General Questions
What is the lbe.properties file?
The lbe.properties file is a small configuration file that contains generic configuration information applicable to the Browser and any ldap session. For example, it specifies the location of the CA certificates store and its password, the location of the ldap session files, etc. The Browser during initialization will try to load this file from the '.be' directory under user's home directory. Examples:
on Unix/Linux:
~gawor/.lbe/lbe.propertieson Windows NT:
c:\winnt\profiles\gawor\.lbe\lbe.propertiesIf the file does not exist or cannot be read, the defaults will be assumed.
The settings defined in lbe.properties file are meant to replace some of the settings previously defined in the .cf. files that were considered static and did not change throughout the different ldap sessions. Previously, the Browser obtained these properties by loading the browser.cfg file automatically. Currently, the Browser, will only load the browser.cfg file when the lbe.properties file does not exist in the user's home directory (for backwards compatibility) If the lbe.properties file does exist in the user's home directory, the Browser will not load the browser.cfg file.
What properties can be specified in the lbe.properties file?
This error occurs when the Browser is installed incorrectly or launched from an invalid directory. The LDAP Browser/Editor must be executed from the directory that it was installed in. The Browser must be able to locate appropriate libraries required for its operation. The libraries must be accessible and located in the lib directory of the Browser's installation directory.
How do I enable debugging for the LDAP Browser/Editor?
LDAP Browser/Editor provides dynamic debug tracing support. It is enabled by setting the lbe.debug system property. The value can be one or more of the following:
java -Dlbe.debug=ldap:editor -classpath ... lbe.ui.BrowserAppThis will enable ldap tracing and debugging of the attribute viewers/editors.
For details on how to modify the 'be' scripts to enable this property see the question about this.
How do I run the Browser behind a proxy?
The LDAP Browser/Editor does not provide any special support for proxies.
However, Java itself provides SOCKS 4 support.
To configure the Browser to use the proxy server add the following
properties to the command line to the Java interpreter:
-DsocksProxyPort=1080 -DsocksProxyHost=socks.mydomain.comFor example:
java -DsocksProxyPort=1080 -DsocksProxyHost=socks.mydomain.com -classpath ..... lbe.ui.BrowserAppFor details on how to modify the 'be' scripts to enable this property see the following question.
How do I modify the 'be' scripts to add the different system properties?
On Windows:
set OPTIONS=with the system properties, for example:
set OPTIONS=-Dlbe.debug=ldap -DsocksProxyHost=myserver.comFor version 2.8.1 modify the following line:
set CMD="%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java" -cp %COMMON%;%EXEC%with the system properties, for example:
set CMD="%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java" -Dlbe.debug=ldap -DsocksProxyHost=myserver.com -cp %COMMON%;%EXEC%
OPTIONS=with the system properties, for example:
OPTIONS="-Dlbe.debug=ldap -DsocksProxyHost=myserver.com"For version 2.8.1 modify the following line:
CMD="${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java -cp ${COMMON}:${EXEC}"
with the system properties, for example:
CMD="${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java -Dlbe.debug=ldap -DsocksProxyHost=myserver.com -cp ${COMMON}:${EXEC}"
By default the Browser will first try use the Java interpreter specified by the JAVA_HOME environment variable. If the environment variable is not set, the Browser will then try to use the Java interpreter specified in your path. You can run the browser with a different Java environment by setting the JAVA_HOME environment variable from the command line before starting the Browser. For example, to set the JAVA_HOME variable do the following:
On Windows:
C:\ldapbrowser>set JAVA_HOME=c:\jdk1.3
pitcairn: ~/ldapbrowser>setenv JAVA_HOME /sandbox/jdk1.3
On Windows:
set JAVA_HOME=c:\jdk1.3
JAVA_HOME=/sandbox/jdk1.3
There are two parameters that can be passes to the Browser application from the command line.
How do I run the Browser as an applet?
The LDAP Browser/Editor can be run as an applet within a web browser
(Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) using the Java
Plug-in. The Browser can be run either as a signed or unsigned applet.
If the Browser is running as an unsigned applet it can only access the
ldap servers on the server that the applet was downloaded from. If the
Browser is running as a trusted signed applet it can access any ldap server
on the network or the internet.
The HTML page that will contain the applet needs to be modified to
use the Java Plug-in. A sample HTML page is included with binary distribution
of the Browser in the applet directory. Please see the Java
Plug-in documentation for the modification details.
To run the Browser as an unsigned applet just extract the binary distribution into some web directory (e.g. ~/public_html/ldapbrowser/) and copy the applet/applet.html file into the browser root directory (e.g. ~/public_html/ldapbrowser/). Make sure to set the right permissions to all the files and directories, and then point your browser to the applet.html file.
To run the Browser as a signed applet you can follow the same directions as above and then you must sign all the jar files (in the lib directory and the lbe.jar file) with an object signing certificate. Please see the Java Plug-in documentation for details for this step.
What parameters I can pass to the applet?
There is a number of parameters that can be passed to the applet:
<PARAM NAME=width VALUE=600>
<PARAM NAME=height VALUE=400>
<PARAM NAME=BASE VALUE="http://myserver.com/ldapbrowser">
<PARAM NAME=config VALUE="lbe.properties">
<PARAM NAME=config VALUE="nds.cfg">
<PARAM NAME=dir VALUE="C:\ldapbrowser">
<PARAM NAME=window VALUE="both">
<PARAM NAME=debug VALUE="ldap:ssl">How do I debug the Browser as an applet?
To debug the Browser as an applet first make sure to enable the Java Plug-in Console. It can be enabled through the Java Plug-in Control Panel. Once the console is enabled, you will see the console window appear when Java Plug-in is used in the browser. In addition you can also enable the Browser applet debugging by setting the debug parameter as described in the above question.
