Novell eDirectory - Full Service Directory
Discovery
Discovery is the ability of a user or application to browse and/or consume the contents of a directory. Discovery is recognizing people and resources, assigning characteristics to them, establishing relationships among them, updating changes to them, and optimizing searches for them.
The job of a directory service is to provide a mechanism for the discovery and recognition of resources within the information management environment. People browse the directory to find out about other people. Applications search the directory to find preferences and policies, available services and other data. The types of information and uses are limitless. The sort of information to be discovered is bounded only by the characteristics of a particular directory service implementation.
There are several elements that contribute to a full-service directory's discovery suite. These include: