Kevin, At 10:34 PM 12/14/2002, you wrote: > > I have personally keyed in the last name properly but after a period > > of time it "migrates" over to the first name box...Anyone have any > > clues?
(you later stated you were on the IMail database) The short of it is that your IMail server is most likely having intermittent issues connecting to it's "LDAP" folder, or possibly the data in your "LDAP" folder is getting deleted/corrupted. Do you keep your domain/user folders on the local server? Or, can you apply a previous backup of the LDAP folder? (Obvious CYA stuff: Only restore the LDAP folder. Also make sure to make a backup of the current LDAP folder before overwriting it. Testing on a non-production box would be best.) The LDAP folder is located in the TopDir of the domains file system's directory. This is true if you are running the LDAP service or not, the LDAP folder seems to be where IMail stores extended user directory info (like first name and last name, as well as home address telephone number ect.) for local access in all circumstances. My guesses are based on the following observations (IMail Version 7, default IMail registry database configuration with LDAP service *NOT* running): 1) A newly created users default starting value for "First Name", as displayed in the IMail Administrator console, starts out as the account user name. (The "Last Name" value starts out as blank, of course). 2) The LDAP folder in the "TopDir" directory is always where the info from the "General" and "Attributes" user properties pages is stored. It is stored there whether you are running the LDAP service or not. These LDAP files seem to be used as the format that IMail internally stores extended user information for local programmatic access. 3) The initial value displayed for "First Name" in the users properties general tab is equal to the stored LDAP value of CommonName or "cn". The LDAP values for "sn" (Surname) and "gn" (GivenName) are *NOT* initially populated in the LDAP directory for a user. This is confusing. They are only populated if you enter in something new in the "First Name" and/or "Last Name" text boxes on the "General" tab of a user's properties (or change the sn or gn values from the "Attributes" tab). After a value is manually entered for the "First Name" and/or "Last Name" values, the LDAP values for "sn" (Surname) and "gn" (GivenName) are updated with that data and later display values for the "First Name" and "Last Name" text boxes will be drawn from the LDAP "gn" and "sn" values, instead of the "cn" (CommonName) value. You can see this by viewing the "Attributes" user properties tab and looking at the changing "gn" and "sn" values. So initially: (displayed "First Name" = CommonName = account name). Then if a First Name or Last Name field is filled out: (displayed "First Name" = LDAP "gn") and: (displayed "Last Name" = LDAP "sn"). 4) There is also a very relevant entry in the Registry, a "FullName" key, for each user this is initially set to the LDAP CommonName value, which initially is the account name. So initially: (user database registry key "FullName" = CommonName = account name). 5) The value held in the windows registry "FullName" value is updated whenever there is a change to the LDAP "gn" or "sn" values. The registry key value stops being based off of the "cn" (CommonName) value and becomes the spaced and concatenated "gn" (GivenName) and "sn" (Surname) values. ex: it would change from "clarson" to "Clay Larson". 6) THIS IS THE BIGGY!!!.... If IMail can not access the LDAP folder (located in the user domains top dir location) it will use the present value stored in the registry key "FullName" as the CommonName value, and will display it on the general page as the "First Name" again. Based off our previous example "Clay Larson" will be displayed as a first name, instead of "Clay". "Clay Larson" being the value stored in the registry previously as the concatenated LDAP "First Name" value (gn, GivenName) and "Last Name" value (sn, Surname). This gives the appearance of the "Last Name" field moving to and merging with the "First Name" field, when really what is happening is that the displayed data is now being accessed from a completely different source (the registry instead of the LDAP folder) because IMail could not read the LDAP folder. The reasons for this design are understandable, so I don't think this is an IMail bug. It is just confusing. Hope this helps! Clay To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
