Patent ID: 7734611

Claim:
A method comprising: generating, by a view service module of a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory server that performs directory queries on an LDAP database, a list of unique values for an attribute, the attribute defined by a dynamic view object in a schema for the LDAP directory server; generating, by the view service module, a subview for each unique value in the generated list, wherein the subview is a list of one or more distinguished name (DN) entries that contain the unique value, and wherein the list of unique values and the subview for each unique value are generated without the view service module having to maintain a static structure for each of the list of unique values and the subview for each unique value in a directory information tree (DIT) of the LDAP server; and utilizing, by the view service module, all of the generated subviews to create a cross-relational view for presentation to a human user, wherein the cross-relational view includes a list of alternate hierarchical tree views for a selected DN entry of one of the subviews and wherein a human user selects at least one of the alternate hierarchical tree views to view.