org.apache.directory.shared.ldap.schema
Interface AttributeType

All Superinterfaces:

SchemaObject, java.io.Serializable

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractAttributeType

public interface AttributeType
extends SchemaObject

An attributeType specification. attributeType specifications describe the nature of attributes within the directory. The attributeType specification's properties are accessible through this interface.

According to ldapbis [MODELS]:

  4.1.2. Attribute Types
  
    Attribute Type definitions are written according to the ABNF:
  
      AttributeTypeDescription = LPAREN WSP
          numericoid                   ; object identifier
          [ SP "NAME" SP qdescrs ]     ; short names (descriptors)
          [ SP "DESC" SP qdstring ]    ; description
          [ SP "OBSOLETE" ]            ; not active
          [ SP "SUP" SP oid ]          ; supertype
          [ SP "EQUALITY" SP oid ]     ; equality matching rule
          [ SP "ORDERING" SP oid ]     ; ordering matching rule
          [ SP "SUBSTR" SP oid ]       ; substrings matching rule
          [ SP "SYNTAX" SP noidlen ]   ; value syntax
          [ SP "SINGLE-VALUE" ]        ; single-value
          [ SP "COLLECTIVE" ]          ; collective
          [ SP "NO-USER-MODIFICATION" ]; not user modifiable
          [ SP "USAGE" SP usage ]      ; usage
          extensions WSP RPAREN        ; extensions
  
      usage = "userApplications"     / ; user
              "directoryOperation"   / ; directory operational
              "distributedOperation" / ; DSA-shared operational
              "dSAOperation"           ; DSA-specific operational
  
    where:
      [numericoid] is object identifier assigned to this attribute type;
      NAME [qdescrs] are short names (descriptors) identifying this
          attribute type;
      DESC [qdstring] is a short descriptive string;
      OBSOLETE indicates this attribute type is not active;
      SUP oid specifies the direct supertype of this type;
      EQUALITY, ORDERING, SUBSTRING provide the oid of the equality,
          ordering, and substrings matching rules, respectively;
      SYNTAX identifies value syntax by object identifier and may suggest
          a minimum upper bound;
      COLLECTIVE indicates this attribute type is collective [X.501];
      NO-USER-MODIFICATION indicates this attribute type is not user
          modifiable;
      USAGE indicates the application of this attribute type; and
      [extensions] describe extensions.
  
    Each attribute type description must contain at least one of the SUP
    or SYNTAX fields.
  
    Usage of userApplications, the default, indicates that attributes of
    this type represent user information.  That is, they are user
    attributes.
  
    COLLECTIVE requires usage userApplications.  Use of collective
    attribute types in LDAP is not discussed in this technical
    specification.
  
    A usage of directoryOperation, distributedOperation, or dSAOperation
    indicates that attributes of this type represent operational and/or
    administrative information.  That is, they are operational attributes.
  
    directoryOperation usage indicates that the attribute of this type is
    a directory operational attribute.  distributedOperation usage
    indicates that the attribute of this DSA-shared usage operational
    attribute.  dSAOperation usage indicates that the attribute of this
    type is a DSA-specific operational attribute.
  
    NO-USER-MODIFICATION requires an operational usage.
  
    Note that the [AttributeTypeDescription] does not list the matching
    rules which can be used with that attribute type in an extensibleMatch
    search filter.  This is done using the 'matchingRuleUse' attribute
    described in Section 4.1.4.
  
    This document refines the schema description of X.501 by requiring
    that the SYNTAX field in an [AttributeTypeDescription] be a string
    representation of an object identifier for the LDAP string syntax
    definition with an optional indication of the suggested minimum bound
    of a value of this attribute.
  
    A suggested minimum upper bound on the number of characters in a value
    with a string-based syntax, or the number of bytes in a value for all
    other syntaxes, may be indicated by appending this bound count inside
    of curly braces following the syntax's OBJECT IDENTIFIER in an
  
    Attribute Type Description.  This bound is not part of the syntax name
    itself.  For instance, "1.3.6.4.1.1466.0{64}" suggests that server
    implementations should allow a string to be 64 characters long,
    although they may allow longer strings.  Note that a single character
    of the Directory String syntax may be encoded in more than one octet
    since UTF-8 is a variable-length encoding.
 

