Most email clients released these days have an interface that can be used to query information from an LDAP Directory service to feed the addressbook. This page contains links to instructions for setting up various email clients to talk to Stanford's Directory service for publicly available information.
Generic Instructions
The basic configuration settings required by any application to access an LDAP directory are the hostname of the directory and the base Distinguished Name (dn). It is also useful to filter the list of possible users to those that have email addresses, but this is not required. For the Stanford LDAP directory the appropriate settings are:
- hostname: directory.stanford.edu
- dn: cn=people,dc=stanford,dc=edu
- filter: (&(objectclass=person)(mail=*))
Thunderbird
- From the Thunderbird pull-down menus select Settings, then the Composition tab, and finally the Addressing subtab.
- Select the checkmark for the Directory Server.
- Click on the Edit Directories, then click on the Add button.
- Fill out as follows:
- Name: Stanford
- Hostname: directory.stanford.edu
- Port: "checkmark" use secure connection (SSL)
- Base DN: cn= people, dc=stanford, dc=edu
- Set the Directory server to the directory that was just created, in this example Stanford.
Note: You can set the "Default startup directory in the address book window:" to what was set for the "Name" above.
