About Active Directory Attribute Management
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In Active Directory, the 'fields' that store the various elements on directory objects, such as users, groups, organizational units, etc. are termed 'Attributes'. They are also some referred to in this documentation as 'Properties'. Some attributes, such as 'displayname', are common across many types of objects, whereas others are specific to just a single type of directory object, such as a user.
One of the drawbacks to the conventional method used by Hyena and nearly all Microsoft applications when managing Active Directory objects is the presentation of a dialog box to request user input. While a dialog, or a series of tabbed dialogs is great at seeing an organized view of certain objects, there are limitations. Some of the disadvantages to the standard GUI dialog for managing Active Directory include:
Active Directory offers many more additional properties (attributes) than can be displayed on most GUI interfaces.
Limited options exist for managing the attributes for multiple directory objects at the same time, resulting in lost time performing one-by-one updates.
Extended schema attributes will not usually be available in Microsoft or 3rd party utilities.
Tools for direct access to AD attributes such as ADSIedit are difficult and clumsy to use.
Scripting solutions offer only a non-interactive method of updating directory objects.
Confusion in how to use complex utilities or scripting can lead to errors, which can waste valuable time and resources.
In addition to allowing the standard dialog-style Properties management for nearly all directory objects, Hyena has three (3) other functions that allow more powerful yet simple methods for updating most directory attributes. By utilizing advanced techniques and optimized directory access functions, these capabilities will greatly enhance Active Directory management, especially where multiple attributes need to be modified on a large collection of directory objects.
Attribute Manager
The 'Attribute Manager' in Hyena allows updating directory attributes for one or more directory objects similar to ADSI-edit, but in a more easy-to-use layout. It is particularly suited for updating an attribute on multiple objects, for example, setting the 'division' attribute on 10 user accounts to a new common value.
The Attribute Manager is accessed by selecting one or more directory objects, and selecting "Manage Directory Attributes..." from the context menu.
The Attribute Manager is a very powerful tool. A complete understanding of its different usages can be found in the 'Using the Attribute Manager' topic.
The Active Editor
The Active Editor, introduced in Hyena v10.0, is a powerful spreadsheet-like directory editor that allows you to freely navigate around and change most common directory elements. Visual indicators show what attributes have been updated, the number of uncommited changes, data validation, and more. See the Using the Active Editor topic for documentation on the Active Editor.
Importing into the Active Editor
Hyena's Active Editor also supports importing data into the Editor from a delimited text file. Changes that are imported are clearly indicated. See the Importing into the Active Editor topic for more information.