Summary

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Summary

Using ADSI, administrators and developers have the tool set required to rapidly build applications that interact with LDAP IIS and Windows NT namespaces. Before the release of ADSI, programmatic manipulation of namespaces was primarily reserved for advanced developers with knowledge of the API calls required to manipulate each namespace. By implementing ADSI as a set of COM objects, Microsoft has enabled the use of high-level automation controllers such as Visual Basic, Perl, Rexx, JavaScript, and VBScript to be used for programmatic namespace manipulation. By allowing such languages to be used, the level of development skill required to use ADSI has been lowered to match the programming talents found in the skill sets of many advanced system administrators.

After learning how to use ADSI in Visual Basic-based COM servers, you can greatly reduce the amount of time spent performing repetitive tasks on multiple objects in any given namespace. Using ADSI enumeration, you can perform operations upon an entire class of objects within a namespace.

Beyond enumeration, it is also possible to join data from external database applications with data contained in the Active Directory or another LDAP namespace using ADSI as an OLE-DB provider. This allows the creation of extremely robust directory applications to service the enterprise, whether for search operations or namespace object attribute manipulation.

ADSI provides the developer and administrator with a set of functions enabling the transformation of theoretical principles to those existing in the practical world. Concepts we have talked about for several years but could never properly implement (such as single-signon), can now be made possible using ADSI and the Active Directory.

Regardless of the directory service infrastructure implemented in your enterprise, taking the time to learn how to use ADSI will surely prove to be an invaluable timesaving investment.

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