Spring-LDAP 1.1.1 (Nov 2006)
-----------------------------
http://www.springframework.org/ldap

1. INTRODUCTION

Spring-LDAP is a library to simplify LDAP programming in Java, built on the same
principles as Spring Jdbc. 

The LdapTemplate class encapsulates all the plumbing work involved in traditional LDAP 
programming, such as creating, looping through NamingEnumerations, handling Exceptions
and cleaning up resources. This leaves the programmer to handle the important stuff - 
where to find data (DNs and Filters) and what do do with it (map to and from domain 
objects, bind, modify, unbind, etc.), in the same way that JdbcTemplate relieves the 
programmer of all but the actual SQL and how the data maps to the domain model.

In addition to this, Spring-LDAP provides Exception translation from NamingExceptions
to DataAccessExceptions, as well as several utilities for working with filters, LDAP
paths and Attributes.

The DirContextProcessor interface provides the programmer with the possibility to
get callbacks before and after a search, which enables things like processing of
the LDAPv3 feature of RequestControls and ResponseControls. An abstract base class
that simplifies this is provided, as is a full implementation of PagedSearchResult.

2. RELEASE INFO

Spring-LDAP requires J2SE 1.4. J2SE 1.4, and javacc version 4.0 is required for building.
J2EE 1.4 (Servlet 2.3, JSP 1.2) is required for running the example.

The Spring-LDAP release comes in three different distributables:
* spring-ldap-bin-x.x.zip
  ** readme.txt - this readme file.
  ** license.txt - terms and conditions for use, reproduction and distribution
  ** dist/spring-ldap-x.x.jar - the library
  ** dist/spring-ldap-src-x.x.zip - the source code of the library
  ** dist/ivys - ivy configuration
  ** doc/api - api javadoc documentation
  ** doc/reference - full project reference documentation
  
* spring-ldap-bin-with-dependencies-x.x.zip
  ** readme.txt - this readme file.
  ** license.txt - terms and conditions for use, reproduction and distribution
  ** dist/spring-ldap-x.x.jar - the library
  ** dist/spring-ldap-src-x.x.zip - the source code of the library
  ** dist/ivys - ivy configuration
  ** lib - all referenced libraries necessary to use spring-LDAP
  ** doc/api - api javadoc documentation
  ** doc/reference - full project reference documentation
  
* spring-ldap-buildable-x.x.zip
  ** readme.txt - this readme file.
  ** license.txt - terms and conditions for use, reproduction and distribution
  ** common-build - the ant 1.6 "common build system" used by all spring-ldap projects to compile/build/test
  ** repository - build artifacts that are not available from public repositories
  ** spring-ldap/build-spring-ldap - master build files to produce this release archive
  ** spring-ldap/spring-ldap - project sources
  ** spring-ldap/spring-ldap-person - a sample web project.
  ** spring-ldap/spring-ldap-article - source code for an article published on java.net.


Spring-LDAP is released under the terms of the Apache Software License (see license.txt).

3. DISTRIBUTION JAR FILES

The following distinct jar files are included in the distribution. This list
specifies the respective contents and third-party dependencies.

* spring-ldap-x.x.jar
- Contents: The Spring-LDAP library
- Dependencies: Commons Logging, Commons Lang, Commons Collections, spring-beans,
                spring-core, spring-context, spring-dao

4. WHERE TO START

The distribution contains extensive JavaDoc documentation as well as full reference
documentation and a sample application illustrating different ways to use Spring-LDAP.
The Spring-LDAP homepage can be found at the following URL:

http://www.springframework.org/ldap

There you will find resources related to the project.