]> Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): Additional Syntaxes Optima SC Inc.
CA carl.codere@optimasc.com http://www.optimasc.com
General Internet Engineering Task Force datatype object identifier LDAP Syntax definitions This document registers additional syntax definitions for use in Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory and Directoy services series X.500. This includes widely used datatypes and syntaxes.
Introduction The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory defines several data types which specify the syntax definitions of attributes. These are identified by ASN.1 OBJECT IDENTIFIERS. Furthermore, these syntax definitions could be used to uniquely identify data types as character representations in other applications. Some widely used syntax specifications are missing from the initial LDAP specification. This document provides additional syntax definitions that have been registered and may be used by application providers.
Conventions The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here. Syntax definitions are written according to the regular expressions defined in .
Syntaxes The following additional syntaxes and their associated descriptions and OBJECT IDENTIFIER are defined.
ASN.1 Syntax Definitions The following additional syntaxes are defined and are based on .
Date The Date type represents a date in the Gregorian calender. It is defined as a useful TIME type in and conforms to the extended format syntax of a calendar date as defined in . A Date value SHALL be written using the following syntax: YYYY-MM-DD where YYYY represents a year between 1582 and 9999, MM the month value from 01 to 12 and DD a day in the month from 01 to 31. Examples
  • 9999-02-25
  • 1583-01-31
The LDAP definition for the Date syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.31 DESC 'Date' )
This syntax corresponds to the DATE ASN.1 type from .
Date-Time The Date-time type represents a date and local time using a 24 hour clock. It is defined as a useful TIME type in and conforms to the extended format syntax of a date and time without any timezone specifier as defined in . A Date-Time value SHALL be written using the following syntax: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss where YYYY represents a year between 1582 and 9999, MM the month value from 01 to 12, DD a day in the month from 01 to 31, hh the hour from 00 to 24, mm the minute from 00 to 59, and ss the seconnds with allowed values of 00 to 60 where 60 represents a leap second Examples
  • 1583-01-01T00:59:59
  • 1975-01-19T23:45:34
The LDAP definition for the Date-Time syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.33 DESC 'Date-Time' )
This syntax corresponds to the DATE-TIME ASN.1 type from .
Duration The Duration type represents an elapsed time with a resolution of up to a fractions of seconds. It is defined as a useful TIME type in and conforms to the extended format syntax of a time interval by duration as defined in . A duration syntax value SHALL conform to the following regular expression P([0-9]+Y)?([0-9]+M)?([0-9]+D)?(T([0-9]+H)?([0-9]+M)?([0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)?S)?)? Examples
  • P29M0D -- 29 months
  • P29MT0S -- 29 months
  • PT3445.5S -- 3445.55 seconds
The LDAP definition for the Duration syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.34 DESC 'Duration' )
This syntax corresponds to a very strict subset of DURATION ASN.1 type from , in that the order of parameters need to be respected.
Real The Real type represents the computational approximations to the mathematical "real number". The format for the Real is as defined in Section 21 of . A Real syntax value SHALL conform to the following regular expression ([-]?[0-9]*\.?[0-9]+([eE][-+]?[0-9]+)?)|PLUS-INFINITY|MINUS-INFINITY|NOT-A-NUMBER Examples
  • 3.14159
  • MINUS-INFINITY
  • -5.3E4 -- Equal to -53000
The LDAP definition for the Real syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.9 DESC 'Real' )
This syntax corresponds to a subset of the REAL ASN.1 type from where the sequence syntax is not allowed and the values are limited to base ten.
Time Of Day The Time Of Day type represents a local time using a 24 hour clock. It is defined as a useful TIME type in and conforms to the extended format syntax of a local time as defined in . A Time Of Day value SHALL be written using the following syntax: hh:mm:ss where hh represents the hour from 00 to 24, mm represents the minute from 00 to 59, and ss represents the seconnds with allowed values of 00 to 60 where 60 represents a leap second. Examples for Time Of Day:
  • 00:59:59
  • 01:45:54
The LDAP definition for the Time Of Day syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.32 DESC 'Time Of Day' )
This syntax corresponds to the TIME-OF-DAY ASN.1 type from .
Visible String The Visible string type represents a character repertoire that the contains printable ASCII character set (in the range 0020-007E hexadecimal). It is defined in . Examples
  • hello world
  • (x+y)=z
The LDAP definition for the Visible String syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.26 DESC 'Visible String' )
This syntax corresponds to the VisibleString ASN.1 type from .
Constrained ASN.1 Syntax Definitions The following additional syntaxes are defined as constraints of basic ASN.1 types that may be used to be more precise in encoding and input validation. It is to note that length constraints of string types is already allowed in LDAP using the attribute definition syntax, as specified in by adding curly braces following the syntax's OBJECT IDENTIFIER in an attribute type definition. The additional constrained string types here are present in case they are needed in the future or as a way to not use the above extension, which does not seem to be available in pure X.500 implementatons.
