Rapidly Develop LDAP-Driven Apps with Active Query Builder

Write standard .NET to expose LDAP objects through an SQL interface: Active Query Builder helps developers write SQL interfaces; the CData ODBC Driver for LDAP enables standards-based access to LDAP. This integration uses the Microsoft ADO.NET Provider for ODBC as a bridge between the ODBC Driver and the Active Query Builder objects to build a visual SQL composer.

Connect to LDAP as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To establish a connection, the following properties under the Authentication section must be provided:

• Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
• Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

• BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

  Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

Use SQL to Interact with LDAP

Follow the steps below to create a WinForms visual query builder.

1. Open Active Query Builder for .NET WinForms.
2. In the new Windows Forms project go to the "File" menu and click "Connect..."
3. Under Database Connections, click "Add..."
4. Set your desired Connection Name (e.g. CData LDAP), set Connection Type to "ODBC" and locate your previously configured DSN in the "User/System" DSN dropdown.
5. Click "OK" to save the new connection.
6. Back in the Database Connection wizard, select the newly created connection and click "OK."
7. Click "File" > "New Query" to create a QueryBuilder

You can now build queries visually: Double-click a table in the Columns Pane Area and an entity/relationship diagram is displayed in the Query Building Area. Columns that you select in the diagram are added to the query.