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LDAP Client

Microsoft® Windows® CE .NET supports the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) version 3.0. This protocol is used to access a directory that stores names, addresses, phone numbers, and other types of information.

By selecting the LDAP feature, you can integrate all the components required to implement an LDAP client on your target platform. The Windows CE support of LDAP exposes an associated application-programming interface (API) that simplifies writing directory service applications. The LDAP API is applicable to directory management and browser applications that do not have directory service support as their primary function. LDAP cannot create directories or specify how a directory service operates.

LDAP is a protocol designed to be a lightweight front-end to a X.500 directory or stand-alone directory service, such as Microsoft Active Directory®, over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). LDAP is a client-server protocol that enables users to locate a specific set of information and other resources such as files and devices on a network. Protocol elements are carried directly over TCP or UDP, thereby bypassing much of the session/presentation overhead that is required for other directory services, such as X.500. LDAP uses a lightweight basic encoding rule (BER) notation to encode all protocol elements.

See Also

Differences Between the LDAP Implementation in Windows CE and Windows XP | LDAP Directory Service | LDAP Protocol Operations | Using the LDAP API | LDAP Security

 Last updated on Friday, April 09, 2004

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