The Microsoft® Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) Software Development Kit (SDK) is a client-side product, based on the Component Object Model (COM), that defines a directory service model and a set of COM interfaces that enables Windows NT and Windows 95 client applications to access several network directory services. Active Directory Service Interfaces is one component of Windows® Open System Architecture (WOSA) Open Directory Service Interfaces (ODSI).
The Active Directory Service Interfaces allow client applications to communicate with LDAP-compliant and NDS-compliant directory services in addition to the Windows NT Directory Service and Netware 3.x-compliant namespaces. ADSI is X.500-compliant for LDAP and NDS.
This document describes the ADSI directory service architecture, the Active Directory Service interfaces, examples of ADSI client applications, requirements for ADSI providers, and an example of an ADSI provider implementation.