Recipe 18.6 Programming with Python

18.6.1 Problem

You want to programmatically access Active Directory using Python.

18.6.2 Solution

As with Perl, you have two options for programming Active Directory with Python: the native LDAP-based approach, and a COM interface, which allows you to use ADSI. The LDAP module can be downloaded from http://python-ldap.sourceforge.net/. The COM interface is part of the standard ActivePython install available from ActiveState (http://www.activestate.com/ActivePython/).

The following Python code sample prints out the RootDSE of DC1 using the LDAP interface:

import ldap try:    l = ldap.open("dc1") except ldap.LDAPError, e:    print e baseDN = "" searchScope = ldap.SCOPE_BASE retrieveAttributes = None  searchFilter = "objectclass=*" try:    ldap_result_id = l.search(baseDN, searchScope, searchFilter,                               retrieveAttributes)    result_type, result_data = l.result(ldap_result_id, 0)    if result_type == ldap.RES_SEARCH_ENTRY:       print result_data except ldap.LDAPError, e:    print e

This next code sample uses the win32com.client module to access the RootDSE with ADSI:

import win32com.client objRootDSE = win32com.client.GetObject('LDAP://RootDSE') objRootDSE.GetInfo( ) for i in range( 0, objRootDSE.PropertyCount - 1):    prop = objRootDSE.Item(i)    print prop.Name    for val in prop.Values:       print "  ",val.CaseIgnoreString

18.6.3 Discussion

More information is available on Python by going to the Python home page: http://www.python.org/.