Version:

$Rev: 702493 $

Author:

Apache Directory Project

See Also:

RFC 2252 Section 4.2, ldapbis [MODELS], DescriptionUtils.getDescription(AttributeType)

Method Summary

MatchingRule	getEquality() Gets the MatchingRule for this AttributeType used for equality matching.
int	getLength() Gets a length limit for this AttributeType.
MatchingRule	getOrdering() Gets the MatchingRule for this AttributeType used for ordering.
MatchingRule	getSubstr() Gets the MatchingRule for this AttributeType used for substring matching.
AttributeType	getSuperior() Gets the name of the superior class for this AttributeType.
Syntax	getSyntax() The Syntax for this AttributeType's values.
UsageEnum	getUsage() Determines the usage for this AttributeType.
boolean	isAncestorOf(AttributeType descendant) Checks to see if this AttributeType is the ancestor of another attributeType.
boolean	isCanUserModify() Gets whether or not this AttributeType can be modified by a user.
boolean	isCollective() Gets whether or not this AttributeType is a collective attribute.
boolean	isDescendantOf(AttributeType ancestor) Checks to see if this AttributeType is the descendant of another attributeType.
boolean	isSingleValue() Gets whether or not this AttributeType is single-valued.

Methods inherited from interface org.apache.directory.shared.ldap.schema.SchemaObject

getDescription, getName, getNamesRef, getOid, getSchema, isObsolete, setSchema

Method Detail

isSingleValue

boolean isSingleValue()

Gets whether or not this AttributeType is single-valued.

Returns:

true if only one value can exist for this AttributeType, false otherwise

isCanUserModify

boolean isCanUserModify()

Gets whether or not this AttributeType can be modified by a user.

Returns:

true if users can modify it, false if only the directory can.

isCollective

boolean isCollective()

Gets whether or not this AttributeType is a collective attribute.

Returns:

true if the attribute is collective, false otherwise

getUsage

UsageEnum getUsage()

Determines the usage for this AttributeType.

Returns:

a type safe UsageEnum

getSuperior

AttributeType getSuperior()
                          throws javax.naming.NamingException,
                                 javax.naming.NamingException

Gets the name of the superior class for this AttributeType.

Returns:

the super class for this AttributeType

Throws:

javax.naming.NamingException - if there is a failure to resolve the superior

getSyntax

Syntax getSyntax()
                 throws javax.naming.NamingException

The Syntax for this AttributeType's values.

Returns:

the value syntax

Throws:

javax.naming.NamingException - if there is a failure to resolve the syntax

getLength

int getLength()

Gets a length limit for this AttributeType.

Returns:

the length of the attribute

getEquality

MatchingRule getEquality()
                         throws javax.naming.NamingException

Gets the MatchingRule for this AttributeType used for equality matching.

Returns:

the equality matching rule

Throws:

javax.naming.NamingException - if there is a failure to resolve the matchingRule

getOrdering

MatchingRule getOrdering()
                         throws javax.naming.NamingException

Gets the MatchingRule for this AttributeType used for ordering.

Returns:

the ordering matching rule

Throws:

javax.naming.NamingException - if there is a failure to resolve the matchingRule

getSubstr

MatchingRule getSubstr()
                       throws javax.naming.NamingException

Gets the MatchingRule for this AttributeType used for substring matching.

Returns:

the substring matching rule

Throws:

javax.naming.NamingException - if there is a failure to resolve the matchingRule

isAncestorOf

boolean isAncestorOf(AttributeType descendant)
                     throws javax.naming.NamingException

Checks to see if this AttributeType is the ancestor of another attributeType.

Parameters:

descendant - the perspective descendant to check

Returns:

true if the descendant is truely a derived from this AttributeType

Throws:

javax.naming.NamingException - if there are problems resolving superior types

isDescendantOf

boolean isDescendantOf(AttributeType ancestor)
                       throws javax.naming.NamingException

Checks to see if this AttributeType is the descendant of another attributeType.

Parameters:

ancestor - the perspective ancestor to check

Returns:

true if this AttributeType truely descends from the ancestor

Throws:

javax.naming.NamingException - if there are problems resolving superior types