XML Enabled Directory

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XML Enabled Directory (XED) is a framework for managing objects represented using the Extensible Markup Language (XML). XED builds on X.500 and LDAP directory services technologies.

X.500 is a series of computer networking standards covering electronic directory services. The X.500 series was developed by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T), ITU-T formerly known as the Consultative Committee for International Telephony and Telegraphy (CCITT). X.500 was approved first in 1988. The directory services were developed to support requirements of X.400 electronic mail exchange and name lookup. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was a partner in developing the standards, incorporating them into the Open Systems Interconnection suite of protocols. ISO/IEC 9594 is the corresponding ISO identification.

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Directory services play an important role in developing intranet and Internet applications by allowing the sharing of information about users, systems, networks, services, and applications throughout the network. As examples, directory services may provide any organized set of records, often with a hierarchical structure, such as a corporate email directory. Similarly, a telephone directory is a list of subscribers with an address and a phone number.

In computing, directory service or name service maps the names of network resources to their respective network addresses. It is a shared information infrastructure for locating, managing, administering and organizing everyday items and network resources, which can include volumes, folders, files, printers, users, groups, devices, telephone numbers and other objects. A directory service is a critical component of a network operating system. A directory server or name server is a server which provides such a service. Each resource on the network is considered an object by the directory server. Information about a particular resource is stored as a collection of attributes associated with that resource or object.

XED was originally designed in 2003 by Steven Legg of eNitiatives (formerly of eB2Bcom and Adacel Technologies) and Daniel Prager (formerly of Deakin University).

Deakin University university in Victoria, Australia

Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Established in 1974 with the passage of the Deakin University Act 1974, the university was named after the second Prime Minister of Australia, Alfred Deakin.

The XML Enabled Directory (XED) framework leverages existing Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and X.500 directory technology to create a directory service that stores, manages and transmits Extensible Markup Language (XML) format data, while maintaining interoperability with LDAP clients, X.500 Directory User Agents (DUAs), and X.500 Directory System Agents (DSAs).

The main features of XED are:

The XML Enabled Directory allows directory entries to contain XML formatted data as attribute values. Furthermore, the attribute syntax can be specified in any one of a variety of XML schema languages that the directory understands.

The directory server is then able to perform data validation and semantically meaningful matching of XML documents, or their parts, on behalf of client applications, making the implementation of XML-based applications easier and faster.

XML applications can also exploit the directory's traditional capabilities of cross-application data sharing, data distribution, data replication, user authentication and user access control, further lowering the cost of building new XML applications


XED Implementations

eNitiatives's ViewDS Discovery Server provides organisations with a fast, scalable and flexible directory system. As it has been developed strictly adhering to open standards and it features support for the X.500, LDAP, XED and ACP133 Standards. Being standards compliant, ViewDS will interface with a variety of applications, both now and into the future.

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