You are here: Chapter 7: Configuration and Administration > Address Book Administration > Populating the Address Book > Selecting an LDAP Directory for the Address Book

Selecting an LDAP Directory for the Address Book

There are two ways to select an LDAP Directory for an Address Book:

These two options are discussed below.

Create a New Workspace

New workspaces are created by selecting to the Administration | System | Workspaces link on the FootPrints Toolbar.  Only the System Administrator has access to this option.

The instructions below refer specifically to linking to an LDAP Address Book when creating a new Workspace. For complete instructions on creating Workspaces, please refer to the section on Workspaces in the chapter on System Administration.

There are three options for creating a new Workspace:

  1. Use the Wizard to create my workspace—The System Administrator has the option to create a new FootPrints Address Book, Link to an existing Address Book, or link to an LDAP Address Book. 
  2. Create the workspace on my own—The System Administrator has the option to create a new FootPrints Address Book, link to an existing Address Book, or link to an LDAP Address Book. 
  3. Use an existing workspace configuration—Only the existing Address Book for the originating Workspace or a new FootPrints Address Book is allowed.  If the Address Book for the originating workspace is an LDAP one, the new Workspace links to the same LDAP database using the same fields.

In options 1 and 2, select link to an LDAP Address Book and the next page displayed (after the other Workspace options are selected) is the LDAP Configuration page.  In option 3, to link to an LDAP Address Book, the options are to select FootPrints Address Book and then convert the Address Book later (see below) or to convert the Address Book associated with the originating Workspace to an LDAP Address Book (see below).

Convert an Existing Address Book

An existing FootPrints Address Book can be converted to an LDAP Address Book at any time.  This is done from the Address Book Administration Address Book Type page.  Click the Dynamic LDAP Address Book Link radio button for Change to LDAP, enter your password, and click GO.  The LDAP Configuration page is displayed.

When converting from a FootPrints Address Book to an LDAP Address Book, the references between Issues and address contacts may be affected.  Contacts are linked to Issues based on the primary key in the Address Book.  In order to ease the transition, you can map existing Address Book fields to LDAP field attributes.  Although not all fields map directly to the LDAP attributes, for those that do map directly, you can search the Address Book for a particular contact and any existing Issues with contact data that matches the primary key in the new LDAP Address Book are associated with that contact.