What are attribute viewers/editors?
The attribute viewer/editor is a means of displaying and/or editing the contents of an attribute. Each attribute can contain a different value that needs to be represented differently. For example, a 'jpegphoto' attribute contains an image and an 'audio' attribute contains a sound and a 'name' attribute contains some string. These three need to have different visual representations. In the case of the image, the actual image might be displayed. In the case of the sound, the sound might be played automatically or when a play button is pressed. In the case of the name attribute a textbox with the string might be displayed. The LDAP Browser/Editor allows users to customize the viewers/editors for any attribute.
What attribute viewers/editors are distributed with the Browser?
The following editors are currently distributed with the browser:
By default the Password Editor will generate a new password using the same algorithm as the algorithm used in the existing password. To force the editor to always generate a specific type of password edit the attributes.config file and add following arguments to the Password Editor line:
-algorithm [algorithmType] -forcewhere algorithmType is one of following: Crypt, MD5 or SHA. For example, an entry for userpassword in my config file looks like following:
userpassword=binary,lbe.editor.PasswordEditor -algorithm crypt -forceAlso, make sure that your server is configured to accept the algorithm specified.
What is the ExtBinaryEditor and how can I use it?
The ExtBinaryEditor is a generic editor for binary attributes that allows for launching external applications to view the contents of the attribute. You can configure the ExtBinaryEditor to launch an external application to view the certificate by adding the following arguments to the ExtBinaryEditor line in the attributes.config file:
-ext -extcmd "command {0}"
where command is an application to execute and {0} is an
argument to the application. The argument is a filename that contains the
data of the selected attribute.
certificateRevocationList=binary,lbe.editor.ExtBinaryEditor -ext -extcmd "rundll32.exe cryptext.dll,CryptExtOpenCRL {0}"
The above example will allow to pass the data of the certificateRevocationList
attribute to Windows default CRL viewer. (This assumes all the necessary
software is installed)
What is the ExtStringViewer and how can I use it?
The ExtStringViewer is a generic viewer for the regular attributes
that allows for passing the attribute value to an external application.
For example, it could be used to pass an email address to mail application.
It is used and configured the same as the ExtBinaryEditor where
the only difference is that the {0} argument is the actual value
of the selected attribute. Please see the question
about the ExtBinaryEditor for details.
The following example will pass the email address stored in the mail
attribute to Outlook Express on Windows. (This assumes all the necessary
software is installed)
mail=string,lbe.editor.ExtStringViewer -ext -extcmd "C:\\Program Files\\Outlook Express\\msimn.exe /mailurl:mailto:{0}"
How can
I configure the CertificateEditor2 to launch an external application to
view the certificate?
You can configure the CertificateEditor2 to launch an external
application to view the certificate in the same way as you configure the
ExtBinaryEditor. Please see the question
about the ExtBinaryEditor for details.
The following example will pass the certificate to Windows certificate
wizard: (This assumes all the necessary software is installed)
usercertificate=binary,lbe.editor.CertificateEditor2 -ext -extcmd "rundll32.exe cryptext.dll,CryptExtOpenCER {0}"
How do I write a custom
attribute viewer/editor?
Two things:
1. Extend some JComponent (from SwingSet) e.g. JPanel, JTextField, JTable.
2. Implement the AttributeEditor interface.or
1. Extend BinaryEditor (for binary values) or DefaultEditor (for string values) or any other built-in editor.
2. Override needed methods.
How do I enable the SSL support in the Browser?
The Browser is closely integrated with the JSSE library from Sun. It
is a free pure Java SSL library.
To enable the SSL support in the Browser do the following:
Why does initial SSL connection take a while to establish?
The very first time a secure connection is established Java must create a secure seed required for the SSL connection. This is a very computationally expensive process and may take up to a few seconds on certain platforms. However, the seed only needs to be computed once per session.
How do I turn on debugging for the SSL connection?
To enable debug mode for secure connections use
-Djavax.net.debug=alloption on the command line to the Java interpreter. For example:
java -Djavax.net.debug=all -classpath ..... lbe.ui.BrowserAppFor details on how to modify the 'be' scripts to enable this property see the question about this.
How do I specify client certificates for the SSL connection?
To specify the client certificates you must create a Java keystore (using
keytool) with your certificates and then add the path to the keystore and
the password of the keystore to the session file.
For example:
keystore = .keystore passphrase = abcdefPlease note, that these settings will only work with the default secure socket factory that is built-in with the browser. If different socket factory is used, it might have another way of specifying these options.
If the passphrase is not specified in the session file, the Browser will prompt the user for it as needed.
Note: The passphrase of the keystore must match the password of the private key (keypass)
How do I fix the 'CA certificate not found' error?
This error occurs during SSL handshaking when the server does not send
the CA certificate along with its certificates and the client cannot verify
the server certificates because it also does not have the CA certificate.
To fix this problem, you must obtain the server CA certificate and add
it manually to the Browser's CA certificate store.
By default, the Browser maintains all the CA certificates in the lbecacerts
file. The default password for the file is 'changeit'
Once you obtain the server CA certificate, you can add it to the lbecacerts
file by using the keytool program, e.g.:
keytool -import -alias myldap -file CAcert.cer -keystore lbecacerts -storepass changeitSee the Java documentation for more information about the keytool program.
Why does an SSL connection sometimes hang the browser?
Most likely this occurs when the ldap port number specified in the connection
windows was not a SSL port. If non-secure socket is used to connect to
a server's SSL socket, then the application using the non-secure socket
will hang. This is a characteristic of the SSL protocol.