[dev] Newbie

[Raphael Melo de Oliveira Bastos Sales]

Hey Ben,

On 4/27/06, Ben Chavet <ben at horde.org> wrote:

> What I had in mind was more of an administrative module.  Something
> along the lines of http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/~gawor/ldap/ but for
> horde.  Perhaps this administrative module could provide an LDAP API
> for other applications.

I understand. And I do intend to do this. But I think that designing
the API is a good way to start. Plus, it would give other developers
something to work with while I'm not done. I was thinking in starting
the API with something simple and increase it on demand. I'll put the
interface I was thinking about in the end of this e-mail.

> Something else that has come up in the past is having global LDAP
> settings, similar to how we have global SQL settings now.  This is
> probably a minor thing, but it would certainly make configuring Horde
> for LDAP much easier.

Just entered my TODO list. ;)

> I certainly see a lot of potential for tying horde into LDAP more
> tightly.  Permissions is the first thing that comes to mind, like
> Chuck mentioned.
>
> A better prefs driver would be nice, as the current one really
> clutters things up in the directory, IMO.  If we organized it right,
> we could even do something along the lines of Group Policy Objects,
> allowing administrators to enable, disable, or override user
> preferences.

Where can I find the current one? As I said to Chuck, I'm newbie in Horde. :)

>
> I had considered implementing an ldap datatree driver at one point,
> but I'm not sure how well that would scale, since LDAP is meant to be
> more of a read-fast, write-slow data storage area.  But, the data
> structure fits perfectly, so it's certainly something to think about.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the datatree?

>
> These are some of my ideas, and if I come up with anything else, I'll
> be sure to post them.

I appreciate that :)

>
> --Ben
>

As promised, the interface I was thinking. I'm hoping to increase it
as I get a better understanding the necessities of other Horde
developers:

<?php
class HordeLDAPDriver{

    function HordeLDAPDriver( $ldap_host, $base_dn, $user = "", $password ="" ){
        /* Do LDAP connection and binds stuff here.
         * If user and password are not set, tries anonymous bind */
    }

    function authenticateUser( $user, $password ){
        /* Tries to authenticate an user that is in one of the
assigned groups */
    }

    function authenticateUserByGroup( $user, $password, $groups ){
        /* Tries to authenticate an user that is in one of the
assigned groups */
    }

    function authenticateUserByFilter( $user, $password, $filter ){
        /* Tries to authenticate an user, matching it to the given filter */
    }

    function get( $directory_dn ){
        /* Returns the directory that matches the given DN */
    }

    function add( $ldap_directory ){
        /* Adds an LDAP Directory. Would receive an object of
         * the type LDAPDirectory. I'd still have to define it */
    }

    function update( $ldap_directory ){
        /* Updates an LDAP Directory. Would work the same way as above */
    }

    function remove( $directory_dn ){
        /* Deletes the directory that matches the given DN */
    }

    function search( $search_filter ){
        /* Returns a list of directories that matches the given filter */
    }
}

?>