Thanks for your comments. You are not the first person to bring up the topic of the installation. It is a little tricky to get working. I have however updated the manual with better instruction to get it going.

The updated manual can be found here:
http://www.j2anywhere.com/projects/abxldap/AddressBook_X_Manual.pdf

Please let me know if you still feel that information is lacking, in particular which specific sections. I am more then happy to include additional information. I have added a section on getting Thunderbird to use the extra attributes offered by the custom schema extension, for example.

As OS X already contains all the software for OpenLDAP to run, only the configuration task is left for the user to complete. OpenLDAP provides many settings and options which make it difficult to include a generic (one-size-fits-all) solution. Many clients already have an existing service running or would like to make use of a specific schema mapping. Also the project is still in it's early stage and I am still gathering user requirements and suggestions. In the past I have assisted many users via e-mail and iChat to get a directory configured. Each time taking their individual needs into account. This process takes anywhere from 30mins to 3 hours depending on the users skill set.

In many cases the typical scenario is to have the LDAP directory on a separate server to the client installations. This would require 2 type of installations, one for the client and another for the server. There are also security considerations to be taken into account.

Up to now I have tried to produce as good as possible documentation, but I agree that there is always room for improvements.

The price of $30 (£15 GBP) covers a site license and is used to cover development / hosting costs. It is not intended as a per-client basis. Unfortunately Mac-Updated does not offer this option and it is not clear on their web site. It is however covered on the projects web-site and in the updated manual. The product is still available as a free download. I have spend a fair amount debating if making this product commercial would be a good option. In the end I decided for a mixed option. I would like to make this project as much community driven as possible and maybe even open source it as some point. Up to now I have been the only developer on it with little input from others. The general feedback has been positive.

Since giving users the option to "buy" the product I have been a lot more motivated to work on new features as I could see a direct response form the community. I just find that this works best so far, as the users tend to value the software more if they paid for it, and I am more eager to work on new feature and improvements. I am under no illusions and know that this will not make me rich, never mind rich quickly. Yet I do feel that my efforts should be rewarded.