LDAP setup on Evolution

Thunderbird has been my friend for few years, but I always wanted to use Evolution as it is shipped along with the default Ubuntu Installation. The only reason I was not able to do so was that, I never figured out how I can access my MS Exchange contacts(I am referring it as LDAP contacts).

Today I happen to be successful in accessing those and thought to write about it. I am currently on Evolution version 2.30.3. I am accessing my Exchange Sever through IMAP/SMTP.

To setup Evolution to use our LDAP contacts, we need to add a new address book into our contacts. We do it with the following steps.

1. Click on Contacts in left bottom of screen to go to the contacts window.
2. File-> New ->Address Book
3. Select type as On LDAP Server
4. Enter your LDAP server URL(like ldap.domain.com)
5. Enter port (Default is 389)
6. Select encryption type (Mine was No encryption)
7. Login method Use distinguished Name(DN)
8. Login as your bind DN (normally Domain\User)
9. Go to details tab
10. Add your Search base or let it find for you (something like DC=******)
11. Search scope "sub"
12. Click "Ok"
13. Go to mail preferences -> contacts
14. Opt for autocompletion and select your address book
15. Compose new mail and type initial letters of the desired contact, it will show you the auto completion drop down.

This is it, I have opted for "copy book content locally for offline operation" for fast responses otherwise the search takes a little time to fetch it from server. Once a contact is fetched, it comes as soon as you type. This may and may not ask you for your domain password depending on your LDAP server settings, but if it does you may avoid it on every auto-completion by Remember Password check box.