LDAP Support

You can now authenticate a user against a LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server instead of using passwords held in Cradle user profiles in a Cradle project database.

LDAP is an optional part of Cradle that you can use or not. It is disabled by default.

A user authenticates against LDAP when at login to the network with a network username and network password (we use these terms to distinguish this username and password from the Cradle username and password in a specific Cradle project). The network authentication is:

Check that the network username exists in the LDAP directory

Check that the network password is valid for this network username

Possibly check that this network username can be used from the specific IP address from which access is being attempted

If login is permitted, then the user has authenticated with LDAP.

If LDAP authentication is enabled, Cradle tools’ Login dialogues do not request passwords and supply usernames (from the user’s network login). They only ask for project codes. These project codes can be automatically supplied by the Project Manager, further simplifying login.

All Login dialogues have Options... buttons for login options:

If LDAP authentication is enabled, the dialogues allow users to over-ride LDAP authentication. Similarly, Cradle tools’ command-line interfaces include -noldap options to suppress LDAP.