javax.naming
package to provide functionality
for accessing directory services.
This package defines the directory operations of the Java Naming and Directory Interface™ (JNDI). JNDI provides naming and directory functionality to applications written in the Java programming language. It is designed to be independent of any specific naming or directory service implementation. Thus a variety of services--new, emerging, and already deployed ones--can be accessed in a common way.
This package allows applications to retrieve and update attributes associated with objects stored in a directory, and to search for objects using specified attributes.
DirContext
interface represents a directory context.
It defines methods for examining and updating attributes associated with a
directory object, or directory entry as it is sometimes
called.
You use getAttributes()
to retrieve the attributes
associated with a directory object (for which you supply the name).
Attributes are modified using modifyAttributes()
.
You can add, replace, or remove attributes and/or attribute values
using this operation.
DirContext
also behaves as a naming context
by extending the Context
interface in the javax.naming
package.
This means that any directory object can also provide
a naming context.
For example, the directory object for a person might contain
the attributes of that person, and at the same time provide
a context for naming objects relative to that person
such as his printers and home directory.
DirContext
contains methods for
performing content-based searching of the directory.
In the simplest and most common form of usage, the application
specifies a set of attributes--possibly with specific
values--to match, and submits this attribute set, to the
search()
method.
There are other overloaded forms of search()
that support more sophisticated search filters.