The LDAP protocol was created to let users share contact information over a network. LDAP allows for users to browse other people's addressbooks, or maintain a shared set of contact information for a company or department. This feature comes in handy if you are in a group where there are lots of people using the same contacts. Such an example would be the sales department of a company with their client list.
Example 5-2. Sharing Address Cards and Calendar Data
Rich wants to schedule a meeting with Company X, so he checks the network for the Company X address card so he knows whom to call there. Since his company also shares calendars, he then learns that his co-worker Deanna has already scheduled a meeting with Company X next Thursday. He can either go to the meeting himself or ask Deanna to discuss his concerns for him. Either way, he avoids scheduling an extra meeting with Company X.
Of course, you don't want to share all of your cards— why overload the network with a list of babysitters or tell everyone in the office you're talking to new job prospects? If you keep cards on your own computer, you can decide which items you want to make accessible to others.
To learn how to add a remote directory to your available contact folders, see the section called Managing the Addressbook in Chapter 10. Once you have a LDAP connection, the network contacts folder or folders will appear inside the External Directories folder in the folder bar. It will work exactly like a local folder of cards, with the following exceptions:
Network folders are only available when you are connected to the network. If you use a laptop or have a modem connection, you may wish to copy or cache the network directory. You do this by dragging and dropping your desired contacts into the local contacts list.
To prevent excess network traffic, Evolution will not normally load the contents of LDAP folders immediately upon opening. You must click Display All before LDAP folder cards will be loaded from the network. You can change this behavior in the Contact Preferences window.
Your ability to view, change, add, and delete contacts depends on the settings of the LDAP server.
For information about setting up Evolution to use LDAP, please refer to the section called Adding Directory Servers in Chapter 10>