1.1 - Java and LDAP

Most developers will at some point need to learn how to communicate with an LDAP server. It should be a very simple technology to use but isn’t because many aspects are not well known.

Java is one of the most commonly used languages in the enterprise. Some call it the new Cobol!

These facts mean it’s necessary to communicate over LDAP using Java. This is why a convenient API is necessary, so we created this API to fill the necessary gaps.

There are alternatives, like JNDI. But the alternatives aren’t effective helping users cope with LDAP‘s inherent complexities. JNDI‘s semantics are very different from what’s required for proper LDAP usage. For example:

• Bind : used in LDAP to authenticate a user but creates an entry in JNDI
• Unbind : closes the LDAP session in LDAP but deletes an entry in JNDI
• **Compare **: is mapped to a search in JNDI while its proper usage is to compare to determine if a targeted attribute value matches a particular value inside an LDAP entry.
• Various properties have to be set in JNDI in order to connect or tweak the Search operation, which is not convenient
• Attributes are case sensitive by default in JNDI and not schema aware which is not compliant with LDAP standard.
• Name in JNDI can’t do a valid comparison in JNDI
• NamingEnumeration must be explcitly closed in JNDI, and don’t close automatically upon disconnect, which causes resource leakage to occur.

Some of these same problems exist for the other LDAP APIs. Other alternatives are no longer supported and/or lack a permissive license.

All in all, writing applications to perform basic LDAP operations in Java is a painful task for most developers.

Our target is to provide a better API, one that leads to correct and efficient usage of LDAP operation.