The next generation Windows NT Directory Services further embrace Internet standards by directly supporting the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
LDAP is an Internet standard (RFC1777) for accessing directory services, and was developed as a simpler alternative to the X.500 DAP protocol. Microsoft is an active participant in the advancement of LDAP standards, and provides support for both LDAP v2 and v3 (currently in draft form) in next generation Windows NT Directory Services.
HTTP is the standard protocol for displaying pages on the World Wide Web. Every object in next generation Windows NT Directory Services can be displayed as an HTML page in a Web browser. Directory support extensions to the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) translate HTTP requests for directory objects into HTML pages for viewing in any HTML client. Users receive the benefit of the familiar Web browsing model when querying and viewing objects in next generation Windows NT Directory Services.