possible LDAP server from fastmail?

[andyb]

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
No-one's yet answered my question about which clients if any support authenticated LDAP, preferably with write access.

Mac OS X Mail.app supports authenticated LDAP over SSL. It doesn't appear to support write access, although I don't have an LDAP server to test it against. It also allows constraints on scope of lookups (e.g. subtree only). The OS X built-in address book supports import of LDIF format (LDAP interchange format), secured, direct access to LDAP directories, and appears to support write access to LDAP directories.

Ciao,

AndyB

[elvey]

Cool. I got an apple (iBook) recently, would love to have this. Broad LDAP support is inevitable, IMO. I'd be pleased to manage my FM Address book with my iBook!

[dustpuppy]

Please support LDAP or some other means of address-book synchronisation. I am tired of importing address books back and forth between clients, I need something stable !

[vinmar]

Thunderbird supports LDAP with a secure SSL connection. Does this mean it's authenticated? As there is no username or password field I suppose it isn't authenticated, but then why use SSL?

[sparx]

Having noticed activity in this thread, I thought i'd see if anything had changed....

In OE's address book, I tried adding a new LDAP server and there was an option to authenticate using a username/password. SSL was avaialble as an option.

Also noticed the ability to IMPORT using LDIF format but that would be as good as importing one's contacts using any other supported format like CSV currently is.

What is the main use / feature(s) / benefits of using LDAP ?

[mvpittman]

Originally posted by sparx
Having noticed activity in this thread, I thought i'd see if anything had changed....

...snip...

What is the main use / feature(s) / benefits of using LDAP ?

I think the big deal was that you could store your address book on FastMail, and then access it with a desktop client, like Mozilla Thunderbird, or Eudora.

It isn't exactly syncrhronization, which many of us have wanted for ages, but at least you only have to maintain one address book, and it would be accessible both when you use the web interface, and when you use a desktop client.

[mvpittman]

Originally posted by vinmar
Thunderbird supports LDAP with a secure SSL connection. Does this mean it's authenticated? As there is no username or password field I suppose it isn't authenticated, but then why use SSL?

I suppose an unauthenticated access of an LDAP address book might be useful for something that *evreyone* needed access to.

For example, when I went to Purdue University (some time ago) there was a university-wide directory that you could access. So, your e-mail client could perform a lookup against it, if you needed to e-mail a student in your class or an instructor or something.

I suppose encrypting the transmission with SSL has no real purpose, other than to keep people from sniffing the transmission to get information from the addressbook.

If I recall correctly, you had to be "on the network", or VPN into it, in order perform the LDAP lookup, and students had the option of not being listed in the public directory (for privacy concerns).

I suppose someone could sniff someone's LDAP lookup to get information from the directory, so SSL would keep that from happening, unlikely as that might have been.

[TheLastShack]

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
No-one's yet answered my question about which clients if any support authenticated LDAP, preferably with write access.

Mac OS X has built-in support for authenticated LDAP. The setup is in the Address Book, and then it is fully integrated with mail (type in a name in To:, and it will search the LDAP server). The integration is similar to that of Thunderbird.

[Jeremy Howard]

Mac Mail, Thunderbird, and Outlook Express do not, AFAIK, provide a *writable* LDAP address book.

[TheLastShack]

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
Mac Mail, Thunderbird, and Outlook Express do not, AFAIK, provide a *writable* LDAP address book.

I wasn't aware that ANY clients support a "writable" LDAP address book... sounds like a great idea though. The only experience I've ever had with LDAP is using it alongside my local address book. In my particular case, my university has an LDAP server with all the students listed in it.

[mvpittman]

Originally posted by Jeremy Howard
Mac Mail, Thunderbird, and Outlook Express do not, AFAIK, provide a *writable* LDAP address book.

I'd be quite happy just to be able to access my address book on the FastMail server, over LDAP, even if I couldn't write to it.

There's no point in using the address book on the web interface, unless you use the web interface all the time. Last I checked, there was no way to export the address book other than copying the text from the screen and importing it into a spreadshieet, saving it as a .csv and importing it into a client or whatever.

That's not going to happen on my time.

MVP

[WayneCN]

Yes. That's great.

I'm using Mozilla Thunderbird, which support LDAP address book.

[dustpuppy]

It doesn't matter to me if thunderbird doesn't support LDAP writing yet. I can use a separate program for writing to the address book, or the webmail interface. I just want to use the same address book wherever I connect from, and I'm willing to cope with the difficulties involved.

[BinaryTB]

I'd also like to chime in and say that writeable access to LDAP from any client isn't as necessary as reading. I definitely wouldn't mind adding entries through another program or the web interface, as long as I can have 1 location with all my addresses.

Any update on this at all btw?

[mvpittman]

:: sad face ::