The java.net.URL class allows a program to easily access resources by using URLs. There are currently a set of
URL stream handlers for various popular protocols, such as http, ftp, file, gopher, jar, mailto, and news. The proposal is to add a URL stream handler for ldap. The handler would use the JNDI to contact the
specified LDAP server, and return data in DSML format (http://www.dsml.org).

This feature would be useful to browsers and other programs/subsystems that access data via URLs. For example,
Java Security policy and keystores are named using URLs. CORBA IORs are
named using a limited set of URLs schemes. Having a URL stream handler
for ldap would be a first step in
enabling such data to be stored in the directory and accessed using a URL string.