
Contents > Developing ColdFusion MX Applications > Managing LDAP Directories > The LDAP information structure > Distinguished name (DN)

Distinguished name (DN)

An entry's distinguished name uniquely identifies it in the directory. A DN is made up of relative distinguished names (RDNs). An RDN identifies the entry among the children of its parent entry. For example, in the first figure in About LDAP, the RDN for the Ferrari entry is "o=Ferrari".

An entry's DN consists of an entry's RDN followed by the DN of its parent. In other words, it consists of the RDNs for the entry and each of the entry's parent entries, up to the root of the directory tree. The RDNs are separated by commas and optional spaces. For example, in the first figure, the DN for the Ferrari entry is "o=Ferrari, c=Italy".

As with file system pathnames and URLs, entering the correct LDAP name format is essential to successful search operations.

Note: The RDN is an attribute of a directory entry. The full DN is not. However, you can output the full DN by specifying "dn" in a query's attributes list. For more information, see cfldap in CFML Reference. ColdFusion always returns DNs with spaces after the commas.

A multivalued RDN is made up of more than one attribute-value pair. In multivalued RDNs, the attribute-value pairs are separated by plus signs (+). In the sample directories, individuals could have complex RDNs consisting of their common name and their e-mail address; for example, "cn=Robert Boyd + mail=rjboyd@macromedia.com".


Contents > Developing ColdFusion MX Applications > Managing LDAP Directories > The LDAP information structure > Distinguished name (DN)

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