Objective The THORN project's objectives are to study directory services and to build and demonstrate a prototype service. The obviously required name server (THORN) project's objectives are to study directory services and to build and demonstrate a prototype service. Due to the lack of relevant International Standards Organisation - International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee (ISO-CCITT) standards for directory services, the project started with an implementation of the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) standards. Based on this implementation, a large scale pilot exercise (LSPX) was set up. This work allowed the partners to gain early experience in designing, implementing and using directory services, which enabled them to make a valuable contribution to the final ISO-CCITT standards.As soon as thesestandards became available (first as drafts, later as final standards), the ECMA-conformant implementations were adapted and enhanced. The final prototype consisted of directory user agent (DUA) and directory service agent (DSA) software, ported to the various hardware platforms used by the THORN partners. This prototype was further enriched with different sets of user interface (UI) software, each supporting a different style of user interaction, and administration tools. During the project, a suite of testing tools was also developed to help test the conformance of the system to the standard.Begun with only the THORN project partners, the LSPX had grown, by the end of the project, to 14 DSA in 4 countries, offering information on several hundred organizations, a few thousand hosts and more than 20000 people. The system was probably used by over 1000 users.Due to the lack of relevant ISO-CCITT standards for directory services, the project started with an implementation of the ECMA standards. Based on this implementation, a Large Scale Pilot eXercise (LSPX) was set up. This work allowed the partners to gain early experience in designing, implementing and using directory services, which enabled them to make a valuable contribution to the final ISO-CCITT standards. As soon as these standards became available (first as drafts, later as final standards), the ECMA-conformant implementations were adapted and enhanced. The final prototype, as demonstrated during the 1989 ESPRIT Conference, consisted of Directory User Agent (DUA) and Directory Service Agent (DSA) software, ported to the various hardware platforms used by the THORN partners. This prototype was further enriched with different sets of User Interface (UI) software, each supporting a different style of user interaction, and administration tools. During the project, a suite of testing tools was also developed to help the partners test the conformance of their system (after porting to their particular hardware platform) to the standard. Begun with only the THORN project partners, the LSPX had grown, by the end of the project, to 14 DSAs in 4 countries, offering information on several hundred organisations, a few thousand hosts and more than 20 000 people. The system was probably used by over 1000 users. Exploitation The experience and know-how acquired during the THORN project will be used by the various partners for further work. Most partners have announced or are developing X.500-based directory service products. Products already available include PIZARRO (INRIA), DIR-X (Siemens), DirWiz (SW). The DIR-X product of Siemens has been chosen by the Open Software Foundation (OSF) as the basis for their X.500 naming service. Furthermore, the testing tools developed as part of the project are still in use with the partne rs to test their own products, and the experience gained via the LSPX is being reused to set up directory services for the research community. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware Programme(s) FP1-ESPRIT 1 - European programme (EEC) for research and development in information technologies (ESPRIT), 1984-1988 Topic(s) Data not available Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator Ing. C. Olivetti E C. Spa Address Via jervis 77 10015 Ivrea Italy See on map EU contribution € 0,00 Participants (8) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all Bull SA France EU contribution € 0,00 Address See on map CERN France EU contribution € 0,00 Address Site de prévessin 01631 Prevessin See on map DFN Germany EU contribution € 0,00 Address Pariser straße 44 10707 Berlin See on map GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd United Kingdom EU contribution € 0,00 Address 53 telephone road CV3 1HJ Coventry See on map ICL Ltd United Kingdom EU contribution € 0,00 Address See on map Institut National de Recherches en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA) France EU contribution € 0,00 Address 239 boulevard des aiguillettes 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-nancy See on map SIEMENS AG Germany EU contribution € 0,00 Address München See on map System Wizards Srl Italy EU contribution € 0,00 Address Via breglio 103 10147 Torino See on map
