Helpful Links
DirectoryScript Programming
ChallengeMost virtual directory products will provide you with a bunch of pre-built plugins that are designed to solve a number of generic problems that are faced by systems integrators and administrators working with identity infrastructure. While these are often great to apply a quick patch to a problem, there are a number of problems with this approach.
Firstly, the functionality that you are implementing is fairly generic and may not match your specific requirements perfectly. In general this may not be a big problem, but ultimately it means that any changes that you make to your infrastructure must always take into account the limitations of your virtual directory.
A second problem with this approach is that if the plugin that you are using is buggy or poorly written, you are at the mercy of your vendor to improve the product. Usually, you will have to wait for a new version of the product to be released, before you are even able to test whether the improvements that have been made actually resolve the problem that you are experiencing.
Finally, your virtual directory is always only capable of providing the types of solutions that your vendor deems to be worthwhile. It becomes a limited piece of software that you are unable to utilize to its fullest potential.
Solution
Symlabs Virtual Directory Server and LDAP Proxy both contain a virtual engine that is capable of compiling code written in the DirectoryScript programming language. This language is designed to be used within all Symlabs identity management products, and is fully documented and we encourage customers to learn how to use it to fully take advantage of the products that they buy.
Due to the fact that we have an easy scripting language that can be loaded into the staged processing model to act directly on packets of data as they move through the proxy engine, you are able to develop completely customized functionality not catered for by our pre-built plugins. This makes it possible for you to develop a highly bespoke solution that caters particularly to your own requirements. It also means that you can modify your virtual directory solution at any time to match changes within your infrastructure.
Symlabs recognizes how important it is that customers have access to the source code of the plugins that they are using. For this reason, all of the plugins that are included with Symlabs products are developed using the DirectoryScript programming language. This means that customers are able to fully assess how well-written the plugin code actually is, and it leaves open the option for a customer to make changes to the code if the customer discovers a bug or believes that something could be written in a more efficient way. Symlabs is also able to make changes to plugins and release the changes to the plugins independently of the rest of the product in the form of loadable extensions, so that any internal fixes can be rolled out prior to a major product release. This ensures that a customer always has immediate access to internal bugfixes, performance enhancements or new features for any plugin.
Since all plugins are developed using the DirectoryScript programming language, to which any customer has full access, customers are free to develop new plugins to completely release the potential of the virtual directory that they are using. This unique approach to virtual directory technology makes Symlabs identity management products exceedingly versatile and useful in a wide range of contexts.