OpenDJ LDAP SDK provides capabilities for working with LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) content. This chapter demonstrates how to use those capabilities.

LDIF LDAP Data Interchange Format provides a mechanism to represent directory data in text format. LDIF data is typically used to initialize directory databases, but also may be used to move data between different directories that cannot replicate directly, or even as an alternative backup format. When you read OpenDJ's external change log, you get changes expressed in LDIF. LDIF uses base64 encoding to store values that are not safe for use in a text file, including values that represent binary objects like JPEG photos and X509 certificates, but also values that hold bits of LDIF, and values that end in white space. The description in the following LDIF holds, "Space at the end of the line " for example. Notice that continuation lines shown in the excerpt of the JPEG photo value start with spaces. dn: uid=bjensen,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com description:: U3BhY2UgYXQgdGhlIGVuZCBvZiB0aGUgbGluZSA= uid: bjensen jpegPhoto:: /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEASABIAAD/4gxYSUNDX1BST0ZJTEUAAQEAAAxITGlubwIQAABt bnRyUkdCIFhZWiAHzgACAAkABgAxAABhY3NwTVNGVAAAAABJRUMgc1JHQgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA9tY AAQAAAADTLUhQICAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB ... Pxv8A8lh8J/8AXUfzr1qP/WSfWlzPlsZSi3VHqMA/WinUVB0n/9k= facsimileTelephoneNumber: +1 408 555 1992 objectClass: person objectClass: organizationalPerson objectClass: inetOrgPerson objectClass: posixAccount objectClass: top givenName: Barbara cn: Barbara Jensen cn: Babs Jensen telephoneNumber: +1 408 555 1862 sn: Jensen roomNumber: 0209 homeDirectory: /home/bjensen ou: Product Development ou: People l: Cupertino mail: bjensen@example.com uidNumber: 1076 gidNumber: 1000 LDIF can serve to describe not only entries with their attributes but also changes to entries. For example, you can express adding a JPEG photo to Babs Jensen's entry as follows. dn: uid=bjensen,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com changetype: modify add: jpegPhoto jpegPhoto:< file:///tmp/opendj-logo.jpg You can also replace and delete attribute values. Notice the dash, -, used to separate changes. dn: uid=bjensen,ou=people,dc=example,dc=com changetype: modify replace: roomNumber roomNumber: 1234 - delete: description - delete: jpegPhoto LDIF also allows changetypes of add to create entries, delete to remove entries, and modrdn to rename entries. For more examples, see the LDIF specification, RFC 2849.

LDIF Reading OpenDJ LDAP SDK provides ChangeRecordReaders to read requests to modify directory data, and EntryReaders to read entries from a data source such as a file or other source. Both of these are interfaces. The ConnectionEntryReader class offers methods to iterate through entries and references returned by a search. The LDIFChangeRecordReader and LDIFEntryReader classes offer methods to handle LDIF as strings or from an input stream. Both classes give you some methods to filter content. You can also use the LDIF static methods to filter content. The following short excerpt shows a reader that takes LDIF change records from standard input. InputStream ldif = System.in; final LDIFChangeRecordReader reader = new LDIFChangeRecordReader(ldif);

LDIF Writing ChangeRecordWriters let you write requests to modify directory data, whereas EntryWriters let you write entries to a file or an output stream. Both of these are interfaces. The ConnectionChangeRecordWriter and ConnectionEntryWriter classes let you write directly to a connection to the directory. The LDIFChangeRecordWriter and LDIFEntryWriter classes let you write to a file or other output stream. Both classes offer methods to filter content. The following excerpt shows a writer pushing LDIF changes to a directory server. [jcp:org.forgerock.opendj.examples.Modify:--- JCite ---]