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The LDAP ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live LDAP directory services, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access LDAP objects like you would a database - define custom tables for any ObjectClass, and then perform SQL queries through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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Import Real-Time LDAP Objects in ColdFusion to Build Applications


Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use LDAP objects in ColdFusion.

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData ODBC Driver for LDAP, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational LDAP data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with LDAP data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for LDAP and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (Data Source Name). This is the last step of the driver installation process. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To establish a connection, the following properties under the Authentication section must be provided:

  • 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.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import LDAP LDAP objects and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

  1. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
  2. Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button.
  3. From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData LDAP Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration.
  4. Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataLDAPODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
  5. Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

    The following code queries the data source: 

                
        <cfquery name="LDAPQuery" dataSource="CDataLDAPODBC"> 
          SELECT * FROM User 
        </cfquery>
    And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML: 
                
          <cftable  
          query = "LDAPQuery" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 

          <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>LogonCount</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="LogonCount"/> 

          ...

        </cftable>
    Full code, including the HTML portion is available below: 
                
        <html> 
        <head><title>CData Software | LDAP User Table Demo </title></head> 
        <body> 
        <cfoutput>#ucase("LDAP User Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
        <cfquery name="LDAPQuery" dataSource="CDataLDAPODBC"> 

          SELECT * FROM User 

        </cfquery> 
        <cftable  
          query = "LDAPQuery" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 
          <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>LogonCount</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="LogonCount"/> 

          ...

        </cftable> 
        </body> 

        </html>
  6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with LDAP data!

As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example: SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name =

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for LDAP and start building LDAP-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.