Patent ID: 8073842

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a view service module of a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) directory server that performs directory queries on an LDAP database, notification of selection by a client of a distinguished name (DN) entry that is viewed by the client in a current hierarchical tree view for the selected DN entry, the selected DN entry stored in the LDAP database; searching, by the view service module, one or more subviews for DN entries that match the selected DN entry, wherein each subview is a list of all DN entries that contain a unique value of a specific attribute type and a same DN entry appears in multiple subviews if the specific attribute type is multivalued, wherein the specific attribute type is defined by a dynamic view object that is a filtered view of a directory information tree (DIT) of the LDAP directory server based on the attribute type and created without the view service module having to maintain a static structure for the filtered view; generating, by the view service module, a list of the subviews that include a matching DN entry to the selected DN entry, wherein each subview in the list of subviews provides one or more alternate hierarchical tree views for the selected DN entry than the current hierarchical tree view; and returning, by the view service module, the list of subviews for display to the client so that the client may select one of the subviews in the list in order to view one of the alternate hierarchical tree views for the selected DN entry.