Can I get Active Directory attributes from the WindowsPrincipal?

Question

I would like to get the Employee-ID for the currently logged in user. Is that easily available in some .Net class or do I need to do some sort of LDAP query?

Any tips welcome

Answer 1

Used AD query - very simple:

DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher();
ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("employeeID");
ds.Filter = String.Format("(&(objectCategory=person)(sAMAccountName={0}))", loginName);

result = ds.FindOne();
if (result != null)
{
    personnelNumber = result.Properties["employeeID"][0].ToString();
}

Answer 2

Even easier - use the new .NET 3.5 System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement features.

See the MSDN article Managing Directory Security Principals in the .NET Framework 3.5 for details.

PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain. "YOURDOMAIN");

UserPrincipal user = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, loginName);

if(user != null)
{
   string empID = user.EmployeeId;
}

The new strongly typed principal classes make it a breeze to work with AD.