Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directories are widely used to store personnel information and other kinds of data. ATG’s LDAP profile repository is an implementation of the Repository API that enables you to store and access profile data in an LDAP directory.
By default, the Personalization module is configured to use a SQL profile repository, but you can change the configuration to use an LDAP repository instead. Using an LDAP repository enables you to tap into the profile data you already have in an LDAP directory, and to share user information across multiple applications.
Just like the SQL profile repository, the LDAP repository implements the ATG repository API to allow you to store, access, modify, and query user profile information. As in the SQL profile repository, repository items are first created as transient items (RAM profiles); they become persistent after they are added to the database.
For complete information about LDAP repository concepts, architecture, and code, see the LDAP Repositories chapter in the Repository Guide.
It is important to note, however, that the LDAP repository implementation is not specific to user profiles in any way. Since an LDAP directory can be used to store any kind of data (people, groups, mailing lists, documents, printers, etc.), you could use the LDAP repository to expose any of that data in an ATG application.
Scenarios module and LDAP Repositories: You cannot use scenarios with an LDAP profile repository, because the LDAP repository is not currently powerful enough to express all the data relationships required by the Scenarios module. If you want to run scenarios, you must use either a SQL repository or a composite repository to store all profile information.
Creating the LDAP Profile Repository Component
The LDAP profile repository is a component of class atg.adapter.ldap.LDAPRepository. Create and configure an instance of this component as described in the LDAP Repositories chapter of the Repository Guide.
Configuring the Personalization Module to use the LDAP Repository
By default, the Personalization module is configured to use a SQL database to store profiles. To use an LDAP directory instead, you need to configure Personalization module components to work with the LDAP repository.
For more information, see the Configuring the Personalization Module to use the LDAP Repository section of the Personalization Programming Guide.
LDAP Password Encryption
The passwordHasher property of the /atg/userprofiling/PropertyManager component points to a password hasher component that handles password encryption.
For more information, see the LDAP Password Encryption section of the Repository Guide.
For LDAP servers other than Oracle Directory Server, you may need to create your own PasswordHasher implementation, if none of the PasswordHasher implementations included in the ATG platform meet your requirements.
For more information, see the Password Hashing section in the Customizing Application Security chapter of the Platform Programming Guide for more information about ATG’s PasswordHasher implementations.
For more information, see User Profiling Tools in the Personalization Programming Guide.
LDAP Profile Repository Definition File
For a sample LDAP profile repository definition file, see the Sample LDAP Profile Repository Definition File section of the Platform Programming Guide.