Short String The Short String type represents an UTF-8 string that is limited to 127 octets when encoded. The acual number of characters that can be encoded depends on the characters. Examples
  • Hello world
  • Short
The LDAP definition for the Short String type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.12.1 DESC 'Short String' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Shortstring ::= UTF8String(SIZE (0..127))
Long String The Long String type represents a UTF-8 string that is limited to 1000 octets when encoded. The acual number of characters that can be encoded depends on the characters. Examples
  • This is a bigger sentence
  • Ceci est une phrase qui est plus longue que la précèdente
The LDAP definition for the Long String type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.12.2 DESC 'Long String' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Longstring ::= UTF8String(SIZE (0..1000))
Text The text type represents a UTF-8 string that is limited to 65535 octets when encoded. The acual number of characters that can be encoded depends on the characters. Examples
  • Hello world
  • Ceci est une phrase qui est encore plus longue que la précèdente
The LDAP definition for the Text type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.12.3 DESC 'Text' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Text ::= UTF8String(SIZE (0..65535))
Float32 The Float32 type represents a real number which fits in the range of a single precision floating point value. Examples
  • 3.14159
  • MINUS-INFINITY
  • -5.3E4 -- Equal to -53000
The LDAP definition for the Float32 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.9.4 DESC 'Float32' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Float32 ::= REAL (WITH COMPONENTS { mantissa (-16777215..16777215), base (2), exponent (-149..104) })
Float64 The Float64 type represents a real number which fits in the range of a double precision floating point value. Examples
  • 3.1415926535897932
  • NOT-A-NUMBER
  • -5.3E4 -- Equal to -53000
The LDAP definition for the Float64 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.9.8 DESC 'Float64' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Float64 ::= REAL (WITH COMPONENTS { mantissa (-9007199254740991..9007199254740991), base (2), exponent (-1074..971) })
UInt8 The UInt8 type represents an unsigned integer value within the range 0 to 255 inclusive. Examples
  • 0
  • 34
The LDAP definition for the UInt8 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.21 DESC 'UInt8' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : UInt8 ::= INTEGER(0..255)
UInt16 The UInt16 type represents an unsigned integer value within the range 0 to 65535 inclusive. Examples
  • 0
  • 64991
The LDAP definition for the UInt16 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.22 DESC 'UInt16' )
This syntax syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : UInt16 ::= INTEGER(0..65535)
UInt32 The UInt32 type represents an unsigned integer value within the range 0 to 4294967295 inclusive. Examples
  • 0
  • 40000000
The LDAP definition for the UInt32 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.24 DESC 'UInt32' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : UInt32 ::= INTEGER(0..4294967295)
UInt64 The UInt64 type represents an unsigned integer value within the range 0 to 18446744073709551615 inclusive. Examples
  • 0
  • 844674407370955
The LDAP definition for the UInt64 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.28 DESC 'UInt64' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : UInt64 ::= INTEGER(0..18446744073709551615)
Int8 The Int8 type represents a signed integer value within the range -128 to 127 inclusive. Examples
  • 0
  • -123
The LDAP definition for the Int8 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.1 DESC 'Int8' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Int8 ::= INTEGER(-128..127)
Int16 The Int16 type represents a signed integer value within the range -32768 to 32767 inclusive. Examples
  • 15667
  • -32000
The LDAP definition for the Int16 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.2 DESC 'Int16' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Int16 ::= INTEGER(-32768 .. 32767)
Int32 The Int32 type represents a signed integer value within the range -2147483648 to 2147483647 inclusive. Examples
  • 15667
  • -3200000
The LDAP definition for the Int32 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.4 DESC 'Int32' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Int32 ::= INTEGER(-2147483648..2147483647)
Int64 The Int64 type represents a signed integer value within the range -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807 inclusive. Examples
  • -2337203685477580
  • 3372036854775807
The LDAP definition for the Int64 type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.8 DESC 'Int64' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Int64 ::= INTEGER(-9223372036854775808..9223372036854775807)
Percentage The Percentage type represents a percentage value, that is an unsigned integer in the range 0 to 100 inclusive. Examples
  • 0
  • 99
The LDAP definition for the Percentage type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.20 DESC 'Percentage' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Percentage ::= INTEGER(0..100)
Other Syntax Definitions The following additional syntaxes are defined and are based on IETF RFC's, or other international standards.
