X/Open Directory Service (XDS) and X/Open OSI-Abstract-Data Manipulation (XOM) are application programming interfaces. XOM and XDS application interfaces are based on X/Open standards specifications. Together these interfaces provide the application programmer with a library of functions with which to develop applications that access the directory service.
The XOM application programming interface (XOM API) is an interface for creating, deleting, and accessing information objects. The XOM API defines an object-oriented information model. Objects belong to classes and have attributes associated with them. The XOM API also defines basic data types, such as Boolean, string, object, and so on. The representation of these objects are transparent to the programmer. Objects can only be manipulated through the XOM interface, not directly.
DCE programmers use the XDS API to make directory service calls. In DCE, XDS API directs the calls it receives to either GDS or CDS by examining the names of the information objects to be looked up as shown in the following figure. It uses the XOM interface for defining and handling information objects. These objects are passed as parameters and return values to the XDS routines. The XDS API contains functions for managing connections with a directory server: reading, comparing, adding, removing, modifying, listing, and searching for directory entries. The GDS package provides additional information objects that provide for security and cache management when using GDS.
GDS supports additional functions, called convenience functions, at the XDS/XOM API. These functions, described in XDS/XOM Convenience Routines, provide GDS programmers with a ''toolkit'' to allow more efficient production of XDS/XOM based applications.
XDS: Interface to GDS and CDS
