Natively Connect to LDAP Objects in PHP

The CData ODBC Driver for LDAP enables you to write data access code for LDAP objects in PHP. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to LDAP objects, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

To connect to LDAP objects, your application will use connection properties defined in the data source name (DSN).

Below is a typical connection string:

User=Domain\BobF;Password=bob123456;Server=10.0.1.1;Port=389;

You can configure the DSN in the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator. This is the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN for LDAP objects.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to LDAP by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LDAP Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials:

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC LDAP Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM User WHERE CN = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LDAP Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM User WHERE CN = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Administrator'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LDAP Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT * FROM User");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LDAP objects Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT * FROM User"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["Id"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC LDAP objects Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM User WHERE CN = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('Administrator')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

Test the Example Queries

One easy way to test the queries above is to use PHP's built-in test server to set up a basic stand-alone test environment. To start it, follow the steps below:

1. Download the binaries for the latest version of PHP.

2. Extract files to a folder.

3. Open the folder.

4. Rename php.ini-development to php.ini for a basic development setup.

5. Run the command below to access your test scripts from the browser:

   php -S localhost:8000 -t C:\path-to-your-scripts -c C:\path-to-php\php.ini

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are LDAP-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.