Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) is a representation of

directory service In computing, a directory service or name service maps the names of network resources to their respective network addresses. It is a shared information infrastructure for locating, managing, administering and organizing everyday items and network ...

information in an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

syntax. The DSML version 1 effort was announced on July 12, 1999 by creator Bowstreet (subsequently acquired by IBM in 2005). Initiative supporters include AOL-Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Novell,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

, and IBM. It resulted in a Document Type Definition for a file containing the XML representation of entries in the

LDAP The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP ) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Directory servi ...

data model, similar in spirit to

LDIF The LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF) is a standard plain text data interchange format for representing Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory content and update requests. LDIF conveys directory content as a set of records, on ...

. The DSML version 2 effort was promulgated in OASIS in 2001. It resulted in an XML schema for the representation of directory access operations based on that of LDAP, that could be carried in

SOAP Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...

. The Service Provisioning Markup Language (SPML) also from OASIS is based on the concepts of DSMLv2, but does not have such a tight coupling to the LDAP information model. DSML is often pronounced "dismal".

Example of DSML result from requesting an LDAP directory

person organizationalPerson inetOrgPerson top X Mr misterX X Mister misterx@... People

External links

DSML v2.0 Specification

DSML v2.0 Specification errata

DSML v2.0 Schema

DSML V2 FAQ

* * XML-based standards Markup languages Year of introduction missing {{Markup-languages-stub