Class: Net::LDAP::Entry

Inherits:
Object
  • Object
show all
Defined in:
lib/net/ldap/entry.rb

Overview

Objects of this class represent individual entries in an LDAP directory. User code generally does not instantiate this class. Net::LDAP#search provides objects of this class to user code, either as block parameters or as return values.

In LDAP-land, an “entry” is a collection of attributes that are uniquely and globally identified by a DN (“Distinguished Name”). Attributes are identified by short, descriptive words or phrases. Although a directory is free to implement any attribute name, most of them follow rigorous standards so that the range of commonly-encountered attribute names is not large.

An attribute name is case-insensitive. Most directories also restrict the range of characters allowed in attribute names. To simplify handling attribute names, Net::LDAP::Entry internally converts them to a standard format. Therefore, the methods which take attribute names can take Strings or Symbols, and work correctly regardless of case or capitalization.

An attribute consists of zero or more data items called values. An entry is the combination of a unique DN, a set of attribute names, and a (possibly-empty) array of values for each attribute.

Class Net::LDAP::Entry provides convenience methods for dealing with LDAP entries. In addition to the methods documented below, you may access individual attributes of an entry simply by giving the attribute name as the name of a method call. For example:

ldap.search( ... ) do |entry|
  puts "Common name: #{entry.cn}"
  puts "Email addresses:"
    entry.mail.each {|ma| puts ma}
end

If you use this technique to access an attribute that is not present in a particular Entry object, a NoMethodError exception will be raised.

– Ugly problem to fix someday: We key off the internal hash with a canonical form of the attribute name: convert to a string, downcase, then take the symbol. Unfortunately we do this in at least three places. Should do it in ONE place.

Instance Method Summary collapse

Constructor Details

#initialize(dn = nil) ⇒ Entry

This constructor is not generally called by user code.



81
82
83
84
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 81

def initialize dn = nil # :nodoc:
  @myhash = Hash.new {|k,v| k[v] = [] }
  @myhash[:dn] = [dn]
end

Dynamic Method Handling

This class handles dynamic methods through the method_missing method

#method_missing(*args, &block) ⇒ Object

– Convenience method to convert unknown method names to attribute references. Of course the method name comes to us as a symbol, so let’s save a little time and not bother with the to_s.downcase two-step. Of course that means that a method name like mAIL won’t work, but we shouldn’t be encouraging that kind of bad behavior in the first place. Maybe we should thow something if the caller sends arguments or a block…



142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 142

def method_missing *args, &block # :nodoc:
  s = args[0].to_s.downcase.intern
  if attribute_names.include?(s)
    self[s]
  elsif s.to_s[-1] == 61 and s.to_s.length > 1
    value = args[1] or raise RuntimeError.new( "unable to set value" )
    value = [value] unless value.is_a?(Array)
    name = s.to_s[0..-2].intern
    self[name] = value
  else
    raise NoMethodError.new( "undefined method '#{s}'" )
  end
end

Instance Method Details

#[](name) ⇒ Object

– We have to deal with this one as we do with []= because this one and not the other one gets called in formulations like entry << cn.



98
99
100
101
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 98

def [] name # :nodoc:
  name = name.to_s.downcase.intern unless name.is_a?(Symbol)
  @myhash[name]
end

#[]=(name, value) ⇒ Object

:nodoc:



87
88
89
90
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 87

def []= name, value # :nodoc:
  sym = name.to_s.downcase.intern
  @myhash[sym] = value
end

#attribute_names ⇒ Object

Returns an array of the attribute names present in the Entry.



109
110
111
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 109

def attribute_names
  @myhash.keys
end

#dn ⇒ Object

Returns the dn of the Entry as a String.



104
105
106
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 104

def dn
  self[:dn][0]
end

#each ⇒ Object Also known as: each_attribute

Accesses each of the attributes present in the Entry. Calls a user-supplied block with each attribute in turn, passing two arguments to the block: a Symbol giving the name of the attribute, and a (possibly empty) Array of data values.



119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 119

def each
  if block_given?
    attribute_names.each {|a|
      attr_name,values = a,self[a]
      yield attr_name, values
    }
  end
end

#write ⇒ Object 



156
157
 
# File 'lib/net/ldap/entry.rb', line 156

def write
end