LDAP Overview
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a method for providing directory information, which was made available in mid-January, 2001. Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET) has implemented LDAP as a replacement for the directory server ph.psu.edu. While Ph has served the University community well, the international technical community has created LDAP as a standardized way for interchanging such information in a standardized manner. This enables new services at Penn State and will make it easier to add friends and colleagues at other institutions to your e-mail address book.
As of January 15, 2001, the Penn State community has been able to use the LDAP server to perform directory searches. Using database resources from the Office of Administrative Systems (OAS) and from the Central Accounts Coordination Tracking of User Services (CACTUS), LDAP lets us provide easy access to such information as class lists. There are other benefits as well.
Before LDAP, directories at every higher education institution were different. This made it difficult for a person at one institution to get meaningful information, such as e-mail addresses, from another institution. The eduPerson definition was defined by Educause, a consortium of higher education institutions, to provide a means by which we can universally define kinds of users and for an easier exchange of information among higher education institutions. It is important to understand that this follows existing federal and state privacy laws and includes mechanisms for individuals to have their information withheld. Care has been taken to ensure that Penn State policy is closely adhered to as well.
A reasonable question is what will happen when I use a PH client or a program that only uses PH to make a query? PH queries will continue to be supported through a PH-to-LDAP gateway. When making a request to PH, from either a client or from the Penn State Online Directory, the bridge will make the request to LDAP and return the results to the user.