I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal
If you’re migrating to Leopard and Leopard Server then you’ve likely noticed the welcome addition of a new program in /Applications/Utilities called Directory. Directory allows users bound into an Open Directory environment to update LDAP records provided they have access to do so. Using LDAP ACLs it’s possible to give users access to update their own directory information using an LDAP directory browser such as Directory.
When you open Directory you should see a listing of all of the directory information that has been created. From here you can create Shared Contacts, Groups, Locations and Resources. Each of these can be connected to a calendar. Groups can have multiple members and get a Mailing List, Calendar or Blog connected to them.
Resource types include Automobiles, Conference Phones, Copiers, Digital Cameras, Notebooks, Printers, Projection Screens, Projectors, Scanners and Video Cameras. Resources can be reserved in an iCal Server Calendar and can have a delegate. Delegates are users that are able to manage particular resources.
The fact that there are a lot of objects in the LDAP database that can be managed means that it’s important to have a tool for configuring who can manage them. Workgroup Manager has basic permissioning built it but it isn’t as granular as a lot of organizations will need. To get more granular it might be required to dip into the command line and configure LDAP using the configuration files. To get started with this, see the article from a couple of days ago about LDAP ACLs.
