Other Directory Vendors
October 27, 2000
Novell
Novell has made strong statements of support for DSML.
And it makes sense for Novell to support DSML, which
would make it easier to create programs that can interact
with NDS. Customers would have a wider range of
NDS-compatible applications to choose from, making NDS
more valuable to them.
Her, Mikko Välimäki, Director of Net Directory
Services for Novell, says, “We do not have any
engineering efforts ongoing around DSML. DSML has not
been something that a single customer has asked about. It
is more in the analyst community. We have focused mostly
on meeting our customers' needs, and if DSML becomes a
need there, we are in a position to respond pretty
quickly thanks to our powerful DirXML
implementation.”
Novell has been coping with falling revenues and a
reorganization that included massive firings. DSML
appears to be on a back, back burner for now.
Other Directory Vendors
Other important directory vendors have taken the first
step toward supporting DSML by implementing DSML 1.0 as
follows:
- IBM's
SLAPHAPI (Standalone LDAP HTTP API) can
return output in text, HTML or DSML formats.
SLAPHAPI is a generalized high-level API for
accessing LDAP directories via HTTP.
- A preview version of Sun Microsystems'
Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) API
supports DSML.
- Netscape's LDAP SDK supports DSML.
- While not a major directory vendor, Bowstreet
deserves a mention as the company that
spearheaded the DSML effort. DSML 1.0 was based
primarily on Bowstreet's Business Web Factory
(formerly Web Automation Factory). Business Web
Factory facilitates the creation of B2B
applications in a two step process: First, it
encapsulates existing content, data, and business
processes in software components called Web
services. Then, it publishes these services to
corporate directories, along with automation
templates that facilitate combining services to
create B2B applications. DSML provides the format
for publishing Web services.
C and Java Not Required
For many years, a lack of widely accepted interfaces for
accessing directories was a barrier to the widespread use
of directories. LDAP has eased that situation. However,
LDAP programming usually means programming in C, with
Java as an emerging alternative. With DSML, programmers
have another alternative that allows them to build on
familiarity with HTML and XML.
This doesn’t remove all possible barriers. For
instance, programmers still have to understand tree
structures in general and directory structures in
particular. However, working in a markup language instead
of having to code in C will be a big plus for many
programmers.
Security Considerations
DSML has important implications for security
management, which application architects should be aware
of when making the decision to support DSML. While LDAP
requires a special port to be opened up on firewalls,
initial versions of DSML will use HTTP or Secure HTTP as
a transport. Thus, DSML documents will traverse firewalls
on the HTTP port.
Proponents of DSML tout this as an advantage.
Certainly, it simplifies firewall administration.
On the other hand, some organizations may not like the
idea of a newly-empowered HTTP that gives hackers an
opportunity to attack directories as well as Web sites.
It is too early to say how organizations and developers
will deal with this problem, but it is one that will have
to be addressed.
Implementations
Introduction to Directory Services Markup Language (DSML)
Conclusion
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