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www.it-ebooks.infoC H A P T E R 17• • •PHP and LDAPDirectory services offer system administrators, developers, and end users alike a consistent, efficient,and secure means for viewing and managing resources such as people, files, printers, and applications.The structure of these read-optimized data repositories often closely models the physical corporatestructure, an example of which is depicted in Figure 17-1.Numerous leading software vendors have built flagship directory services products and indeedcentered their entire operations around such offerings. The following are just a few of the more popularproducts:• RedHat Directory Server: www.redhat.com/directory_server• Microsoft Active Directory: www.microsoft.com/activedirectory• Novell eDirectory: www.novell.com/products/edirectory• Oracle Beehive: www.oracle.com/beehiveFigure 17-1. A model of the typical corporate structureAll widely used directory services products depend heavily upon an open specification known as theLightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP. In this chapter, you will learn how easy it is to talk to351