6.1 Schema Management Active Directory objects

The schema management objects can be used to browse and modify the schema of a namespace. These objects are:

• SCHEMA container object, which contains a given schema.

• Schema Class container object, which defines a schema object class.

• Property object, which describes a property.

• Syntax object, which describes a syntax that can be used in a property definition.

Note: the term "Class" is confusing, since directory service objects have a "class" concept and COM has a "class" concept. This specification uses the term "Schema class" when referring to an object class defined by a directory service, to differentiate this from a "class:" as defined by COM.

The set of Active Directory Schema objects listed above are not represented by Schema Class objects; this would be circular. The objects used to manage the Schema cannot be instantiated anywhere but in a SCHEMA container.