Object names

The path from an object to the root of the Directory tree forms the object's complete name (sometimes called the distinguished name), which is a unique name.

Most leaf objects have a common name. For User objects, the common name is their login name, displayed in the Directory tree.

Other leaf objects also have common names that are displayed in the Directory tree, such as a Printer object name or a NetWare Server object name. If you are referring to an object in the same container object as your User object, then you only need to refer to that object by its common name, instead of by its complete name.

Container objects don't have common names. They are referred to by their Organizational Unit name, Organization name, or Country name.

An object's complete name consists of its common name (if it has one), followed by a period (.); then the name of the container object, also followed by a period, and on up through succeeding container object names to the root of the tree.

When you:

move from one container object to another, or
include the Country container object in your Directory tree

you must include the name type of the object in the complete name of the object.

Under either of these conditions, you could express ESAYERS as shown in the following example:

   CN=ESAYERS.OU=SALES PV.OU=SALES.O=ACME US

where CN specifies the common name, OU specifies the Organizational Unit name, and O specifies the Organization name.

When querying the Directory, you can supply the complete name of an object; then receive information that describes that object. Or, you can supply a property value of an object and receive a list of objects that have that value.

For example, to find all users with a last name of Smith, then ``Smith'' is the value you want to find in the LAST NAME property of User objects.