Application Interaction with XFN

The way that client applications interact with XFN to access different naming systems is illustrated in a series of figures.Figure 1–8 shows an application that uses the XFN API and library.

Figure 1–8 Client Application Interaction With XFN

Figure 1–9 shows the details beneath the API. A naming service that is federated is accessed through the XFN client library and a context shared object module. This module translates the XFN calls into naming service–specific calls.

Figure 1–9 Details Beneath XFN API

X.500, DNS, and NIS+ are the naming services that have been federated in the example shown in Figure 1–10.

As resolution of a composite name proceeds, it can cause these different modules to be linked in, depending on the types of contexts referenced in the name.

Figure 1–10 XFN Implementation Examples