Glossary

You should be familiar with the following terms before reading the rest of this guide:

Automation

A way to manipulate objects within a scripting environment. Methods within an Automation environment are typically accessed through the IDispatch interface.

Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI)

A set of specifications of COM objects and interfaces. Administrators and ISVs can use the ADSI objects to perform common administrative operations, such as adding new users or managing a print queue.

attribute

A generic object property defined in a directory service schema. Attributes and classes (see class) are defined independently, and a single attribute may be characteristic of multiple classes. In the context of this document "property" and "attribute" can be used interchangeably.

attribute instance

A specific occurrence of an attribute defined in a directory service schema. For example, "John Smith" or "Jane Doe" would be instances of the Name attribute..

class

In ADSI, a formal description of a discrete, identifiable type of object that can be stored in a directory service. For example, User, Print-Queue, and Group are all classes. These classes, which act as templates, are stored within a directory service's schema.

class instance

A specific occurrence of a class defined in a directory service schema. For example, User objects with the attributes "John Smith" or "Jane Doe" would represent instances of the User class.

collection

A group of objects that can be indexed, either numerically like an array or by name. ADSI containers support interface methods for manipulating collections.

Component Object Model (COM)

A programming model that defines the way in which software components communicate with and provide services to one another, regardless of where the components reside. ADSI defines a set of COM interfaces (and related APIs) for working with directory service objects.

component

An object that conforms to the component object model (COM). In ADSI, a component is a top-level objects that can be instantiated and then used to access dependent objects.

container

Any ADSI object that supports one or more of the methods of the IADsContainer interface. An ADSI container can hold one or more other directory service objects.

content rules

Criteria defining valid content for class instances for directory service objects.

directory information tree (DIT)

A hierarchical representation of a directory service in which the nodes represent class instances and lines connecting the nodes indicate parent-child relationships.

DIT

See Directory Information Tree.

directory service (DS)

Persistently stored tables containing the attributes and locations of objects within a namespace (see Namespace). A directory service also provides services to manage the data in the tables.

enumerator

An object that supports the IEnumVARIANT interface, which provides a Next method to enumerate objects in a collection.

Interface

In ADSI, a COM interface. Each COM interface defines a set of related member functions that provide access to COM objects. ADSI defines and implements a set of COM interfaces and related APIs for providing access to directory service objects.

LDAP

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. The standard Internet communications protocol used to communicate with the Windows NT Directory Service. Both Version 2 and Version 3 of LDAP are supported.

namespace

A directory service that uses a particular syntax for naming conventions. Examples are:

Windows NT

"//MyWorkstation/MyName"

LDAP

"//MyServer/C=US/O=MS/CN=MyName"

NDS

"//Planets/O=Mars/OU=DEV"

NetWare 3.x

"//Docs/MyNw3xPrinter"

NDS

NetWare Directory Services.

object

In ADSI, a COM object that implements one or more interfaces. See ADSI Object Definitions. For more information on COM, see the Microsoft Platform SDK.

The basic named unit of storage in a directory service. A directory service object is defined in the directory service's schema by a class object and a group of attribute objects referenced by the class object. See Attribute, Class and Schema.

property

A value that can be read or written. Properties are associated with specific interfaces on an object.

provider

A vendor who supplies an implementation of the ADSI objects for a particular namespace.

query

A request to a directory service to return the location of one or more specified directory service objects.

schema

The rules and definitions that specify the content and relationships among a set of objects in a directory service. In ADSI, the schema management interfaces supply a means of defining types of COM objects known as schema classes, their properties, and the syntaxes those properties use.

trustee

A user with access rights to an object.