# &app; Manual V&manrevision;

## Introduction

An LDAP server is a hierarchical database system. It's typically used to provide a central store of information on users and other configuration data.

&app; allows you to browse LDAP-based directories and add/edit/delete entries contained within. It can store profiles for quick access to different servers. There are also different views available such as Users, Contacts, Groups and Hosts which allow you to easily manage objects without having to deal with the intricacies of LDAP.

## Getting Started

### To Start &app;

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

- Choose System Tools LDAP Administration Tool.

Command line

- Execute the following command: `lat`

### When You Start &app;

When you start &app;, the following window is displayed:

#### &app; Window

Shows lat main window.

The &app; window contains the following elements:

Menubar

- The menus on the menubar contain all of the commands you need to work with the LDAP server in &app;.

Toolbar

- The toolbar contains a subset of the commands that you can access from the menubar.

View area

- The view area contains the different views of the data on the LDAP server.

Output window

- The output window displays the information about entries found in the directory.

Statusbar

- The statusbar displays the username that was used to login to the LDAP server

When you right-click in the output window, the application displays a popup menu. The popup menu contains the most common commands.

In &app;, you can perform the same action in different ways. For example, you can import an LDIF file in the following ways:

UI Component | Action
Window | Drag a file into the &app; window from another application such as a file manager.
Menubar | Choose Server Import LDIF....

## Usage

### To Create a New Entry

To create a new entry, choose Server New. Depending on the current view selected (Computers,Contacts,Groups,Users), the application displays a new entry dialog.

### To Delete an Entry

To delete an entry, choose Server Delete. The application will display a confirmation dialog before proceeding.

### To connect a Server

Choose Server Connect and the connect dialog will appear. By default, you only need to specify a hostname. You can specify more options if you wish and also save the connection as a profile for future use.

If you don't save it as a profile then it will only last for the duration of the session. Next time you use &app; it won't be remembered.

### To Re-Login to a Server

At any time you can re-login to the server. Say for example you logged in with anonymous access and now need to do something which requires privileges. To re-login, choose Server Re-login.... The application will display a dialog to get the new login information. The status bar will show who you are currently logged in as.

### To Disconnect from a Server

To disconnect from a server, choose Server Disconnect. The application will display a confirmation dialog before proceeding.

### To Import Entries from an LDIF file

To import some entries from an LDIF file, choose Server Import LDIF.... The application will display a file chooser dialog to select the file.

You could also just drag and drop the file from your file manager into the output window. This also works with plain text blocks.

### To Export an entry to an LDIF file

To export an entry to an LDIF file, choose Server Export LDIF.... The application will display a file chooser dialog to select the file to save as.

You could also right click on the entry and choose Export.

### To setup your directory for Samba

To setup your directory for Samba, choose Server Populate for Samba.... You need to provide the following information and then click on the ok button.

You have the Samba schema installed on your directory in order for this to work.

- Server - The name of the server to populate .

- SID - This is the Security Identifier for your domain. You can obtain it by running the command 'net getlocalsid' from a terminal.

- Domain - Name of your Samba domain

- Administrator - The user name of the system administrator

- Guest - The user name of the system guest user

- Users - Where to store user objects

- Groups - Where to store group objects

- Computers - Where to store computer objects

- ID Map - Where to store ID map (only needed if your server is a domain member server)

### To make the mass changes to entries

#### Mass edit of directory entries

There are times when it is necessary to make changes to a number of entries. Mass edit can help with this task. Choose Edit Mass Edit... to bring up the mass edit dialog.

##### Server

This selects the server to perform the mass edit(s) on.

##### Criteria

The filter is used to select the entries that will be edited. For example, it could be all users in a certain department.

##### Edits

This describes the edits you wish to perform. You can add, replace or delete attributes from the entries. You can add and remove the edits as necessary. Once you are happy with them click on the OK button and the program will do the necessary work.

### To Quit LAT

To quit LAT, choose Server Quit.

## Preferences

### Browser selection

This controls how the LDAP browser works selects an entry. You can choose between a single or double click. The default is to double click.

### Profiles

The profiles are used to store connection information about LDAP servers that you connect to frequently so you can access them quickly. You can add, edit or delete profiles from here.

The following documents the various profile options available.

At a minimum a profile needs to have a name, host, and port.

#### Profile name

The thing a profile needs is a name. This is used to identify the profile and this name will be displayed in the various views.

#### Basic Settings

The basic settings for a profile are the hostname of the LDAP server and the TCP port that it listens on.

#### Advanced Settings

The following advanced settings are available

Base DN

- This specifies the root of the LDAP directory. &app; attempts to query this value when it connects to the server. It is not mandatory

Username

- The user to login to the directory with. If no user is specified it's assumed to be an anonymous connection.

  The format of the username should be a valid DN, eg: cn=admin,dc=example,dc=com

Password

- The password for the above mentioned username. This value will be stored in the user's GNOME keyring unless the 'prompt for password' checkbox is active.

Prompt for password

- Causes the program to not store password information for this profile. The user will be prompted for a password instead.

Encryption

- Specified the level of encryption to use for the connection.

Server Type

- Defines what kind of software the LDAP server is running.

#### Server Views

This section allows the user to specify what views are active for this profile. The views can be customized as follows:

Attributes

- Defines the column names and what attribute values are displayed in the view.

Default new container

- This specifies where to create new objects for the view. If nothing is specified the user will be asked to select a location each time.

Filter

- The filter is the search query to run to get data for the view.

Search base

- This tells the plugin where to start searching for entries matching the filter in the directory. If nothing is specified then the directory root is used by default.

Encryption

- Specified the level of encryption to use for the connection.

Server Type

- Defines what kind of software the LDAP server is running.

#### Attribute Viewers

This section allows the user to specify what attribute viewers are active for this profile. These plugins are are used in the browser view to display and/or edit non-text values

## Views

### View plugins

&app; uses plugins to present different views of the data on the server to you. By default &app; comes with the following plugins:

- Computers

- Contacts

- Groups

- Users

### To create a custom view

To create a custom view you need to write your own view plugin. You can do this using C#. You need to implement the ViewPlugin or AttributeViewPlugin interface. You can use pkg-config on lat-plugins to get the necessary compile information.

Plugins are run from the system plugin directory or the user's ~/.lat/plugins directory.

### To browse and LDAP server

If you want to just browse an LDAP directory, choose View Browser.

You will switch to the browser view where you can collapse/expand different parts of the tree. Clicking on an entry will show it's attributes. You can double click and make edits to different attributes. To save any chances click on the Apply button in the Output window.

### To search an LDAP server

To search for an entry contained in an LDAP directory, choose View Search.

In the search view you can enter a search filter or click on the help button andu use the search builder. Select where you would like to start the search and then click on the Start Search button. The results will appear below

### To broswe an LDAP server schema

To browse the LDAP directory's schema, choose View Schema.

### To view/edit an entry's properties

To view and/or edit and entry's properties, choose Edit Properties.

You can also right click on an entry and select properties or just double click on it.

### To show all attributes

In the browser view, to see all possible attributes for an entry, choose View Show all attributes.

### To refresh a view

To refresh your view, choose View Refresh.

## Files

### profiles.xml

$HOME/.lat/profiles.xml

Contains the users saved connection profiles. Passwords are stored in the users' GNOME keyring database.

### templates.dat

$HOME/.lat/templates.dat

Contains information on the users new entry templates.

### plugins.state

$HOME/.lat/plugins.state

Contains the user configuration for LAT plugins.