• Browser-based Management Console gives Administrator great flexibility to define and control what users can search for and see.
• cDir lets you control which directories, entities (objects), and attributes can be searched for, and can also customize the way results are displayed. And access to directories and entities is controlled based on user’s credentials as per your network directory.
• Powerful hyperlinking and embedding capabilities, providing users with single-click or inline (mashup) access to related data in ANY other web-enabled internal or external application, including CRM, ERP, mapping software, websites, databases, web services, etc.
• Administrator defines and controls access to information at 3 levels:
  • Directory level, eg. organization's Active Directory, Yahoo, etc.
  • Object level, eg. person, group, PC, organizational unit, etc.
  • Attribute level, eg. name, position, phones, email, etc.
• Administrator can define Groups of cDir users (based on an LDAP query against the Primary Directory), and assign access rights to Groups at the Directory and Object level.li>

Directory level:

Using the cDir Management Console, the administrator defines the Directories that cDir will perform searches in.

• Multiple Directories may be made available.
• Support for any LDAP v3 compliant Directory, internal or external.
• One Directory is designated as the Primary Directory, from which User Groups are derived.
• For maximum flexibility and compatibility with diverse vendor implementations of the LDAP v3 standard, cDir allows the Administrator to specify the following parameters for each Directory:
  • Friendly name, ie. the name that users will see.
  • Technical name, ie. IP address or host name, plus TCP port.
  • Whether the Directory connection will be securely encrypted (recommended).
  • The entry point, ie. the container within which searches will be performed.
  • The LDAP Attribute that contains the Object Types of interest (default: objectClass).
  • The default user to be used when performing searches in the Directory (anonymous for Public directories).
  • The cDir User Groups that will have access to the Directory.
  • Whether the Directory is Enabled for access by users.
  • Visibility: list of cDir Groups whose users have access to the Directory.
• If a User only has access to one Directory, the Directory Selection screen is skipped during cDir queries.
• To simplify the task of defining a new Directory, the Administrator has the ability to copy the parameters of an existing Directory. This is also helpful to save configuration parameters when testing changes.

LDAP Object level:

Using the cDir Management Console, the administrator defines, for each Directory, the Objects that will be searchable.

• LDAP Objects identify a type of entity, such as a Person, a Group, a Server, an Organizational Unit, etc.
• For maximum flexibility and compatibility with diverse vendor implementations of the LDAP v3 standard, cDir allows the administrator to specify the following parameters for each Object:
  • Object Class: the technical name of the LDAP classes that represent the Object (eg. person, inetOrgPerson, groupOfNames, securityEquals, etc).
  • Friendly name, ie. the name that users will see.
  • Visibility: list of cDir Groups whose users have access to the Object.
• If a User has access to only one Object within the chosen Directory, the Object Selection screen is skipped during cDir queries.
• To simplify the task of defining Objects, the Administrator has the ability to copy all Objects from an existing Directory, with or without Attributes, and with or without visbility restrictions.

LDAP Attribute level:

Using the cDir Management Console, the administrator defines, for each Object within each Directory, the Attributes that cDir will search for and/or display.

• Attributes are the actual fields of information that describe an LDAP object.
• For maximum flexibility and compatibility with diverse LDAP implementations and schema extensions, cDir allows the administrator to specify the following parameters for each Attribute of an Object:
  • Display label, ie. the friendly name that is presented to the users.
  • Technical name: the internal LDAP name of the attribute (eg. cn=common name, l=location, mail, givenName, sn=surname, etc).
  • Additional key: a text string contained in the value field, prefixing the value of interest. This feature provides great flexibility to define custom "pseudo attributes", without requiring schema extensions.
  • Position in list: objects that meet the search criteria are returned to the user as a 4-column results list. Only the attributes with the four lowest values in this field will be displayed as columns in the results list.
  • Page.Sequence: by clicking on the first column of the search results list, the user gains access to the object details screen. The Page.Sequence field contains two numeric values (integer portion and decimal portion) that indicate whether the attribute will be visible to users, and if so, in which section of the details screen and in what sequence:
    • A value of 0.00 means the attribute will not be displayed, but it could still be used for searches or as a parameter to define hyperlinks.
    • Otherwise, the integer portion indicates a section or grouping of information, represented as a horizontal line in the object details screen.
    • The decimal portion indicates the sequence or position of the attribute within the section grouping in the object details screen.
  • Searchable: indicates that the attribute will be included in the drop down list of fields that the user can search in.
  • Reverse lookup: indicates that an icon will be displayed with the attribute, allowing the user to click it to perform a lookup of similar objects with the same value in this attribute field. For example, if the field City is marked as available for reverse lookups, a user on a Person details screen can click on a Manager value to perform a lookup of all Persons that report to the same Manager.
  • Linked: indicates that the attribute value will be displayed in the object details screen as a hyperlink, allowing the user to click on it to access related information. Any attribute defined in cDir can be used within a hyperlink string, by enclosing the attribute technical name in brackets, eg. {givenName}. Alternatively, {0} can be used to signify the value of the current attribute.
    Selecting the Linked option brings up Hyperlink field, and the Link Type drop down, which includes:
    • mailto:{0} hyperlink to send email. Typically used with email attribute.
    • tel:{0} hyperlink to initiate a voice phone call. Typically used with telephone attribute.
    • PIN:{0} hyperlink to send a pin-to-pin message. Typically used with PIN attribute.
    • Details: links to another object details screen, matching the specified value. The object must be of a type already defined in cDir.
    • LDAP subquery: performs a search of the specified objects in the specified directory using the specified query.
    • Other: allows the user to enter any valid URL or URI supported by the client browser, most typically http:
• To simplify the task of defining Attributes, the Administrator has the ability to copy Attribute definitions from other Objects in other Directory.

Security:

• Data access rights for Groups of users are assigned at the Directory and Object levels.
• cDir supports secure, authenticated, encrypted access to your Directories.
• Management Console authentication and authorization against Active Directory domain account or Local Machine account.

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