Connecting LDAP server from java application

Question

I am building an application based on GXT (J2EE). Now the problem is that I have to connect the application to a LDAP server. Can you tell me how to connect a LDAP server from our java application and what Library or API I will have to use for that?

Answer 1

To connect to LDAP, check out the following packages/classes:

javax.naming.directory.*
javax.naming.ladp.*
com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory
com.sun.jndi.ldap.ControlFactory

Example code:

//build a hashtable containing all the necessary configuration parameters
Hashtable<String, String> environment = new Hashtable<String, String>();

environment.put(LdapContext.CONTROL_FACTORIES, conf.getProperty("ldap.factories.control"));
environment.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, conf.getProperty("ldap.factories.initctx"));
environment.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, conf.getProperty("ldap.host"));
environment.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");
environment.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, conf.getProperty("ldap.user"));
environment.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, conf.getProperty("ldap.password"));
environment.put(Context.STATE_FACTORIES, "PersonStateFactory");
environment.put(Context.OBJECT_FACTORIES, "PersonObjectFactory");

// connect to LDAP
DirContext ctx = new InitialDirContext(environment);

// Specify the search filter
String FILTER = "(&(objectClass=Person) ((sAMAccountName=" + user.getUsername() + ")))";

// limit returned attributes to those we care about
String[] attrIDs = { "sn", "givenName" };

SearchControls ctls = new SearchControls();
ctls.setReturningAttributes(attrIDs);
ctls.setSearchScope(SearchControls.SUBTREE_SCOPE);

// Search for objects using filter and controls
NamingEnumeration answer = ctx.search(searchBase, FILTER, ctls);

...

SearchResult sr = (SearchResult) answer.next();
Attributes attrs = sr.getAttributes();
surName = attrs.get("sn").toString();
givenName = attrs.get("givenName").toString();
...

In this example I have a Configuration object that reads these values from a config file.

The values would be :

# LDAP parameters
ldap.host = ldap://ldap.mydomain.com:389
ldap.factories.initctx = com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory
ldap.factories.control = com.sun.jndi.ldap.ControlFactory
ldap.searchbase = dc=mydomain,dc=us
ldap.user = MYDOMAIN.COM\\ldap-user
ldap.userBase= MYDOMAIN.COM\\
ldap.password = ******