Extension of organizational chart dynamic group lists based on LDAP lookups

• US 7,734,662 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Rowley, Peter A., Parkinson, Steven W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Cam Y T
• Application Number:
  US11/592,105
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104110A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,315 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100
• US Class Current: 707/803
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9027 Trees
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4523 using lightweight directory access protocol [LDAP]

Abstract

A level for a hierarchical organizational chart is associated with a virtual attribute and the values for the level are generated from values for the virtual attribute. The organizational chart is derived from distinguished name entries in a lightweight directory access protocol directory and the virtual attribute is not associated with an object in a schema for the directory. The virtual attribute may be a virtual recursive attribute or a virtual reverse attribute.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to create a dynamic hierarchical organizational chart for entries of a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) database, the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart comprising one or more dynamic levels, the method comprising:

receiving, by a view service module of an LDAP directory server that performs directory queries on the LDAP database, a request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart, wherein each dynamic level of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart is defined by an administrator of the LDAP directory server as associated with dynamic views for one or more attribute types, wherein the dynamic views are a list of unique values for the one or more attribute types and wherein the dynamic views allow the directory server to generate different views of an LDAP directory without the view service module maintaining a static structure for each dynamic view in the LDAP directory server and LDAP database;

generating, by the view service module, one or more subviews for each dynamic view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart by creating for each unique value of the dynamic view, a list of distinguished name (DN) entries that contain the unique values;

generating a list of unique values for a new attribute and for the one or more subviews, wherein the new attribute is the virtual attribute that does not correspond to any objects defined in a schema for the LDAP directory server;

if the new attribute specifies filtering on a location attribute, generating a list of unique location values and creating a subview for each location in the list of unique location values;

adding, by the view service module, the generated subviews to a view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart that is provided in response to the request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart;

if a DN and the virtual attribute in a virtual recursive list exist, adding the DN to a virtual indirect recursive attribute index;

if the DN and the virtual attribute in the virtual recursive list do not exist, generating virtual recursive attributes; and

generating inverses of virtual attributes so that the virtual recursive attributes are referred to as virtual reverse attributes and using indices of the virtual recursive and virtual reverse attributes to process nested queries, wherein the virtual attribute is selected from the group consisting of the virtual recursive attributes and virtual reverse attributes.

2. A computer-readable storage medium having executable instructions to cause a processor to perform a process to create a dynamic hierarchical organizational chart for entries of a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) database queried by an LDAP directory server, the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart comprising one or more dynamic levels, the process comprising:

receiving, by a view service module of the LDAP directory server that performs directory queries on the LDAP database, a request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart, wherein each dynamic level of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart is defined by an administrator of the LDAP directory server as associated with a dynamic views for one or more attribute types, wherein the dynamic views are a list of unique values for the one or more attribute types and wherein the dynamic views allow the directory server to generate different views of an LDAP directory without the view service module maintaining a static structure for each dynamic view in the LDAP directory server and LDAP database;

generating, by the view service module, one or more subviews for each dynamic view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart by creating for each unique value of the dynamic view, a list of distinguished name (DN) entries that contain the unique values;

generating a list of unique values for a new attribute and for the one or more subviews, wherein the new attribute is the virtual attribute that does not correspond to any objects defined in a schema for the LDAP directory server;

if the new attribute specifies filtering on a location attribute, generating a list of unique location values and creating a subview for each location in the list of unique location values;

adding, by the view service module, the generated subviews to a view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart that is provided in response to the request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart;

if a DN and the virtual attribute in a virtual recursive list exist, adding the DN to a virtual indirect recursive attribute index;

if the DN and the virtual attribute in the virtual recursive list do not exist, generating virtual recursive attributes; and

generating inverses of virtual attributes so that the virtual recursive attributes are referred to as virtual reverse attributes and using indices of the virtual recursive and virtual reverse attributes to process nested queries, wherein the virtual attribute is selected from the group consisting of the virtual recursive attributes and the virtual reverse attributes.

3. A computer system comprising:

a memory;

a bus communicably coupled to the memory; and

a processor communicably coupled to the memory through the bus, the processor configured to execute instructions from the memory to cause the processor to perform a process to create a dynamic hierarchical organizational chart for entries of a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) database queried by an LDAP directory server, the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart comprising one or more dynamic levels, the process comprising;

receiving, by a view service module of the LDAP directory server that performs directory queries on the LDAP database, a request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart, wherein each dynamic level of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart is defined by an administrator of the LDAP directory server as associated with a dynamic views for one or more attribute types, wherein the dynamic views are a list of unique values for the one or more attribute types and wherein the dynamic views allow the directory server to generate different views of an LDAP directory without the view service module maintaining a static structure for each dynamic view in the LDAP directory server and LDAP database;

generating, by the view service module, one or more subviews for each dynamic view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart by creating for each unique value of the dynamic view, a list of distinguished name (DN) entries that contain the unique values;

generating a list of unique values for a new attribute and for the one or more subviews, wherein the new attribute is the virtual attribute that does not correspond to any objects defined in a schema for the LDAP directory server;

if the new attribute specifies filtering on a location attribute, generating a list of unique location values and creating a subview for each location in the list of unique location values;

adding, by the view service module, the generated subviews to a view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart that is provided in response to the request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart;

if a DN and the virtual attribute in a virtual recursive list exist, adding the DN to a virtual indirect recursive attribute index;

if the DN and the virtual attribute in the virtual recursive list do not exist, generating virtual recursive attributes; and

generating inverses of virtual attributes so that the virtual recursive attributes are referred to as virtual reverse attributes and using indices of the virtual recursive and virtual reverse attributes to process nested queries, wherein the virtual attribute is selected from the group consisting of the virtual recursive attributes and the virtual reverse attributes.

4. An apparatus comprising a memory, a processor and a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory server that performs directory queries on an LDAP database and includes a view service module operable to create a dynamic hierarchical organizational chart, comprising one or more dynamic levels, for entries of the LDAP database by:

receiving, by a view service module of the LDAP directory server that performs directory queries on the LDAP database, a request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart, wherein each dynamic level of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart is defined by an administrator of the LDAP directory server as associated with a dynamic views for one or more attribute types, wherein the dynamic views are a list of unique values for the one or more attribute types and wherein the dynamic views allow the directory server to generate different views of an LDAP directory without the view service module maintaining a static structure for each dynamic view in the LDAP directory server and LDAP database;

generating, by the view service module, one or more subviews for each dynamic view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart by creating for each unique value of the dynamic view, a list of distinguished name (DN) entries that contain the unique values;

generating a list of unique values for a new attribute and for the one or more subviews, wherein the new attribute is the virtual attribute that does not correspond to any objects defined in a schema for the LDAP directory server;

if the new attribute specifies filtering on a location attribute, generating a list of unique location values and creating a subview for each location in the list of unique location values;

adding, by the view service module, the generated subviews to a view of the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart that is provided in response to the request to generate the dynamic hierarchical organizational chart;

if a DN and the virtual attribute in a virtual recursive list exist, adding the DN to a virtual indirect recursive attribute index;

if the DN and the virtual attribute in the virtual recursive list do not exist, generating virtual recursive attributes; and

generating inverses of virtual attributes so that the virtual recursive attributes are referred to as virtual reverse attributes and using indices of the virtual recursive and virtual reverse attributes to process nested queries, wherein the virtual attribute is selected from the group consisting of the virtual recursive attributes and the virtual reverse attributes.