AJAX and LDAP/Active Directory

Ajaz Ldap ad

[urbanmac]

Hi,

I'm looking at ways of getting a php search of LDAP/AD to return results with out a page refresh. So as the user types the search results begin to appear.

Has anyone come across such a script?

Thanks

[StupidScript]

Here's the basic idea: Every "onkeydown" triggers a Javascript/AJAX request and dumps the output into a div (or iframe, if you want to go old school). The request uses a regexp (i.e. MySQL: "..where column regexp '^user_input.*$'...) to compare what's already in the typing field with what's in the db. (The regexp says 'where what the user is typing begins the column entry')

So :

typed: t
match: taller, tasty, teletubby, tuba
typed: ta
match: taller, tasty
typed: tas
match: tasty

, etc.

If you can locate a basic AJAX script that sends a query to a db, you should be able to modify it pretty easily.

[edited by: StupidScript at 5:55 pm (utc) on Jan. 30, 2007]

[urbanmac]

Hi, thanks for the reply

But I understand how an ajax search works but getting it to work with Active Directory is the problem.

[StupidScript]

Okay. You'll want to review this section [us2.php.net] of the PHP manual for info on connecting to and getting data from an LDAP tree. You're basically looking at querying a database (connect/bind/query/close). (Note that PHP needs to be compiled

--with-ldap

.)

[urbanmac]

yes I understand that.

I have another thread on this subject

[webmasterworld.com...]

[StupidScript]

You understand the client side and you understand the server side ... so what is the problem, exactly? Are you having trouble setting up the db connection or something?

[StupidScript]

Okay ... you're multiple posting ... I'm not going to reply to this thread, any more.

[urbanmac]

what I cant seem to do is pass the ldap/ad search on to an ajax search.

my ajax script is based on the url being something like search?q=bob but the ldap/ad does not seem to construct the search the same way....so now I'm stumped.

[whoisgregg]

Change your server side script to use $_GET rather than $_POST and you'll be all set.

[urbanmac]

yes thats exactly what I did - it works perfectly!

[urbanmac]

I now just need to search two OU points in the same directory at the same time, but adding in a second dn ($dn2) does not work. What's the best way to concatenate the two search DN's?

Heres part of the code:

// Create the DN
$dn = "OU=user,OU=accounts,OU=UK,OU=regions,DC=DOMAIN,DC=com";
$dn2 = "OU=user,OU=accounts,OU=US,DC=DOMAIN,DC=com";
// Specify only those parameters we're interested in displaying
$attrs = array("displayname","mail","samaccountname","telephonenumber","givenname");
// Create the filter from the search parameters
$filter = "(¦(givenName=".$_GET['q']."*) (sn=".$_GET['q']."*) (samaccountname=".$_GET['q']."*) (telephonenumber=".$_GET['q']."*))";
$search = ldap_search($ad, $dn, $dn2, $filter, $attrs)
     or die ("<span class='LSstyle_noresults'><strong>Sorry - could not connect to AD</strong></span>");
$entries = ldap_get_entries($ad, $search);
if ($entries["count"] > 0) {