selection (more to come).
- Can be used with either LDAP v2 or LDAP v3 servers.
- Uses the UTF-8 character set for international character support (with an ldap v3 server).
What is it?
ldap-abook includes the following:
- A cgi script (abook.cgi) which is used to view and make changes to the address book.
- A configuration file (AddressBook.conf) which maps the
LDAP schema attributes to addressbook fields, describes how attributes and entries are displayed,
and how the LDAP server is accessed. The attribute definitions and LDAP server settings in the
configuration file must match your LDAP server and schema.
A sample configuration is included (see examples/default), along with the corresponding
LDAP v2 and v3 schema definition files, and a setup.pm script to do initialization/migration
Please read the comments in examples/default/README. Some editing is required.
Requirements
Installation Instructions
The following instructions assume that you have a working LDAP server and Perl
installed with the Net::LDAP and AddressBook modules.
Please note: If installing or upgrading ldap-abook to use with an existing
LDAP directory, you should back up your LDAP server database before starting.
- Download the current version.
- Unpack it
- Execute: perl Makefile.PL. You will be prompted for where you want to install
the cgi script (default: /home/httpd/cgi-bin) and the configuration file (default: /etc).
- Execute: make
- If using the default schema, read examples/default/README, and (optionally)
execute setup.pm.
- Copy a configuration file to /etc/AddressBook.conf.
- Execute: make test. The test scripts will attempt to verify that your configuration
file is correct and valid with respect to your LDAP schema.
- Execute: make install
- Connect a web browser to something like http://localhost/cgi-bin/abook.cgi,
and you're all set.
See Also
Last updated 1/15/2001
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