XCF-2393 sipXconfig should serve directory information to phones usig an LDAP interface

Martin opened a new issue:
http://track.sipfoundry.org/browse/XCF-2393

General remark: please do not open improvement requests based on 
available technology. Try to describe use cases that led you to propose 
the improvement. If we understand the use cases, we end up implementing 
better functionality. No reason not to propose the solution as well, but 
you do need to point out the problem that the solution is solving.

Let's try to reverse engineer requirements from this issue.

Case 1:
My company is using LDAP. I import users from LDAP to sipXconfig. I 
configure phonebooks so that imported users are visible.

Case 2:
My company is not using LDAP. I configure users in sipXconfig. I 
configure phonebooks so that users are visible on the phone.

As far as I know both 1 and 2 are fully supported in 3.10 already.

Case 3:
My company is using LDAP. I import users from LDAP to sipXconfig. I 
configure phonebooks on the phones so that they phones retrieve 
phonebook information directly from LDAP instead of retrieving it from 
sipXconfig generated file.

I do not think that this is very different from 1 (you end up with the 
same phonebook contents). This use case is supported for some phones, 
but you need to go to phone specific UI in sipXconfig.

We could extend LDAP configuration to allow LDAP parameters there (and 
not just user groups and CSV files). That said most phones that I have 
seen support either LDAP based phonebook or configured phonebook. Which 
would mean that once you start using LDAP based phonebook you cannot use 
some cool sipXconfig features (manage phonebooks by using user groups, 
soon - allow end user and add additional entries). It does not sound 
very appealing.

Case 4:
My company is using LDAP for external contacts that I do not want to 
import in sipXconfig. I want to configure my phonebook to contain some 
entries from sipXconfig group and another set of entries from LDAP.

This is not supported today. Seems to be easy to implement, but it does 
not mean that sipXconfig actually would use the LDAP-based phonebook 
feature. It would use the phone specific phonebook format, but it would 
add entries retrieved from LDAP when generating it.

Other cases?

There might be other cases where implementing LDAP interface in 
sipXconfig (or more realistically exporting to private instance of LDAP 
server) actually enhances functionality.
Please describe them so that we can have a discussion on how to best 
support them.

D.