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Get the Report →Create a Data Access Object for Active Directory Data using JDBI
A brief overview of creating a SQL Object API for Active Directory data in JDBI.
JDBI is a SQL convenience library for Java that exposes two different style APIs, a fluent style and a SQL object style. The CData JDBC Driver for Active Directory integrates connectivity to live Active Directory data in Java applications. By pairing these technologies, you gain simple, programmatic access to Active Directory data. This article walks through building a basic Data Access Object (DAO) and the accompanying code to read and write Active Directory data.
Create a DAO for the Active Directory User Entity
The interface below declares the desired behavior for the SQL object to create a single method for each SQL statement to be implemented.
public interface MyUserDAO {
//insert new data into Active Directory
@SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO User (CN, LogonCount) values (:cN, :logonCount)")
void insert(@Bind("cN") String cN, @Bind("logonCount") String logonCount);
//request specific data from Active Directory (String type is used for simplicity)
@SqlQuery("SELECT LogonCount FROM User WHERE CN = :cN")
String findLogonCountByCN(@Bind("cN") String cN);
/*
* close with no args is used to close the connection
*/
void close();
}
Open a Connection to Active Directory
Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting to Active Directory.
To establish a connection, set the following properties:
- Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
- Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.
BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.
Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.
Built-in Connection String Designer
For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Active Directory JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.
java -jar cdata.jdbc.activedirectory.jar
Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.
A connection string for Active Directory will typically look like the following:
jdbc:activedirectory:User=cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain;Password=bob123;Server=10.0.1.2;Port=389;
Use the configured JDBC URL to obtain an instance of the DAO interface. The particular method shown below will open a handle bound to the instance, so the instance needs to be closed explicitly to release the handle and the bound JDBC connection.
DBI dbi = new DBI("jdbc:activedirectory:User=cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain;Password=bob123;Server=10.0.1.2;Port=389;");
MyUserDAO dao = dbi.open(MyUserDAO.class);
//do stuff with the DAO
dao.close();
Read Active Directory Data
With the connection open to Active Directory, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the User entity in Active Directory.
//disply the result of our 'find' method
String logonCount = dao.findLogonCountByCN("Administrator");
System.out.println(logonCount);
Write Active Directory Data
It is also simple to write data to Active Directory, using the previously defined method.
//add a new entry to the User entity
dao.insert(newCN, newLogonCount);
Since the JDBI library is able to work with JDBC connections, you can easily produce a SQL Object API for Active Directory by integrating with the CData JDBC Driver for Active Directory. Download a free trial and work with live Active Directory data in custom Java applications today.