5. Groovy LDAP Reference

search

The search method performs an LDAP search operation and returns the result as a list of entries. In Groovy LDAP, an entry is simply a map.

Three options to call a search method

Short cut methods

For the most common types of search requests, the LDAP class contains two direct methods.

public List<Object> search( String filter ) throws NamingException
public List<Object> search( String filter, String base, SearchScope scope ) throws NamingException

This example uses the second variant:

...
ldap = LDAP.newInstance('ldap://zanzibar:10389/')

results = ldap.search('(objectClass=person)', 'dc=example,dc=com', SearchScope.ONE)
println " ${results.size} entries found ".center(40,'-')
for (entry in results) {
  println entry.dn
}
...

Using a Search object

The class org.apache.directory.groovyldap.Search is a JavaBean which contains parameters for a search.

You can simply create an object of this class, adjust the attributes to your needs and call an appropriate search method from the LDAP class with it. Here is an example:

...
params = new Search()
params.filter='(objectClass=person)'
params.base='dc=example,dc=com'
params.scope=SearchScope.ONE

results = ldap.search(params)
...

Using map style syntax

A very handy way to call search operations is to use the expressive map style arguments. The same properties as described for the Search class are supported. Here is an example.

...
results = ldap.search(filter: '(objectClass=person)', 
    base: 'dc=example,dc=com', scope: 'ONE')
...

The order of arguments does not matter, and this variant is very descriptive, and therefore recommended to use.

Using filter arguments

JNDI supports filter expressions with placeholders like {0}, {1} etc., and Groovy LDAP offers their use as well.
Here is a simple example:

...
params = new Search()
params.filter='(&(objectClass={0})(cn={1}))'
params.filterArgs=['person', 'Heather Nova']

results = ldap.search(params)
...

It is possible to use this in map style as well.

Specifying the attributes returned by a search

tbd.