Patent ID: 7761469

Claim:
A method of streaming LDAP attributes comprising: receiving, by an LDAP server, a request for data included in a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) attribute, the LDAP attribute having a plurality of LDAP attribute values; determining, by the LDAP server, whether the LDAP attribute is streamable; when the LDAP attribute is streamable, retrieving, by a streaming module operating on the LDAP server, a stream of LDAP attribute values from an LDAP repository in response to the LDAP server initiating an LDAP operation, including retrieving a first subset of the plurality of LDAP attribute values serially at a rate at which the LDAP server is able to process the attribute values; applying the LDAP operation to the first subset of the plurality of LDAP attribute values before retrieving a second subset of the plurality of attribute values, wherein the first subset and the second subset each include more than one LDAP attribute value; and returning the first subset of the plurality of LDAP attribute values to a requester.