<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
<html>
<head>
<!--
Copyright 1999-2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.

This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this
particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.

This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
accompanied this code).

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
have any questions.
-->
</head>
<body bgcolor="white">

Extends the <tt>javax.naming</tt> package to provide functionality
for accessing directory services.

<p>
This package defines the directory operations of the Java Naming and
Directory Interface<font size=-2><sup>TM</sup></font> (JNDI). &nbsp;
JNDI provides naming and directory functionality to applications
written in the Java programming language.  It is designed to be
independent of any specific naming or directory service
implementation.  Thus a variety of services--new, emerging, and
already deployed ones--can be accessed in a common way.

<p>
This package allows applications to retrieve and update attributes
associated with objects stored in a directory, and to search for
objects using specified attributes.

<h4>The Directory Context</h4>

The <tt>DirContext</tt>
interface represents a <em>directory context</em>.
It defines methods for examining and updating attributes associated with a
<em>directory object</em>, or <em>directory entry</em> as it is sometimes
called.
<p>
You use	<tt>getAttributes()</tt> to retrieve the attributes 
associated with a directory object (for which you supply the name).
Attributes are modified using <tt>modifyAttributes()</tt>. 
You can add, replace, or remove attributes and/or attribute values
using this operation.
<p>
<tt>DirContext</tt> also behaves as a naming context
by extending the <tt>Context</tt> interface in the <tt>javax.naming</tt> package.
This means that any directory object can also provide
a naming context. 
For example, the directory object for a person might contain
the attributes of that person, and at the same time provide
a context for naming objects relative to that person
such as his printers and home directory.

<h4>Searches</h4>
<tt>DirContext</tt> contains methods for 
performing content-based searching of the directory.
In the simplest and most common form of usage, the application
specifies a set of attributes--possibly with specific 
values--to match, and submits this attribute set, to the 
<tt>search()</tt> method.
There are other overloaded forms of <tt>search()</tt>
that support more sophisticated <em>search filters</em>.


<h2>Package Specification</h2>

The JNDI API Specification and related documents can be found in the
<a href="../../../../technotes/guides/jndi/index.html">JNDI documentation</a>.

@since 1.3

</body>
</html>