LEX Features

Please note that LEX - The LDAP Explorer is still in a beta stadium, an official release will be announced as soon as possible.

LEX - The LDAP Explorer is a GUI based administration tool running on windows platforms, which is able to browse and manage LDAP directory systems. For the LEX user, the look and feel while working with the directory structure is very similar to the windows file explorer.

LDAP browsing and object display

• Display of the container objects in a hierachical tree view with the accoring possibilities to navigate. Once a container structure is copied into a local cache, the following LEX program launches are extremly fast.
• Object list display with any LDAP object attribute as a list column value.
• The complete attribute list of an object can be shown integrated in the main window (expandable as an horzontal or vertical window pane) or in an separate window.
• LEX can access several LDAP directories concurrently.
• All program windows which shows single objects or object lists (for example the results of search operations), are not modal.
• The display of all Distinguished Names in the program can be switched from the official LDAP notation to Novell dotted notation.
• Fast fold/unfold options in displaying multivalued attributes for an easy and efficient handling.

Server Support

LEX supports the following LDAPv2 / LDAPv3 directory systems:

• OpenLDAP
• Microsoft Active Directory Services
• Microsoft Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (ADAM)
• Novell eDirectory
• Siemens DirX Directory Server
• Sun/NetScape iPlanet Directory Server
• Sun Java System Directory Server
• IBM Secureway LDAP
• Oracle Internet Directory
• IBM Tivoli Directory Server
• Exchange 5.5
• Any other LDAPv2 / LDAPv3 directory

Authentification

LEX comes with the following options according to the connection to an LDAP server (Bind-Operation):

• Anonymous BIND
• SASL authentification
• LDAP-SSL connections
• Logon with the current credentials
• Paged Result Handling
• LDAP BIND over TCP or UDP (Transmission Control Protocol / User Datagram Protocol)
• Connection Profiles: Logon configurations and their credentials can be easily stored in profilesequem in Profilen speichern. The profiles are stored in the filesystem with rijndael encryption so that they are protected against disclosure.
• Server Detection: In Active Directory or Novell eDirectory environments, LEX can search automatically for available LDAP servers. If the LEX workstation ist member of an Active Directory domains, all domain controllers in the entire forest will be detected, with global catalog configuration and site membership.
• Naming Contexts Fetch: The naming contexts which are published by the LDAP server can be automatically detected, the user doesnt have to enter LDAP base pathnamens manually.

Schema Evaluation

LEX performs an evaluation of the LDAP schema for the mentioned server types. This happens whenever the tool connects to an LDAP server. Therfor LEX can display LDAP attributes which are not visible in simple LDAP requests (operational attributes). Object attributes which have a more complex syntax can be displayed and edited in customized dialogs (for example date and time values or access control lists).

Edit Functions

LEX can edit objects and attributes - with special editors which are customized for the regarding data type and attribute syntax. If you want to generally avoid unintentional write access to the directory, you can configure LEX to operate in a ReadOnly mode.

The following data types are editable with customized dialogs:

• Boolean
• Directory String / Unicode / IA5 / Printable
• Integer (Dezimal, Hexadezimal, Binär - even as bit field)
• Octet-String / Binary
• Distinguished Name (with comfortable resolution for short names into complete Distinguished Names)
• UTC Time / Generalized Time
• {Novell} Email Address
• {Novell} Path
• {Novell} Object ACL
• {Novell} Timestamp
• {Novell} Counter
• {Novell} Backlink
• {Novell} Typed Name
• {Microsoft} DN with Binary
• {Microsoft} DN with String
• {Microsoft} Large Integer / INT64
• {Microsoft} Interval / Timestamp
• {Microsoft} NT Security Descriptor
• {Microsoft} Security Identifier (SID)

Subtree Rename and Move: LEX can move and rename whole directory subtrees, even if the regarding directory service does not support such operations on non-leaf objects. This is done by cloning the underlying containter struture and move all the regarding leaf objects into the cloned subtree.

Multi-Object Edit: LEX enables the user to choose several different objects from the current object list and edit their attributes simultaneously. Attributes can be built up based on other existing attributes here. An example: You could set the display name of many users to the new value "surname, given name" in one single step. Or you can set the email address of al recipiens to "givenName.surname@example.com" in one single step.

Attribute Copy and Paste: With LEX, you can set attributes of an object according to the values of another object - very easy with the copy and paste functions which are implemented for objects and their attributes. Group memberships could be copied this way - the user can choose whether such multivalued attributes shall be merged into the existing value list or if the existing list shall be replaced by the copied values. from the clipboard.

Objectclass extension: You can easily add new objectclasses to existing objects.

Edit Dialogs: All dialogs in which object attributes are displayed and edited are non-modal.

Export / Import

Export formats: LDIF, CSV, XML, XLS

Import formats: LDIF

Directory Search For Objects

LEX comnes with different search operations:

• Direct search in the text of the currently displayed object list or attribute list.
• Simple LDAP search for object names and important attributes.
• Complex search with LDAP search filters.

LDAP Filter Factory

The Filter Factory enables the LEX user to built even complex LDAP with nested boolean structures with a comfortable grafical user interface. Filter can be saved and loaded easily.

Attributes can be used for filter building with their current values directly from the object view with context menu options.

LEX comes with predefined important LDAPfilters.

Attribute können mit Ihren aktuellen Werten direkt aus deren Kontextmenü zur Erstellung von LDAP-Filtern herangezogen werden.

Wichtige vordefinierte Filter werden mitgeliefert.

All dialogs in which LDAP filters are displayed and edited are non-modal.

Objekt Comparison

LEX offers the possibility to compare any pair of directory object with each other. In the comparison display, all attribute values are displayed in a dual difference list, even multivalued attributes (for example group memberships) are compared and displayed accordingly value by value.