Structural, Abstract, and Auxiliary Classes

Platform SDK: Active Directory, ADSI, and Directory Services

Structural, Abstract, and Auxiliary Classes

The objectClassCategory attribute of a classSchema object can have one of the following values which indicates whether the class is structural, abstract, or auxiliary.

Value	Description
1	A structural class, which is the only type of class that can have instances in Active Directory. A structural class can be a subclass of an abstract or structural class. A structural class can include any number of auxiliary classes in its definition.
2	An abstract class, which is a template used to derive new abstract, auxiliary, and structural classes. An abstract class can only be a subclass of an abstract class. Abstract classes cannot be instantiated in Active Directory An abstract class can include any number of auxiliary classes in its definition.
3	An auxiliary class, which can be included in the definition of a structural, abstract, or auxiliary class, in which case, the mustContain, systemMustContain, mayContain, and systemMayContain values of the auxiliary class are added to those of the class. An auxiliary class can be a subclass of an abstract or auxiliary class. Auxiliary classes cannot be instantiated in Active Directory. An auxiliary class can include any number of auxiliary classes in its definition.

Do not confuse the objectClassCategory with "object category".