Course Objective

Using this course as a guide, a Visual Basic programmer will be able to use Novell's Session and Directory ActiveX controls to develop a simple white-pages application which accesses Novell's eDirectory on the back end.

Course Description

This course takes you through the process of programming a "White Pages" application which accesses Novell's NDS directory services with Novell's Directory ActiveX control.

The purpose of a "White Pages" application is to allow users to look up information about members of a community, similar to the white-pages in a telephone book. The "White Pages" application developed in this course allows users to browse a company, viewing such employee data as pictures, phone numbers, titles, and so on, obtained from Novell's directory service, NDS.

Estimated Time to
Take this Course

This course takes the average Visual Basic programmer about 10 hours to complete.

Objective

Using this lesson as a guide, a Visual Basic programmer will be able to use the Session and Directory controls to add new entry layouts to an NDS directory.

Prerequisites

1. Entry level Visual Basic programming skills.
2. A basic understanding of directories (classes, objects, attributes, syntaxes, values) For information on this topic, refer to Intro to NDS.
3. Ability to use Microsoft Visual Basic or Visual Studio.
4. Ability to use ConsoleOne to set up trustee relationships between objects in the directory.
5. A DeveloperNet subscription. (The Electronic Level subscription is free!)

Required Items

See "Required Setup".

Optional Items

None.

Required Setup

1. A NetWare 4 or 5 server
2. A Win32 workstation (Windows 95/98/NT) with installed software:
   • The appropriate Novell Client for the operating system
   • Microsoft Visual Basic or Visual Studio
   • Novell Controls for ActiveX

Development Environment

The procedures discussed in this article were tested using a 200 MHZ Pentium-based workstation with 64 MB RAM, running Windows NT 4.0, a NetWare 5.0 file server, the NetWare Client for NT 4.60, Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, and the Novell Controls for ActiveX 3/2/00.

Introduction

The introduction is what you are reading now.

Basic Lecture

The "Basic Lectures" describe the pieces of NDS and how they interact. In order to successfully complete the course, you must have a firm understanding of directory concepts.

Basic Self Check (optional)

Assess your understanding of NDS concepts.

Application Lectures

The "Application Lectures" describe the application you will develop during the course. In order to successfully complete the course, you must have a firm understanding of the application you are trying to build.

Application Self Check (optional)

Assess your understanding of what the white application does and how it works.

OrgBuilder Introduction

The "OrgBuilder Introduction" lesson provides detailed information about the target application.

Writing OrgBuilder

The "Writing OrgBuilder" lessons teach you how to Write code to log in to a directory tree, add a layout to the directory, create an NDS entry, and write "string" and "stream" type fields. This is the first part of the target application.

OrgChart Introduction

The "OrgChart Introduction" lesson provides detailed information about target application.

Writing OrgChart

The "Writing OrgChart" lessons teach you how to do the programming to read fields, search for field values, and read stream type attribute values. Upon completion of these lessons you will have developed both parts of the target application.