Programming Guides › Programming Guide for Java Connector Server › High Level Connector Design Considerations › Searching › How Your Containment Model Impacts Your Search Strategy

How Your Containment Model Impacts Your Search Strategy

Your decision to implement a flat or hierarchical containment model affects the way you implement your connectors search strategy and the type of filter conditions you apply.

For example:

• Flat connectors can ask the Java CS framework to split searches potentially encompassing multiple object classes into a separate sub-search over each object class, which greatly simplifies the implementation of the search logic.
• The Java CS framework handles Virtual Container logic, so that your connector does not need to be aware they exist. For example, a search specifying a Virtual Container as its base object automatically has its search filter constrained to the single object class permitted for its children.
• The Java CS framework provides a notion of FilterVisitors that can assist in mapping LDAP filters to another syntax, for example, to an SQL where clause, with some concrete implementations that provide useful simplifications of the filters themselves. For example, as a map of the attribute assertions contained.