Do You Need to Create a Custom Attribute in Active Directory?

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Do You Need to Create a Custom Attribute in Active Directory?

Active Directory does not provide any attributes to store instant messengers, birth date, anniversary, additional addresses, profession, hobbies, gender etc. To add this attributes typically you will need to customize the Active Directory schema which is a complicated operation that requires significant affords.

Instead, you can avoid extending the schema and seamlessly store all data in existing attributes using IT Hit Active Directory Address Book CardDAV Server. In fact you can store in your Active Directory any custom attributes that your CardDAV client (iOS, OS X, e-mail application) supports without any additional affords.

Attributes Backup

As soon as all data is stored in AD all AD backup operations function as usual, IT Hit AD Address Book CardDAV Server does not require setting up any additional SQL or file system backup steps.

How AD Attributes are Mapped to vCard Properties

In a table below you can find how standard Active Directory attributes match to standard vCard properties. It also displays some vCard properties that does not have a corresponding Active Directory attribute. Note that your CardDAV client may provide additional custom properties that will be automatically parsed and stored in AD.

Active Directory Attribute NameLDAP Attribute NamevCard Property NameDescription
Address streetAddress ADR Address
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute   ANNIVERSARY Anniversary
Audio audio SOUND Sound
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute BDAY Birth date
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute BIRTHPLACE Place of birth
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute CATEGORIES Custom tags
Comment info NOTE Comment
Company company ORG Company name
Country-Name c ADR ISO-3166 country code
Department department ORG Department name
Display-Name displayName FN, SORT-STRING Display name
E-mail-Addresses mail EMAIL, Preferred Preferred e-mail address
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute EXPERTISE Professional knowledge areas
Facsimile-Telephone-Number facsimileTelephoneNumber TEL, TYPE=WORK,FAX, PREF Preferred fax number
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute GENDER Person's gender
Generation-Qualifier generationQualifier N Honorific suffix
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute
GEO Geo coordinates (latitude and longitude)
Given-Name givenName N First name
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute HOBBY Hobbies
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute IMPP Instant messengers
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute INTEREST Interests
jpegPhoto jpegPhoto PHOTO Image
Locality-Name l ADR Locality (e.g. City)
Logo thumbnailLogo LOGO Logo
Other-Name middleName N Middle name
Object-Guid objectGUID UID Object GUID
Other-Mailbox otherMailbox EMAIL e-mail(s)
Personal-Title personalTitle N Honorific prefix
Phone-Fax-Other otherFacsimileTelephoneNumber TEL, TYPE=WORK,FAX Fax numbers
Phone-Home-Other otherHomePhone TEL, TYPE=HOME Home telephones
Phone-Home-Primary homePhone TEL, TYPE=HOME, preferred Preferred home telephone
Phone-Ip-Other otherIpPhone TEL, TYPE=ISDN TCP/IP address for the telephone
Phone-Ip-Primary ipPhone TEL, TYPE=ISDN, preferred Preferred TCP/IP address for the telephone
Phone-Mobile-Other otherMobile TEL, TYPE=CELL Mobile telephones
Phone-Mobile-Primary mobile TEL, TYPE=CELL, preferred Preferred mobile telephone
Phone-Office-Other otherTelephone TEL, TYPE=WORK Office telephones
Photo photo PHOTO Photo thumbnails
Picture thumbnailPhoto PHOTO, preferred Preferred photo thumbnail
Postal-Code postalCode ADR Postal code
State-Or-Province-Name st ADR State or province
Surname sn N Last name
Text-Country co ADR Country
Telephone-Number telephoneNumber TEL, preferred Preferred telephone
No corresponding AD/LDAP attribute  TZ Time zone
Title title TITLE Job title
When-Changed whenChanged REV Update time
WWW-Home-Page wWWHomePage URL, preferred Preferred URL
WWW-Page-Other url URL URLs