| Contents

# Building a Service Provider

> The lessons in the Building a Service Provider trail discuss how to write a service provider. Before embarking on this trail, you should have a good grasp of the fundamental and advanced JNDI topics described in The Basics , Beyond the Basics , and Java Objects and the Directory trails. If you are building a service provider for a directory service, you also should first read the Tips for LDAP Users trail.

> The Big Picture lesson describes the components of a service provider. It distinguishes between essential and optional components.

> The Ground Rules lesson discusses general rules to follow when writing code for a service provider. It covers such topics as parameter passing, environment properties, and threads.

> The Essential Components lesson describes how to write all of the essential components of a service provider and how to make it extensible. This includes building a context implementation, an initial context factory, and a name parser.

> The Adding Directory Support lesson shows you how to add directory support to a service provider once you have the basic components. This lesson is useful only to those readers who are building a service provider for a directory service.

> The Adding URL Support lesson shows you how to add URL support to a service provider once you have the basic components. URL support is an optional feature.

> The Adding Federation Support lesson shows you how to add support for federation to a service provider once you have the basic components. Federation is an optional feature.

> The Miscellaneous lesson shows you how to package a service provider and how to implement various advanced features such as referrals and event notification.

| Contents