LDAPviewer - User Directories

LDAPviewer Application Installation Directory

The LDAPviewer application is installed in an OS dependent location which typically has limited read, write and execute access permissions. In general, there should be no reason the inspect the contents of this location.

LDAPViewer User Base Directory Location:

Files which control the behaviour of LDAPviewer and which may be modified or added by the user are placed in a number of directories under a User Base Directory. Some of these directories are populated when LDAPviewer is installed, others are populated during LDAPviewer operation and others are provided explicitly to allow user customization. The location of the User Base Directory is OS specific but in all cases requires minimal user access permissions.

1. Windows: The User Base Directory is %APPDATA%\LV, where the Windows Environmental Variable %APPDATA% normally expands to rootdrive:\Users\loggedinuser\AppData\Roaming\LV.
2. Linux and BSD: The User Base Directory is user.home/LV, where the Java system property user.home normally translates to /home/loggedinuser/LV.
3. MAC OSX: The User Base Directory is user.home/LV, where the Java system property user.home normally translates to /Users/loggedinuser/Library/Application Support/LV. All read/write files are placed in this directory (and its subdirectory). In addition certain read-only resource directories (help, misc, schema, templates and themes) are placed in the application bundle (typically lv.x.x.x.app) with a starting location of lv.x.x.x.app/Contents/Resources/Java.

Subdirectory Names:

LDAPviewer uses a number of subdirectories below the base directory, these are:

1. config This is a read/write directory and will be empty when LDAPviewer is installed, thereafter it will contain the following files:
   1. LV.conf The LDAPviewer configuration file. This is a text file which may be manually edited if necessary. It contains variables which control the operation of LDAPviewer. Some variables are automatically modified by user actions (window location and size), menu actions (toolbars, opening new windows), all other variables may be modified by using Preferences on the Options menu. The format and entries in this file are defined here. This file is read on initial load of LDAPviewer (and initialized to default values if not present) and saved unconditionally on exit from LDAPviewer.
   2. qc.recent This file contains an ordered list of the last used Connection Profiles. This file is only present if one or more Connection Profiles have been defined and used and is shared by all active LDAPviewer windows. It is a text file and may contain 1 - 10 entries (default is 5) determined by Preferences on the Options menu.
   3. bookmarks.txt This file contains an unordered list of user defined bookmarks (from the Bookmarkmenu). It is only present if one or more bookmarks have been defined and is shared by all active LDAPviewer windows. It is a text file and may contain unlimited entries.
   4. quicksearch.txt This file contains an unordered list of attributes that may be selected from the Attributes list on the Quick Search bar (may be enabled or disabled from the View menu. It is only present if one or more Quick Searches have been performed and is shared by all active LDAPviewer windows. It is a text file and may contain unlimited entries.
   5. sf.filters This file contains an unordered list of all the Search filters (from the Search menu) defined by the user. It is only present if one or more Search Filters have neen defined and is shared by all active LDAPviewer windows. It is a text file and may contain unlimited entries.
   6. return_attributes.txt This file contains an unordered list of all the Return Attributes lists (from the Search menu) defined by the user. It is only present if one or more Return Attributes lists have neen defined and is shared by all active LDAPviewer windows. It is a text file and may contain unlimited entries.
2. misc Read only (resource) directory. Contains files used by various LDAPviewe features:
   1. *.shell Files used by the Shell system to select initial parameter sets for various configurations categories.
3. help This read only (resource) directory will be populated by HTML help files when LDAPviewer is installed. These files may be edited or replaced as described here. This directory contains three subdirectories:
   1. images Contains all the images used by the help files.
   2. fragments Contains HTML object description fragments as described here.
   3. info Contains HTML files describing an attribute and described here.
4. profiles This read/write directory will be empty when LDAPviewer is installed, thereafter it may contain one or more user defined Connection Profiles with a file name format of connection-profile-name.profile. Connection Profiles are text files and may be manually edited or created if required though it is probably faster to simply copy an existing almost-the-same profile within LDAPviewer and make the changes using the standard editing features.
5. schemas Read only resource directory. Any file in this directory with the suffix .schema or .schemax will be read and processed by LDAPviewer on startup. When initially installed the directory will contain the following files:

   objects.schemax	Contains enhanced definitions and descriptions of operational objects used by a number of LDAP servers.
   *.schemax	Standard schema files released with a number of LDAP distributions.

6. templates Read only resource directory. This directory contains HTML editing and display templates (with the file suffix/extension of .html or .htm) used by the default HTML Entry Editor.

   Templates may be generic (they apply to every entry) or they may be specific to a particualr objectClass in which case they are identified and organized under a subdirectory named for the objectClass to which they apply. For instance, if a set of HTML templates apply to the objectClass inetOrgPerson they will be placed in a subdirectory named inetorgperson (directory name is not case sensitive). When an LDAP entry is displayed containing this objectClass the editor will look in this directory, select a default HTML template and place the names of all other templates found in this subdirectory on the Editor Menu Bar.

   In addition, if the objectClass is part of a hierarchy (its SUP is not top) then the editor will look for, and display in the Editor Menu Bar if found, all additional template names found in any other subdirectory whose objectClass name appears in the primary objectClass's hierarchy. For example, if the current LDAP entry being displayed contains the objectClass inetOrgPerson then the HTML editor will look for HTML templates in the subdirectory inetorgperson (not case sensitive), aditionally it will look for HTML templates in a subdirectory with the name organizationalPerson (not case sensitive) and then person (not case sensitive) both of which appear in the hierarchy of the objectClass inetOrgPerson.

   Note: The objectClass subdirectories may apply to any objectClass name (STRUCTURAL or AUXILIARY).

   HTML template files appearing in the base templates directory will be used to display an entry whose STRUCTURAL or AUXILIARY objectClass(es) do not have a named subdirectory.

   The templates directory also contains an images subdirectory which is simply a convenience location for any images used in a template.

7. themes In the current release of LDAPviewer a single theme named default is supported. This subdirectory contains an icons and an images directory containing all graphics used by the default theme. In future releases theme icons and images will be maintained in the same directory structure but with the subdirectory name = theme name. Futher information about adding or replacing images or icons is provided.