The Global Address List (GAL) is a company directory of users, usually within the organization itself, that is available to all users of the email system. VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server uses the company directory to look up user addresses from within the company.
The VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server Web Client can search the GAL. When the user searches for a name, that name is turned into an LDAP search filter similar to the following example, where the string %s is the name the user is searching for.
The Attributes Mapped to ZCS Contact Field table maps generic GAL search attributes to their VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server contact fields.
LDAP attributes are mapped to GAL entry fields. For example, the LDAP attribute
displayName and cn can be mapped to GAL entry field
fullName. The mapping is configured in the
zimbraGalLdapAttrMap attribute.
Users can modify attributes for their account in the directory when users change their options from the Zimbra Web Client, they also modify the attributes when they change their preferences.