System to use to maintain a corporate directory

I work for a small-but-growing startup that needs a corporate directory to keep photos and contact info for the company. Eventually we'd like to maybe use this system for login credentials and the like, but right now the goal is to have a simple web site where people can search for others at the company, and where people can keep their contact info current.

Are there any off-the-shelf (ideally free) solutions (that run on Linux) that provide this kind of functionality?

Solution 1:

Well, the standard solution for directories is LDAP. This is more a standard API and a storage backend than full-fledged application.

In practice you set up an LDAP server (OpenLDAP being a popular choice), and then install applications which use LDAP internally to handle user's needs.

For example, you can:

• authenticate against LDAP, e.g. : Linux logins, Apache authentication
• use LDAP as an email directory from e.g. Thunderbird: http://www-archive.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/specs/ldap.html
• use a web-based address book such as this one: http://www.splitbrain.org/blog/2007-06/27-contagged_the_ldap_address_book

The details will of course depend on your actual needs, but LDAP is a good foundation for a unified directory.

Solution 2:

Looking to your future needs check out OpenLDAP.

Solution 3:

Red Hat has a decent directory server. (I don't know if it's in CentOS/Fedora.) The installers include support for registering client machines against a directory (Red Hat, Windows, OpenLDAP, etc.) Oracle also has one; Oracle Directory Server Enterprise Edition. Also, see Wikipedia.