Patent ID: 7647350

Claim:
A Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) database access server comprising: a network interface device to receive, from a client device, a data request message requesting retrieval of data stored in a LDAP database communicably coupled to the LDAP database access server, wherein the data request message includes both of a data identifier that identifies the data and an indication that the data is requested by the client device to be transferred in a specific compressed format; and a processing device, coupled to the network interface device via a bus, the processing device operable to: retrieve data having the data identifier from the LDAP database, where the data is stored in the LDAP database in a compressed format that is transparent to the client device, wherein the format of the stored data is not communicated to the client device, and determined by the LDAP database access server according to a class of item in which the data is categorized; determine if the retrieved data is in the specific requested compressed format; reformat the retrieved data to provide the specific requested compression format if the retrieved data is not in the requested compression format; and send the compressed retrieved data to the client device in the requested specific compressed format in response to the data request.