RARE solicits tenders for the provision of a Directory User Agent employing the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP/RFC1487) for the MS-Windows operating system. Please direct all enquiries to the RARE Secretariat (raresec@rare.nl, mail address below). Analysis of products available for personal/desktop computer systems has indicated that no LDAP solution is available for the MS-Windows platform. RARE has therefore decided to encourage the provision of such a solution by offering to assist with the development costs. A full specification of the requirements is attached to this solicitation. Basic requirements, however, can be summarised as follows: o Support for MS-Windows 3.0 and higher and a commonly-available lower-layers protocol stack, preferably the WinSocket library. o A "user-friendly point-and-click" interface conformant to the "look and feel" of MS-windows, customisable for different language environments o The ability at least to search and browsethe directory and display entries. The ability to update and create new entries is to be preferred, but not essential. o Customisable schemas including basic provision of at least the "PilotPerson" Object Class defined in RFC1274. Within the schema, it should be possible to customise the default DUA display to show only a chosen subset of objects and/or attributes. o Available funding is limited, therefore a successful proposal is likely to be based on porting an existing DUA or on an offer for collaborative funding o The application should be freely distributable to the academic and research community represented by RARE for non-commercial use. Tenders should sent to the RARE Secretariat at the address below by 17th September 1993. Further information can be obtained from the same address. In addition to the information requested in the Requirements section of this call for tender, tenders should include: o The cost to RARE of the development work o The estimated start and end dates of the development phase of the project o The length of time for which support will be provided following the development phase, and the extent of that support o The name of an administrative contact for contract negotiation o The name of a technical contact o Telephone numbers, addresses and e-mail addresses of the named contacts Where the proposals are based on modifications to existing products, tenderers are encouraged to offer access to demonstration versions of the existing products so that there features may be compared. Specification ============= Hardware, Operating System and Communications Software ------------------------------------------------------ The DUA application should be supplied in binary form for execution under MS-Windows 3.0 + MS-DOS v5.0 or appropriate later releases of this software. The software should support a TCP/IP communication stack commonly available within the European academic community, preferably the WinSocket library. Tenders should indicate specific hardware and software requirements. Proposals should not rely on the availability of colour displays, but may require the provision of at least VGA-resolution monitors. Human Interface --------------- The application should provide an intuitive human interface which provides access to the major functions using the WIMP paradigm in a fashion compatible with the "look and feel" of other Windows applications. The application should be delivered with textual information provided in the English language, but should be developed in such a way that translation to other language environments is straightforward. Protocol Elements ----------------- The DUA should implement the protocol specified in RFC1487, although BIND requests may be restricted to "simple" authentication. Encoding rules for attribute values are as defined in RFC1488. Functionality ------------- The DUA is required to provide at least search, browse and display operations (i.e. it should be possible to look for an entry without knowing the exact RDN or position within the DIT and to display its contents in a meaningful way). It should be possible to navigate the directory structure without the need to enter either attribute names or values, although the entry of attribute values may be used to direct attention to a chosen part of the tree. The sorting scheme which determines the order in which entries are returned for selection should be customisable by the user (i.e. the attributes used to determine the order should be selectable). It should be possible by means of configuration (possibly by a system manager) to restrict the default DUA display to a subset of object classes, or attribute types meaningful in a particular application. The DUA may additionally provide for the updating of existing directory entries and for the creation of new entries. This provision will be balanced against the proposal cost: tenderers who wish to offer this functionality may benefit from quoting separate prices for the basic (search/display) and extended implementations. DSA Interworking ---------------- It should be possible to demonstrate interworking with at least two different DSA implementations. Dependency on a particular DSA will not be acceptable. Schema ------ The basic reference for the schema to be supported is RFC1274 (The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema). The DUA must be pre-configured to be able to recognise the PilotPerson Object Class defined in this document. However, the DUA must also be configurable to support a variety of different classes of data object for all supported operations. Tenders should specify any restrictions on the data types or combinations of data types that may be used in configuring new classes of object. Intellectual Property, Support and Maintenance ============================================== Licensing --------- The application should be distributable freely or at nominal cost to the international academic and research community for non-commercial use. The supplier may make additional charges for the provision of support and/or documentation beyond that described below. It is not a requirement that the source code of the application be made freely available. Furthermore, the supplier shall not be inhibited from commercial exploitation of the product outside of this community. Installation, Support & Documentation ------------------------------------- Sufficient documentation should be provided (preferably in electronic form) to permit the installation of the application by an averagely-experienced network manager. The installation should contain a test procedure to enable its success to be determined. Following completion of the development phase of the project, the tenderer will be expected to fix significant defects in the application which are reported during the initial period of its use. Monitoring and Acceptance ========================= Intermim versions of the application should be made available for evaluation by a review group nominated by RARE. Payments will normally be staged, payment being dependent on the acceptance of each phase of the development by the nominated group. Addresses ========= Tenders to be sent to: RARE Secretariat Singel 466-468 NL - 1017 AW Amsterdam. Phone: +31 20 639 1131 E-mail: raresec@rare.nl