LDAP Provider

[Gil Shabat]

Hi all,

Does .Net framework have any support libraries for
implementing LDAP provider?

Thanks,

Gil Shabat

 

[Jan Zieschang]

Hello Gil,

as far as i know, there is a good implementation for active directories
(system.directoryservices). This implementation also supports third-party
vendors, but there is are some problems with non-default properties.
In windows enviroment there is a com-component to support native
ldap-objects.

Good luck.

 

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

Please elaborate, do you have the intention to implement your own LDAP provider using managed code, or do you simply need to access
an LDAP provider using managed code?

Willy

 

[MSFT]

Hi Gil,

VS.NET supports to perform query & modification on a LDAP provider. You may
take a look the namespace "System.DirectoryServices" in .NET framework.
Also, you can refer to this article for a sample:

Using System.DirectoryServices to Search the Active Directory
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndotnet/ht
ml/dotnetadsearch.asp

Hope this help,

Luke
Microsoft Online Support

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)

 

[Gil Shabat]

I would like to implement my own LDAP provider, if this is
possible using managed code

Thanks,

Gil

-----Original Message-----
Please elaborate, do you have the intention to implement

your own LDAP provider using managed code, or do you
simply need to access

 

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

Ok, let's see if we are talking about the same thing when talking about an LDAP provider.

LDAP is a service protocol running on top of TCP/IP that makes it possible to connect to, query and modify directory objects based
on a C/S model (here the provider is the client, DS is the server). An LDAP provider consists of a Directory service object model
and a set of interfaces. These interfaces allow you to develop Directory Service management and browser applications using the LDAP
protocol. So I assume it's NOT your intention to write your own Directory Service, but only to write your own provider to access an
existing Directory.

The DS provider that ships with Windows is an unmanaged provider that offers a set of COM interfaces (ADSI provider), the
DirectoryService namespace classes are simple wrapper around this COM based provider. The provider itself uses the LDAP API dll
(wldap32.dll) available on most if not all windows versions to connect to an LDAP DS (fi. an Active Directory Server on W2K/W2K3).

What you can do is to implement your provider using a managed language using the unmanaged LDAP protocol API's (you aren't gonna
write your own LDAP protocol library in managed code don't you?).
You could do this in C# or VB.Net but this is no fun as it will require a lot of PInvoke functions and data structure declarations,
therefore I suggest you do it using MC++ (Managed C++), however I don't see why you would do this unless you have very special
requirements not offered by the DirectoryService/ADSI provider tandem.


Willy.
..

 

[Gil Shabat]

You are right; I wasn't planning to write a directory
service, but rather only a provider that exposes one.

In general, my issue is that we developed an in-house CRM
system, with SQL on its back-end, and I would like the
users to be able to access the contacts via an Outlook
Address Book without generating Outlook contacts. It seems
that my only 2 options are either to develop a MAPI
Address Book Provider, or to develop an LDAP provider (I'm
trying to evaluate the less painful approach). Are you
aware of another way to achieve this? Assuming that there
is no other way, do you know where I can find
documentation for implementing an LDAP Provider for this
purpose?

Thanks,

Gil

-----Original Message-----
Ok, let's see if we are talking about the same thing when

talking about an LDAP provider.

LDAP is a service protocol running on top of TCP/IP that

makes it possible to connect to, query and modify
directory objects based

on a C/S model (here the provider is the client, DS is

the server). An LDAP provider consists of a Directory
service object model

and a set of interfaces. These interfaces allow you to

develop Directory Service management and browser
applications using the LDAP

protocol. So I assume it's NOT your intention to write

your own Directory Service, but only to write your own
provider to access an

existing Directory.

The DS provider that ships with Windows is an unmanaged

provider that offers a set of COM interfaces (ADSI
provider), the

DirectoryService namespace classes are simple wrapper

around this COM based provider. The provider itself uses
the LDAP API dll

(wldap32.dll) available on most if not all windows

versions to connect to an LDAP DS (fi. an Active Directory
Server on W2K/W2K3).

What you can do is to implement your provider using a

managed language using the unmanaged LDAP protocol API's
(you aren't gonna

write your own LDAP protocol library in managed code don't you?).
You could do this in C# or VB.Net but this is no fun as

it will require a lot of PInvoke functions and data
structure declarations,

therefore I suggest you do it using MC++ (Managed C++),

however I don't see why you would do this unless you have
very special

 

[MSFT]

Hi Gil,

There is no direct support to create a LDAP provider in VS.NET. Anyway, I
think it will be easier if you can use CDO wo manage the address book on
exchange server.



Luke
Microsoft Online Support

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)