What Is a Directory?
A directory is a service that allows you to search a structured repository of information. Although that may sound like a database (a directory generally does contain or interact with a database internally), a directory is defined by how users interact with it: through its protocol and its application program interface (API). Most directories offer a hierarchical rather than a relational view of the data. Figure 1-1 gives one example of how information about a person is stored in a directory. As this example shows, all attributes of a particular person are stored as a single object, and in this case all objects that represent people are grouped under a single location in the hierarchy. The structure of the tree defines the ...
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