LDAP sync with Outlook

Question

I have a task to research the possibilities of LDAP as a centralized Address Book. I have setup a openLDAP on Debian 5.07. I managed to search the LDAP contacts from MS Outlook 2007 (with some drawbacks, like Outlook cant recognize street and organization fields). My question is, is it possible, and how, to sync data on an LDAP server with applications that support LDAP? I could not find any data on this topic.

EDIT:

The point is, to have a centralized list of contacts that can be synced with various applications, for instance, Outlook, Thunderbird, Phonebook on mobile phones, etc. The question is, is it possible to transfer (update) data on a client application from LDAP database and vice versa?

So not to search LDAP server data, but to download contacts that are not available in the client application (Outlook) and upload data to LDAP if the contact is in (Outlook) and not in LDAP database and the other way around, in other words synchronize.

Answer 1

This is kind of a vague and broad question. LDAP is just a mechanism for accessing a directory database. You need to point the client at the LDAP server, and provide it a search base or "starting place" for finding data, and then choose what fields map to what. You might look for a tutorial or crash course in LDAP first, and maybe see if you can get a schema printout of your directory so you know what fields are what.

Answer 2

Check your schema against active directory for those properties. It may help to make them identical..

Answer 3

I'm missing something here. Why not use the Global Address List in Exchange as your centralized Address Book? That is after all, one of it's purposes.

If you look at the properties of a contact entry from the GAL in Outlook, you'll see that address and organization information/fields are available. Am I misunderstanding what you're trying to do?