Kontact + OpenLDAP

[Timothy Murphy]

I'm trying to work out how to use OpenLDAP with Kontact (or KAddressBook).

I have an OpenLDAP server on my desktop, with IP address www.gayleard.com .
I can access this from my laptop,
either by browsing to http://www.gayleard.com/phpLDAPadmin
or by command line "ldapsearch -x -ZZ".

Bizarrely, I can access the LDAP server from KMail .
If I start to give an email address for a new message
it offers matching entries from the LDAP server.

But if I go to KAddressBook or Kontact
and put the same name in the Search window, nothing is found.
It is true that if I go to File=>Import from LDAP Server
then the name is found in a new window,
but there seems to be no way to add this name
to my list of Contacts.

Basically, I want to set up a distribution list
(what KAddressBook calls a Group, I think)
by choosing names from the LDAP database.
But I see no simple way of doing this.

There does not appear to be any KAddressBook handbook,
and the Kontact handbook does not seem to mention LDAP.

If anyone is actually using KMail (or Kontact)
on conjunction with a remote LDAP server,
I would be very grateful to learn how it should be done.

I have been trying for several years to find the best way
to set up a central address book (or contact list)
which can be used equally with email and mobile phones.
I don't really like LDAP, which seems to me
to be excessively bureaucratic, 
with categories like inetorgperson too precisely defined.
But it seems to be the best option on offer.
I don't know what the cognoscenti think about that?



-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland