What is LDAP used for?

Question

I know that LDAP is used to provide some information and to help facilitate authorization.

But what are the other usages of LDAP?

Answer 1

LDAP is the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. Basically, it's a protocol used to access data from a database (or other source) and it's mostly suited for large numbers of queries and minimal updates (the sort of thing you would use for login information for example).

LDAP doesn't itself provide a database, just a means to query data in the database.

Answer 2

LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.It is used in Active Directory for communicating user queries..e.g.. LDAP can be used by users to search and locate a particular object like a laser printer in a domain.

Answer 3

I have had the opportunity to start a project for school about ldap, from scratch, but before getting to know what is ldap, I had to understand what is a directory, there are many (most used directories are novell and windows), here you can see what the directory in Wikipedia.

And ldap is the protocol to communicate with the board, one of the best books I've found is this one.

Answer 4

The main benefit of using LDAP is that information for an entire organization can be consolidated into a central repository. For example, rather than managing user lists for each group within an organization, LDAP can be used as a central directory accessible from anywhere on the network. And because LDAP supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), sensitive data can be protected from prying eyes.

LDAP also supports a number of back-end databases in which to store directories. This allows administrators the flexibility to deploy the database best suited for the type of information the server is to disseminate. Because LDAP also has a well-defined client Application Programming Interface (API), the number of LDAP-enabled applications are numerous and increasing in quantity and quality.