Managed LDAP

Question

Is there a managed API(C#) available for managing users and groups (CRUD operations) on Active Directory (AD) ?

(edit) I will give some more info why I asked this here. I am participating in a project where employee data in flat files (multiple .dat files) are written to a folder during 1 night scheduled job. These .dat files must be consolidated into 1 xml per employee. Each xml has enough information in it to perform CRUD operations on AD to get the AD in sync.

I was attentioned by a collegae that Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MISS) or the light-weight variant IILF can also be used for this.... is that possible in this scenario ?

(edit) Working with Visual Studio 2005 / .NET 2.0

Answer 1

The System.DirectoryServices namespace provides easy access to Active Directory Domain Services from managed code.

Answer 2

In .NET 3.5, there is System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement

Code snippet:

   using (PrincipalContext ctx = GetPrincipalContext(domain, container))
   {
        using (UserPrincipal userPrincipal = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, username))
        {
           ...
        }
   }

Answer 3

There's an excellent MSDN article by Ethan Wilansky and Joe Kaplan (both AD MVP's and total gurus) which introduces these concepts very well.

Check it out here:

Managing Directory Security Principals in the .NET Framework 3.5

Highly recommended! The new System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace is available in .NET 3.5 and higher.

Marc