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 The capability exists to form your own complex searches -- the rules are as follows:

BNF: 

        <filter> ::= '(' <filtercomp> ')'
        <filtercomp> ::= <and> | <or> | <not> | <simple>
        <and> ::= '&' <filterlist>
        <or> ::= '|' <filterlist>
        <not> ::= '!' <filter>
        <filterlist> ::= <filter> | <filter> <filterlist>
        <simple> ::= <attributetype> <filtertype> <attributevalue>
        <filtertype> ::= '=' | '~=' | '<=' | '>='

The '*' character can be used to determine attribute existence or as a wild card. The '~=' causes metaphone matching.

Attributes types which can be searched for:

  • cn (common name - first name last name)
  • sn (surname - last name)
  • uid (user id - a unique identifier which has NOTHING to do with e-mail)
  • mail (electronic mail address)
  • roomnumber (office building and room number)
  • telephonenumber (office phone number)
  • homephone (home phone number)
  • ou (organizational unit - department or college)
  • title (class rank and major, or, job title and degree)

Examples:

This would match names sounding like "jackie doe". Note, if there is a single attribute value assertion, then the outer '(' ')' are not required. Also, the metaphone matching doesn't work real well.

This would search for all persons whoes e-mail addresses that started with "doe".

This would search for someone with the name "john doe" who has an office in the College of Business Administation building.

This would search for someone whose last name is "doe" and who has a telephone number ending in "3241".

This would search for someone whose name starts with "jim" or "james" and is an "Accounting" major of some type.

Pretty complicated huh? Well, it lets you ask some pretty complex questions. Remember, you can always just type what you are looking for in the search dialog and let the default filters attempt to find people for you. We spent a lot of time fine tuning the filters to anticpate most users' needs.

For more information, send mail to info@x500.uth.tmc.edu.

DSA Manager / <info@x500.uth.tmc.edu> / Last Change: Nov 18, 1996