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Object Attribute Columns

Together with the objects names you can configure LEX to show any object attributes to be shown directly in the list as additional columns:

Attribute columns in object lists

The columns can be configured in two ways: By choosing the attributes in a menu or just by point-and-click on an attribute in the attribute panel of the LDAP browser main window. First let's see how you configure the columns by normal menus: The according options are accessible by choosing View - Column Field Chooser. Or you just open the context menu of the object list column header - just right-click on the column header.

List column context menu

There are several options in this menu. The first five entries represent important basic information for each object, which can be chosen directly to be shown as a list column or not:

  • Object type: You can activate a column with the main object class here. Each object has one or several object classes assigned, which are derived from the hierarchical class schema of the directory. One of these object classes is the main class which defines the nature of the object and which is sometimes is called 'structural class'. Some directories store an attribute named structuralClass for each object - in other directory environment you can derive the main object class from the order in which the classes are stored in the multi-valued attribute objectClass. LEX tries to evaluate the main class for each object according to the current directory type.

  • Date modified: This is the standard attribute modifyTimeStamp which is defined in the LDAP v3 RFC 2251 and which is supported by almost every directory server.

  • Modifiers name: The distinguished name of the account which accessed and modified the regarding object. This is the standard attribute modifiersName which is defined in the LDAP v3 RFC 2251 and which is supported by a lot of directory servers (unfortunately, Active Directory doesn't support it).

  • Date created: This is the standard attribute createTimeStamp which is defined in the LDAP v3 RFC 2251 and which is supported by almost every directory server.

  • Creators name: The distinguished name of the account which accessed and modified the regarding object. This is the standard attribute creatorsName which is defined in the LDAP v3 RFC 2251 and which is supported by a lot of directory servers (unfortunately, Active Directory doesn't support it).

The option More opens a dialog in which you can enter any attribute which should be shown as a list column as well - or you can choose from a list of attributes which are valid to the current directory according to the schema:

Choosing object list column attributes

Choosing object list column attributes

Additional list column handling


You can sort the list object according to each column just by clicking at the regarding column header. Click again and the objects will be sorted in descending sort order.

If you choose an attribute to be shown as a list column which is NOT present in an object in the list - then the information is just empty at the according row/column position. There should be no error message, even if you choose attributes for the columns which are not supported by every object in the list.

If you want to clear all columns which were configured in the More dialog, you just have to click on the More entry in the menu, and deactivated it.

You can save and load your sets of list column attributes with the Options Load Column Set and Save Column Set. The sets will be stored as normal text *.txt files containing the column attribute names. The column set files are stored in the subdirectory LDAPAttributeSets in your LEX profile directory. LEX shows all the text files which are found in this directory as menu options, so you can load a column set quite easily:

Quick load of a list column set

If you want to get rid of a saved column set, just remove the according *.txt file in the in the subdirectory LDAPAttributeSets in your LEX profile directory. By the way: The attribute filter sets and the column attribute sets have the same format and are stored in the same directory.

Quick-configure of a list column


Here is another convenient way to specify an attribute to be shown in the object list as a column: Just open the attribute list panel. This is done by activating the menu option View - Attribute List or by pressing the Expand/Collapse the attribute list for the selected object button Expand/Collapse the attribute.

In the attribute list, just mark the attribute you want to be displayed as a column in the object list, open the context menu (right mouse-click) and choose the option Use Attribute as List Column (the same choice is also accessible in the View main menu).

Attribute list context menu

Expand/Collapse the attribute The Expand/Collapse the attribute list for the selected object button shows or hides the attribute list panel for an object.