Light Intro To Searching LDAP Servers

A search performed on the server with the above parameters will result in the server spitting out information about itself.
In order to form this search with the IP*Works! component, we only need to fill in a few simple properties:

LDAP1.ServerName = txtServer.Text

LDAP1.DN = ""

LDAP1.SearchFilter = "objectClass=*"

LDAP1.SearchScope = ssBaseObject

LDAP1.Search

After this search is complete, a SearchComplete event will fire - at which time we know that we have received
all of the relevant information from the server and we are free to examine the results. These results are
provided in the Attr arrays. First, LDAP1.AttrCount provides the number of attributes. LDAP1.AttrType(i) provides
the type of the ith attribute, and the LDAP1.AttrValue(i) provides the value of the ith attribute.
One way to extract this data is to add the results to a listbox:

For i = 0 To LDAP1.AttrCount - 1

      lstResults.AddItem (LDAP1.AttrType(i) & ":" & LDAP1.AttrValue(i))

Next

Basic LDAP Entry Query

Lets go ahead and single out one particular employee, Lance Robinson, me. My UID is LRobinson. Our goal is to
perform a search for all of the attributes of the entry for LRobinson. The first step is to determine the DN
for that entry.

When initially connecting to the LDAP server, we can bind anonymously or we can authenticate. For the purposes
of this document, we'll just bind anonymously. After binding (connecting), we'll issue a search on the base DN
of my directory for the UID LRobinson. We can determine the base DN's for the servers from the namingContext attributes
of the DSE search we did above.

LDAP1.ServerName = txtMyServer.Text

LDAP1.Bind                                           'anonymously bind to the server

LDAP1.DN = "NSOFTWARE"                 'The DN to NSOFTWARE, which we obtained from the DSE Search

LDAP1.SearchFilter = "uid=LRobinson"  'search for this uid

LDAP1.Search

For each entry on the server in the directory with DN NSOFTWARE that matches the UID=LRobinson, a SearchResult
event will fire, reporting the DN of the matching entry. We'll grab this information, since that is what we need
in order to perform a direct search on this user. In this particular search on my server, the SearchResult event
fired once, with the following DN: "uid=LRobinson, ou=People, dc=com".

From here its easy! Now that we know the DN of the user, simply perform a new search on this DN:

LDAP1.DN = "uid=LRobinson, ou=People, dc=com"

LDAP1.SearchFilter = "ObjectClass=*"

LDAP1.Search

Now a search will be performed on the LRobinson entry. When the SearchComplete event fires, we know that we
have all of the information that the server has returned and we can parse through it and do with it what we will.
Below I am displaying the information as before - to a listbox:

For i = 0 To LDAP1.AttrCount - 1

     lstResults.AddItem (LDAP1.AttrType(i) & ":" & LDAP1.AttrValue(i))

Next

The results will look like the following:

objectClass: Person

: organizationalPerson

: inetorgperson

: top

sn: Robinson

cn: Lance Robinson

uid: LRobinson

creatorsName: uid=admin,ou=administrators

modifiersName: uid=admin,ou=administrators

createTimestamp: 20010710235642Z

modifyTimestamp: 20020313152716Z

mail: lancer@nsoftware.com

description: Incredibly good-looking

: Incredibly smart

roomNumber: 110

More Information

For information about the author, please contact
lancer@nsoftware.com.

For more information about IP*Works! or the LDAP component, please visit /n
software.