Searching the Directory
122 Netscape Directory Server Gateway Customization Guide
Searching for Email Addresses
Standard search searches for matching email addresses if an at (@) symbol is
provided. Standard Search first searches for any email addresses that exactly
match the value entered. For example, specifying the string “rafi@” could return
the exact match:
•rafi@
or, if no match exists for “rafi@” in the directory, the search could return:
• rafi@aardvark.com
• rafi@acme.org
Using LDAP Search Filters
An LDAP search filter can be used to search for entries with a specific attribute
value. The standard search assumes that any string containing an equal sign is
an LDAP search filter. For example, specifying “cn=*eve*” will initiate a
substring search for any common name containing the string “eve”.
When specifying attributes within an LDAP search filter, use the attribute label
used by the directory server internally rather than the attribute field name as
displayed in the gateway’s search results.
Advanced Search
The advanced search is designed to search for entries that have specific values
for certain attributes (for example, a person entry whose email address is a
specified value). Advanced search also allows searches for entries that do not
include a specified attribute value (For example, all the people whose last
name is not “Smith”).
Advanced search performs an exact search, returning entries that exactly match
the words entered. There are four fields used to construct an advanced search.
Constructed as follows, these four fields represent a sentence specifying the
search:
Find: [a type of entry] where the: [attribute] [type of search] [search string]
