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In the directory domain
James Kobielus, Above the Cloud
 With its July 1999 announcement of this forthcoming metadirectory product, Novell became the first directory software vendor to position XML as its core format for directory schema publishing, data interchange and query. DirXML will use XML to integrate schemas and data from external sources into logically integrated views under Novell Directory Services (NDS) Version 8.
What will set DirXML apart from other metadirectory tools is its ability to use XML-based metadata to manage a growing range of applications, services, data types and other resources. Directories are increasingly expanding beyond their traditional role of managing account and resource information for e-mail and network operating system (NOS) environments. You would be hard-pressed these days to find a platform vendor - or industry alliance - that is not mapping various system interfaces and interchange formats to XML. Similarly, vendors are increasingly using XML as a standard metadata format for describing all intranet/extranet services and resources.
Quick look
DirXML
Novell
Pricing: Not available.
Market status: Due for beta Q4, 1999.
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| All this XML-based application metadata will eventually find its way into general-purpose enterprise directories. With DirXML, Novell will position XML as the common language that NDS 8 and applications use to speak to each other. Eventually, as directory vendors rearchitect their products around the XML-based Directory Services Markup Language (DSML), still under development by a multivendor working group, XML will become the standard by which all directory services expose their structures and content to each other and to applications.
The DirXML announcement provides a glimpse into how XML will be integrated into metadirectory and general-purpose directory environments by the industry at large. The devil's in the plumbing, and DirXML will ship with a developers kit for creating stylesheets and connectors for translating directory information into common XML schemas. Developers will be able to create an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation stylesheet for each NDS 8-enabled application. The stylesheet will reside under NDS 8 and define the mapping of events, data and schemas between the application and the directory into DSML-compliant schemas.
In addition, NDS 8 directory administrators will be able to use DirXML to map DSML schemas and data into Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Version 3, LDAP Directory Interchange Format and various application-specific formats to enable interoperability with legacy, non-XML-enabled applications.
DirXML will initially ship with connectors to other vendor's directory products, but these may become less important down the road as other vendors implement DSML as a native import, export and storage format. However, Novell and other vendors will have to continue converting legacy directory data formats into XML for the next one to two years, until the eventual DSML standard becomes widespread and XML-to-XML interchange becomes routine.
As enterprises rely more on directories to manage networked applications, they will need access to the XML metadata that increasingly describes networked resources. Novell's DirXML - which we should not expect in shipping form for at least six to nine months - will be the forerunner of the XML-aware directory architecture of the 21st century.
Related links
Kobielus is an Alexandria, Va.-based analyst with IT advisory service The Burton Group. He can be reached at (703) 924-6224 or jkobielus@tbg.com. The opinions expressed are his own.
Above the Cloud archive
DirXML overview from Novell
NDS gap puts users in a bind
DirXML replaces redirect, which may not be good for users in mixed environments. Network World, 10/25/99.
Forum: Directories
Fusion users debate the merits of NDS and Active Directory.
Network World Fusion Focus on Directories
Archive of our free, twice-weekly newsletter.
Net Resources: Directories
Overviews, primers and archives of Network World articles on directory issues.
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