I have an ASP.net page and I am querying active directory.
I have a list of of users and for each users I executed a method
DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher("LDAP://ABC");
ds.Filter = @"samaccountname=someaccount;
SearchResult sr = ds.FindOne();
Is this a good way to do it? or is there any other way better? Insread of
creating an instance of DirectorySearcher for each user, can I just use one
instance for all the users?
Well, the DirectorySearcher really is intended to be used to search
for any number of objects. Searching for just a single one is a bit
silly.
Also, you need to read up on LDAP and LDAP bind strings and filters -
your example probably won't work (or only by coincidence).
Basically, when you set up a DirectorySearcher, you need to give it a
place to start from (a LDAP string), and tell it what to search for.
Something like this:
DirectorySearcher dsUsers = new
DirectorySearcher("LDAP://cn=Users,dc=YourCompany,dc=com");
dsUsers.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user)(objectCategory=user))";
dsUsers.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name");
dsUsers.PropertiesToLoad.Add("sn");
dsUsers.PropertiesToLoad.Add("givenName");
foreach(SearchResult srUser in dsUsers.FindAll())
{
Console.WriteLine(srUser.Properties["name"].ToString() + " - " +
srUser.Properties["givenName"].ToString() + " - " +
srUser.Properties["sn"].ToString());
}
This searcher starts in the default "Users" container (cn=Users) of
your company's default domain (dc=YourCompany,dc=com). Replace this
with your ACTUAL values!
It will search for users (as defined by the LDAP filter), and load
their (object) name, sn (surname = family name), and givenName (first
name) attributes.
The code then loops over all users found, and prints out their
attributes into a console window (here - do whatever you need to do
with it in your case).
If you're totally lost as to what those cn=, ou=, dc= parts are, I'd
suggest you download my BeaverTail ADSI browser and have a look at
your AD database - it'll show you the hierarchy of objects, and all
properties set on those objects.
http://adsi.mvps.org/adsi/CSharp/beavertail.html
Enjoy!
Marc
================================================================
Marc Scheuner May The Source Be With You!
Berne, Switzerland m.scheuner -at- inova.ch
