| Platform SDK: Active Directory, ADSI, and Directory Services |
Once ADSI binding is established, accessing and manipulating data is perhaps the most common directory operation. A directory may contain thousands of attributes ready to be accessed and manipulated by applications such as administrative tools.
Properties are the data members of ADSI COM objects. Properties are also referred to as attributes in some documents discussing directory services. In order for an ADSI object to be interesting and useful, you must be able to get and/or set its properties.
For example, given an IADs interface to an object, you might want to get the value of the description property. Properties are named values associated with an object.
When reading directory service documentation, you will often see the terms property and attribute used interchangeably. However, there is a distinction in ADSI documentation. When we mention a property, we are referring to a data member of an instance of a COM object. When we mention an attribute, we are referring to a value physically stored in the directory. Attributes can become properties by retrieving them from the directory.
In addition, you may see the term property method used. A property method is called to retrieve or store a specific attribute. Property methods usually include the name of the attribute in their name. For example, get_Attribute and put_Attribute.