Navigating Directory

In LDAP Administrator, LDAP elements like groups, profiles, entries and some other elements provided by the application addins are displayed as a tree-like, hierarchical structure.

After you have connected to an LDAP server, you can start browsing the directory information tree (DIT) just as you do with folders on your file system.

Browsing Modes

There are two browsing modes Softerra LDAP Administrator offers. They are:

Auto-Fetch Mode. This mode is preset by default. Using this mode, sub-nodes of a tree element are fetched as soon as you select the element in the tree. Due to the fact that some entries may contain large amounts of sub-entries, this mode may prove unsuitable.
Manual Mode. Use this mode if you do not want to fetch all sub-nodes of an element upon its selection. With this mode enabled, the application is going to fetch just the items belonging to the selected element. In order to expand sub-nodes of an element, click the button next to it. The Manual mode is recommended in cases when your directory has containers consisting of large numbers of entries, because you can view the container's attributes right upon selection without having to fetch its sub-entries.

To set a preferred mode:

Launch the Application Options dialog by clicking Options on the Tools menu.
Select the User Interface page.
Check or uncheck the Fetch sub-nodes upon context change box. The checked box means that the Auto-Fetch Mode is enabled, otherwise the Manual Mode is on.

Coping With Large Amounts of Nodes

Some LDAP directories may consist of large amounts of entries on multiple levels, which can make your browsing process rather time-consuming. LDAP Administrator recommends the following features to help you solve the problem. They are:

Results Paging

To be able to successfully cope with heavy directories, you can page your search results by using either the Virtual List View (VLV) or Paging mechanisms for the purposes of displaying just the entries you are interested in specifically. By default, the paging mode for an LDAP entry is set to None, which means that search results will not be paged but represented 'as is' in their entirety. Learn more about managing large number of entries.

Filtering Information

LDAP Administrator provides ways of setting custom LDAP filters for each LDAP entry to make sure that only the required information from an LDAP server is retrieved. An LDAP filter can be applied to both siblings and descendants of an entry. Learn more about filtering directory data.

Using Favorites

Using Favorites you can easily access the elements you frequently use without having to browse a directory. Once added to Favorites, an element can then be found after just a couple of mouse clicks, no matter how deeply in the structure it is placed.

Navigation History

The tree elements that you have seen displayed while browsing get saved in the navigation history. So, assisted by the (Previous/Next) navigation buttons of the Navigation Bar, you can move consecutively forward or backward from one element you've just seen to another. Another way to revisit an element is by using arrows on the Back and Forward buttons.

Stopping an Operation

Expanding entries that have large amounts of sub-entries can take rather long periods of time. LDAP Administrator makes sure you can stop a lengthy operation currently performed by any of the tree elements. A tree element in the middle of an operation gets marked with the icon. To stop an operation, select an element and click on the Navigation Bar.

Refreshing an Element

To refresh a tree element, select it and press Refresh on the Navigation Bar. The Refresh operation affects fetched substances only. For example, if an element has only items fetched, a refresh will not involve any sub-nodes not previously displayed.

Navigating Directory

See Also