## OM Objects

The purpose of XOM API is to provide an interface to manage complex information objects. These information objects belong to classes and have attributes associated with them. There are two distinct kinds of classes and attributes that are used throughout the directory service documentation: directory classes and attributes and OM classes and attributes.

The directory classes and attributes defined for XDS API correspond to entries that make up the objects in the directory. These classes and attributes are defined in the X.500 directory standard and by additional GDS extensions created for DCE. Other APIs, such as the X.400 API, which is the application interface for the industry standard X.400 electronic mail service, define their own set of objects in terms of classes and attributes. OM classes and OM attributes are used to model the objects in the directory.

XOM API provides a common information architecture so that the information objects defined for any API that conforms to this architectural model can be shared. Different application service interfaces can communicate by using this common way of defining objects by means of workspaces. A workspace is simply a common work area where objects defined by a service can be accessed and manipulated. In turn, XOM API provides a set of standard functions that perform common operations on these objects in a workspace. Two different APIs can share information by copying data from one workspace to another.

More:

OM Object Attributes

Object Identifiers

C Naming Conventions

Public Objects

Private Objects

Object Classes

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