ADO 2.8 Appendixes
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Active Directory Service

The Microsoft Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) Provider allows ADO to connect to heterogeneous directory services through ADSI. This gives ADO applications read-only access to the Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000 directory services, in addition to any LDAP-compliant directory service and Novell Directory Services. ADSI itself is based on a provider model, so if there is a new provider giving access to another directory, the ADO application will be able to access it seamlessly. The ADSI provider is free-threaded and unicode enabled.

Connection String Parameters

To connect to this provider, set the Provider argument of the >ConnectionString property to:

ADSDSOObject

Reading the >Provider property will return this string as well.

Typical Connection String

A typical connection string for this provider is:

"Provider=ADSDSOObject;User ID=MyUserID;Password=MyPassword;"

The string consists of these keywords:

Keyword Description
Provider Specifies the OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Active Directory Service.
User ID Specifies the user name. If this keyword is omitted, then the current logon is used.
Password Specifies the user password. If this keyword is omitted, then the current logon is used.

Command Text

A four-part command text string is recognized by the provider in the following syntax:

"Root; Filter; Attributes[; Scope]"

Value Description
Root Indicates the ADsPath object from which to start the search (that is, the root of the search).
Filter Indicates the search filter in the RFC 1960 format.
Attributes Indicates a comma-delimited list of attributes to be returned.
Scope Optional. A String that specifies the scope of the search. Can be one of the following:
  • Base — Search only the base object (root of the search).
  • OneLevel — Search only one level.
  • Subtree — Search the entire subtree.

For example:

"<LDAP://DC=ArcadiaBay,DC=COM>;(objectClass=*);sn, givenName; subtree"

The provider also supports SQL SELECT for command text. For example:

"SELECT title, telephoneNumber From 'LDAP://DC=Microsoft, DC=COM' WHERE 
objectClass='user' AND objectCategory='Person'"

The provider does not accept stored procedure calls or simple table names (for example, the >CommandType property will always be adCmdText). See the Active Directory Service Interfaces documentation for a more complete description of the command text elements.

Recordset Behavior

The following tables list the features available on a Recordset object opened with this provider. Only the Static cursor type (adOpenStatic) is available.

For more detailed information about Recordset behavior for your provider configuration, run the Supports method and enumerate the Properties collection of the Recordset to determine whether provider-specific dynamic properties are present.

Availability of standard ADO Recordset properties:

Property Availability
AbsolutePage read/write
AbsolutePosition read/write
>ActiveConnection read-only
>BOF read-only
>Bookmark read/write
>CacheSize read/write
>CursorLocation always adUseServer
>CursorType always adOpenStatic
>EditMode always adEditNone
>EOF read-only
>Filter read/write
>LockType read/write
>MarshalOptions not available
>MaxRecords read/write
>PageCount read-only
>PageSize read/write
>RecordCount read-only
>Source read/write
>State read-only
>Status read-only

Availability of standard ADO Recordset methods:

Method Available?
AddNew No
Cancel No
CancelBatch No
CancelUpdate No
Clone Yes
Close Yes
Delete No
GetRows Yes
Move Yes
MoveFirst Yes
MoveLast Yes
MoveNext Yes
MovePrevious Yes
NextRecordset Yes
Open Yes
Requery Yes
Resync Yes
Supports Yes
Update No
UpdateBatch No

See Also   For more general information about ADSI and the specifics of the provider, please refer to the Active Directory Service Interfaces documentation or visit the ADSI Web page.

See Also

>CommandType Property | >ConnectionString Property | Properties Collection | >Provider Property | Recordset Object | Supports Method

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