Automatic completion with LDAP

• US 7,970,758 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Issued: 06/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Kinder, Nathan G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Cam Y T
• Application Number:
  US11/515,239
• Publication Number:
  US 20080059428A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,762 Days
• Field of Search: 715/226
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

A method and apparatus for searching data entries in a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory is described. At least a portion of an input is received from a user. Entries of a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory are searched to identify entries that contain the portion of the input from the user. Information pertaining to the identified entries is returned to the user, wherein the information pertaining to at least one identified entry does not include the portion of the input or a modification of the portion of the input.

Claims

1. A method, implemented by a client computing device programmed to perform steps comprising:

presenting, by a Rich Internet Application (RIA) engine installed in a browser executing on the client computing device, a user interface of a web application;

receiving at least a portion of an input from a user at the client computing device via a form field of the user interface, wherein the form field is enabled with Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Markup Language (AJAX) that allows user interaction with the web application to occur asynchronously with results being displayed to the user before the user has completed an entire input;

creating, by the RIA engine, a query comprising a portion of the input;

sending, by the RIA engine, the query directly to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory server from the client computing device, wherein said sending is performed asynchronously with said receiving before the user has completed the entire input, and wherein the query causes the

LDAP directory server to search entries of the LDAP directory to identify entries that contain the portion of the input from the user;

receiving, by the RIA engine, a response to the query directly from the LDAP directory server, the response including information pertaining to the identified entries;

returning to the user the information pertaining to the identified entries via the user interface, wherein the information includes data from one or more predetermined attributes, and wherein for at least one identified entry one of the predetermined attributes is not an attribute that contained the portion of the input from the user;

receiving an updated portion of the input from the user via the user interface;

creating, by the RIA engine, an updated query comprising the updated portion of the input;

sending, by the RIA engine, the updated query directly to the LDAP directory server, wherein said sending the updated query is performed asynchronously with said receiving the updated portion before the user has completed the entire input, wherein the updated query causes the LDAP directory server to search the identified entries of the LDAP directory to determine which of the identified entries contain the updated portion;

receiving, by the RIA engine, an updated response to the updated query directly from the LDAP directory server, the updated response including additional information pertaining to the identified entries that contain the updated portion; and

returning to the user the additional information about the identified entries that contain the updated portion via the user interface without retrieving the identified entries from the directory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information pertaining to the identified entries is returned to the user without retrieving the identified entries from the directory.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the input comprises a plurality of characters and wherein the information pertaining to the identified entries is returned to the user concurrently with the user inputting the plurality of characters.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information is an attribute of one or more identified entries to assist the user to select data stored in the directory.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information is one or more identified entries that match the input.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising returning to the user a message indicating that no entries were found to contain the portion.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein if there is only one identified entry that matches the portion, the method further comprises retrieving the one matching entry from the directory.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein returning to the user information about the identified entries comprises providing an alternative input that does not match the portion of the input.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein returning to the user information about the identified entries comprises providing a variation to the portion of the input.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the LDAP directory server to search the entries asynchronously with said receiving the updated portion of the input.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the LDAP directory server to search the entries asynchronously with said returning to the user information pertaining to the identified entries.

12. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a machine-accessible storage medium including data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

presenting, by a Rich Internet Application (RIA) engine installed in a browser executing on a client computing device, a user interface of a web application;

receiving at least a portion of an input from a user at the client computing device via a form field of the user interface, wherein the form field is enabled with Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Markup Language (AJAX) that allows the user'"'"'s interaction with the web application to occur asynchronously with results being displayed to the user before the user has completed an entire input;

creating, by the RIA engine, a query comprising the portion of the input;

sending, by the RIA engine, the query directly to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory server from the client computing device, wherein said sending is performed asynchronously with said receiving before the user has completed the entire input, and wherein the query causes the LDAP directory server to search entries of the LDAP directory to identify entries that contain the portion of the input from the user;

receiving, by the RIA engine, a response to the query directly from the LDAP directory server, the response including information pertaining to the identified entries;

returning to the user the information that indicates the identified entries of the LDAP directory via the user interface, wherein the information includes data from one or more predetermined attributes, and wherein for at least one identified entry one of the predetermined attributes is not an attribute that contained the portion of the input from the user;

receiving an updated portion of the input from the user via the user interface;

creating, by the RIA engine, an updated query comprising the updated portion of the input;

sending, by the RIA engine, the updated query directly to the LDAP directory server, wherein said sending the updated query is performed asynchronously with said receiving the updated portion before the user has completed the entire input, wherein the updated query causes the LDAP directory server to search the identified entries of the LDAP directory to determine which of the identified entries contain the updated portion;

receiving, by the RIA engine, an updated response to the updated query directly from the LDAP directory server, the updated response including additional information pertaining to the identified entries that contain the updated portion; and

returning to the user the additional information about the identified entries that contain the updated portion via the user interface without retrieving the identified entries from the directory.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the machine-accessible storage medium further includes data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising providing to the user one or more proposed completions to the portion of the input based on the returned information.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 12, wherein the machine-accessible storage medium further includes data that, when accessed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising providing to the user proposed completions concurrently as the user enters the input.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory to store instructions for a user interface that includes a rich internet application (RIA) engine; and

a processor, connected with the memory, to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the processor to;

provide, by the RIA engine, a form field to a user, wherein the form field is enabled with Asynchronous JavaScript and Extensible Markup Language (AJAX) that allows user interaction with the web application to occur asynchronously with results being displayed to the user before the user has completed an entire input;

receive, by the RIA engine, at least a portion of an input from the user via the form field;

create, by the RIA engine, a query comprising the portion of the input;

send, by the RIA engine, the query directly to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory server, wherein said sending is performed asynchronously with said receiving before the user has completed the entire input, and wherein the query causes the LDAP directory server to search entries of the LDAP directory to identify entries that contain the portion of the input from the user;

receive, by the RIA engine, a response to the query directly from the LDAP directory server, the response including information pertaining to the identified entries;

return to the user the information pertaining to the identified entries via the user interface, wherein the information includes data from one or more predetermined attributes, and wherein for at least one identified entry one of the predetermined attributes is not an attribute that contained the portion of the input from the user;

receive an updated portion of the input from the user via the user interface;

create, by the RIA engine, an updated query comprising the updated portion of the input;

send, by the RIA engine, the updated query directly to the LDAP directory server, wherein said sending the updated query is performed asynchronously with said receiving the updated portion before the user has completed the entire input, wherein the updated query causes the LDAP directory server to search the identified entries of the LDAP directory to determine which of the identified entries contain the updated portion;

receive, by the RIA engine, an updated response to the updated query directly from the LDAP directory server, the updated response including additional information pertaining to the identified entries that contain the updated portion; and

return to the user the additional information about the identified entries that contain the updated portion via the user interface without retrieving the identified entries from the directory.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising the instructions to cause the processor to return the information to the user without retrieving the identified entries from the LDAP directory.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising the instructions to cause the processor to provide proposed completions to the user concurrently as the user enters the input.