Leopard Server makes use of Open Directory, an LDAP based directory service of resources – including users and shared contacts. Address book in Leopard client will automatically search Open Directory for users and people, but if you need to access these contacts from other software (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.), you’ll need to set up your own LDAP search. The following will show you the needed parameters.
Suppose, for example, you are using Thunderbird. For the example, assume your Leopard server has domain name “yamato.internal“. Then you enter the following in the Thunderbird Address Book when creating a new LDAP server entry:
Hostname: yamato.internal
Base DN: cn=people,dc=yamato,dc=internal
Port Number: 389
BindDN: [Leave blank]
This will allow you to search for “people” – i.e. shared contacts entered through Apple’s Directory application in Leopard or some other application. Keep in mind there are huge bugs in the Directory application that ruin this bit – you’ll need to drag people from your local Address Book to Directory to ensure the shared contact works with LDAP search rather than edit them in the Directory application itself, or you may want to enter “people” using some other third party tool (see next blog article I’m writing).
If you want to search on users, change the cn=people to cn=users.