DESIGN DESCRIPTION

Mentata LDAPHttp Framework

1. Scope

Identification

This is the Software Design Description for the Mentata LDAPHttp Framework, summarizing the system design for the implicit architecture and the detailed design for the associated open source software products released by Mentata Systems in the fall of 2002 and again in the spring of 2005. The software and this document are copyright of Mentata Systems. This version of the design document covers the second release of the software (version 0.7).

System overview

The LDAPHttp framework is an architecture for building directory driven applications with Java. It was developed to meet a need for efficient, inexpensive, elegant, and extensible applications that isolate and encapsulate the logic for directory objects and attributes. LDAPHttp applications can generate dynamic content or execute transactions with LDAP compliant directory servers over network connections at a low level of complexity. The open source software offering includes a web gateway application that can be configured to allow users to find and manipulate entries in directory databases using servlets and JavaServer page (JSP) content. This gateway can be considered a small scale Java application service, enabling the smaller enterprise to use a Model View Controller (MVC) paradigm to separate business logic from presentation logic and encode it all independent of a central securely defined control mechanism.

Document overview

This document represents a high level view of the design. It is not intended to cover the creation, installation, or administration of any component. The writing assumes a basic knowledge of networked computing and the capabilities of the Java language. All major system and component design decisions are recorded in this document. It lays out the architecture for the LDAPHttp framework and describes the detailed design of the Mentata L3D and SG8 library packages. Further details can be found in the standard Java API documentation for the software. After release, changes to this document will be controlled as described in the LDAPHttp Development Plan.