DCMIType DCMIType is a controlled vocabulary to describe the type of a resource. It is specified in Examples
  • Text
  • Moving Image
The LDAP definition for the DCMIType syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.19.2 DESC 'DCMIType' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : DCMIType ::= PrintableString("Collection" | "Dataset" | "Event" | "Image" | "Interactive Resource" | "Moving Image" | "Physical Object" | "Service" | "Software" | "Sound" | "Still Image" | "Text")
Language A language provides a representation of a spoken or written language as well as an optional locale specifier. The exact syntax allowed is defined in Section 2 . A Language syntax value SHALL conform to the following regular expression [a-zA-Z]{1,8}(-[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,8})* Examples
  • en
  • fr-CA
The LDAP definition for the Language syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.19.1 DESC 'Language' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : Language ::= PrintableString(SIZE (1..255)) -- ISO 639 code minimally
Media type The Media Type syntax type should be used to identify values that represent a Media type. The format for the MIME Media type is defined in Section 5.1 of . A Media type should match the following regular expression: This syntax value SHALL conform to the following regular expression [A-Za-z0-9]([A-Za-z0-9!#$&^_.+-]){0,126}/[A-Za-z0-9]([A-Za-z0-9!#$&^_.+-]){0,126} Examples
  • text/xhtml
  • application/alto-costmap+json
The LDAP definition for the MIME Media type syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.26.5 DESC 'Media Type' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : MediaType ::= VisibleString (SIZE(3..255)) -- IANA Registered Media type
OpenDate An OpenDate represents either part of a Date or a Date and Time in extended format as specified in ISO 8601. The exact syntax allowed is defined by W3C Date and Time formats with a 3 digit fraction. Examples for OpenDate:
  • 2034
  • 1975-01-19
  • 2000-01-19T23:59:01Z
The LDAP definition for the Open Date syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.14.1 DESC 'OpenDate' )
This syntax corresponds to a subset of the TIME ASN.1 type from with the specified configuration: OpenDate ::= TIME((SETTINGS "Basic=Date Date=Y Year=Basic")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date Date=YM Year=Basic")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date Date=YMD Year=Basic")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date-Time Date=YMD Year=Basic Time=HM Local-or-UTC=LD")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date-Time Date=YMD Year=Basic Time=HMS Local-or-UTC=LD")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date-Time Date=YMD Year=Basic Time=HMSF3 Local-or-UTC=LD")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date-Time Date=YMD Year=Basic Time=HM Local-or-UTC=Z")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date-Time Date=YMD Year=Basic Time=HMS Local-or-UTC=Z")| (SETTINGS "Basic=Date-Time Date=YMD Year=Basic Time=HMSF3 Local-or-UTC=Z"))
URI The URI syntax type should be used to identify values that are referenced by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). The format for the URI is as defined in Section 3 of . Examples
  • http://www.example.com/my/picture.jpg
  • ldap://ldap.example.com/cn=babs%20jensen
The LDAP definition for the URI syntax is:
  • ( 1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.26.4 DESC 'URI' )
This syntax corresponds to the following ASN.1 type from : URI ::= VisibleString (SIZE(1..ub-uri-length)) The value of ub-uri-length (an integer) is implementation defined but must be at least 2000 octets.
IANA Considerations The IANA has registered the LDAP values specified in this document.
Date Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.31
Description:
Date
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Date syntax.
Date-Time Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.33
Description:
Date-Time
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Date-Time syntax.
DCMIType Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.19.2
Description:
DCMIType
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the DCMIType syntax.
DCMIType Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.19.2
Description:
DCMIType
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the DCMIType syntax.
Duration Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.34
Description:
Duration
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Duration syntax.
Float32 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.9.4
Description:
Float32
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Float32 syntax.
Float64 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.9.8
Description:
Float64
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Float64 syntax.
Int8 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.1
Description:
Int8
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Int8 syntax.
Int16 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.2
Description:
Int32
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Int16 syntax.
Int32 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.4
Description:
Int32
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Int32 syntax.
Int64 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.8
Description:
Int64
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Int64 syntax.
Language Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.19.1
Description:
Language
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Language syntax.
Short String Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.12.1
Description:
Short String
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Short String syntax.
Long String Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.12.2
Description:
Long String
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Long String syntax.
Media Type Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.26.5
Description:
Media Type
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Media Type syntax.
OpenDate Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.14.1
Description:
OpenDate
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the OpenDate syntax.
Percentage Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.20
Description:
Percentage
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Percentage syntax.
Real Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.9
Description:
Real
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Real syntax.
Text Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.12.3
Description:
Text
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Text syntax.
Time Of Day Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.32
Description:
Time Of Day
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Time Of Day syntax.
UInt8 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.21
Description:
UInt8
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the UInt8 syntax.
UInt16 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.22
Description:
UInt16
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the UInt16 syntax.
UInt32 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.24
Description:
UInt32
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the UInt32 syntax.
UInt64 Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.2.28
Description:
UInt64
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the UInt64 syntax.
URI Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.26.4
Description:
URI
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the URI syntax.
Visible String Syntax Registration
Object Identifier:
1.3.6.1.4.1.61799.5.40.26
Description:
Visible String
Person & email address to contact for further information:
carl.codere@optimasc.com
Specification: []
Author/Change Controller: IESG
Comments: Identifies the Visible String syntax.
Security Considerations This document should not affect the security of the Internet.
References Normative References DCMI Metadata Terms: DCMI Type Vocabulary Dublincore Informative References Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1): Specification of basic notation International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee Data elements and interchange formats - Information interchange - Representation of dates and times International Organization for Standardization Information Technology - Open Systems Interconnection - The Directory: Overview of Concepts, Models and Services International Telecommunications Union
Acknowledgements This template uses extracts from templates written by Pekka Savola, Elwyn Davies and Henrik Levkowetz.
Contributors Thanks to all of the contributors.