Reference to a connector object.
It may contain the identifier/identifiers only (e.g.
Uid,
Name, or other attributes), or it may
contain the whole object, fetched partially or fully.
Typical use case:
A user in Active Directory has a multivalued reference attribute
group that points to groups the user is a
member of.
The attribute is similar to
memberOf attribute, but instead of holding string DNs of the groups, it holds
these references as
ConnectorObjectReferences (which may contain DNs, UUIDs, or even partially or fully
fetched group objects, depending on the situation).
Other use cases:
Until ConnId supports structured (complex) attributes, the reference attributes provide an alternative solution.
The complex values of such attributes are represented by embedded connector objects.
For example, HR system can model contracts of a person as a multivalued reference attribute
contract on
object class
person that contains objects of the object class
contract. These objects are provided
by value, i.e., being embedded right in the references.