Connecting to LDAP/Active Directory using JNDI (Java)

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) has become a standard in most companies for storing hierarchical data. Some of the more common uses are storing employee and customer data. It is very similar to a database (in fact most LDAP implementations tend to have an underlying database in which the data is stored) with the main difference being that the data is in a hierarchy (think folders within folders). Java provides an API for communicating with directories like LDAP called JNDI (Java Naming and Directory Interface). Here is a basic example on how to search for a few common attributes using JNDI:

import java.util.Hashtable;

import javax.naming.Context;

import javax.naming.NamingEnumeration;

import javax.naming.NamingException;

import javax.naming.directory.Attributes;

import javax.naming.directory.DirContext;

import javax.naming.directory.SearchControls;

import javax.naming.directory.SearchResult;

import javax.naming.ldap.InitialLdapContext;



public class DirectorySearch {



public static void main(String[] args) {



 // Define object to hold environmental properties

 Hashtable env = new Hashtable();



 // My username, password, and URL for LDAP

 String username = "uid=myusername,ou=Users,o=MyCompany";

 String password = "myPassword";

 String url = "ldap://localhost:389";



 // Define connection properties.

 env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");

 env.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");

 env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, username);

 env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, password);

 env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, url);



 try {



  // Establish the directory context

  DirContext ctx = new InitialLdapContext(env, null);



  // Create a SearchControls object to do some filtering.

  // Define what attributes I want to get back from LDAP

  SearchControls searchCtls = new SearchControls();

  String returnedAtts[] = { "sn", "givenName", "mail" };

  searchCtls.setReturningAttributes(returnedAtts);



  // Specify the scope of my search (one level down,

  // recursive subtree, etc.)

  searchCtls.setSearchScope(SearchControls.SUBTREE_SCOPE);



  // My ldap search filter...what am I looking for?

  String searchFilter = "(uid=someUserID)";



  // Where to start my search

  String searchBase = "ou=Users,o=MyCompany";



  // Actually perform the search telling JNDI where to start

  // the search, what to search for, what how to filter.

  NamingEnumeration results = ctx.search(searchBase, searchFilter, searchCtls);



  // Loop through the search results

  while (results.hasMoreElements()) {



   SearchResult searchResult = (SearchResult) results.next();



   System.out.println("FOUND OBJECT : " + searchResult.getName());



   // Get a collection of the attributes that were returned

   // from the SearchResult.

   Attributes attrs = searchResult.getAttributes();



   if (attrs != null) {



    System.out.println("--> LASTNAME :  " + attrs.get("sn").get());

    System.out.println("--> FIRSTNAME:  " + attrs.get("givenName").get());

    System.out.println("--> EMAIL    :  " + attrs.get("mail").get());



   }

  }

  ctx.close();

 } catch (NamingException e) {

  e.printStackTrace();

 }
}
}

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