Search

A short note on DNs

It may be possible that restricted characters (",", "+", """, "\", "<", ">", ";", "#", "=", space or a hexpair) are used in attributes or values inside the DN. You should have a look to the APIdoc of Net_LDAP2_Util::escape_dn_value(), Net_LDAP2_Util::unescape_dn_value(), Net_LDAP2_Util::ldap_explode_dn() and Net_LDAP2_Util::canonical_dn(). These functions can be used to safely handle DNs.

Searching some entries

After connecting to the server, you can use Net_LDAP's search() method to search the directory. The method takes three parameters:

• $base is the base search DN. If kept null, the default base DN configured when connecting is used.

• $filter is the query filter that determines which results are returned. It is either a string (experts use only) or better a Net_LDAP_Filter-object. Net_LDAP_Filter automatically deals with LDAP-Filter escaping issues. LDAP filters are extensively explained at the chapter LDAP filters.

• $params is an array of configuration options for the current query.

  Table 54-1. Possible configuration parameters

  Name	Description	Default
  scope	The scope used for searching: base - Just one entry sub - The whole tree one - Immediately below $base	sub
  sizelimit	Number of entries returned at maximum	0 (no limit)
  timelimit	Seconds to spent for searching	0 (no limit)
  attrsonly	If true, only attribute names are returned	false
  attributes	Array of attribute names, which the entry should contain. It is good practice to limit this to just the ones you need.	array() (all attributes)

// Building a very basic filter
// we want to find all Entries whose surnames start with "Joe":
$filter = Net_LDAP_Filter::create('sn', 'begins',  'Joe');

// We define a custom searchbase here. If you pass NULL, the basedn provided
// in the Net_LDAP configuration will be used. This is often not what you want.
$searchbase = 'ou=addressbook,dc=example,dc=org';

// Some options:
// We search all subtrees beneath 'ou=addressbook,dc=example,dc=org'
// and we select the attribute 'sn'. It is a good practice to limit the
// requested attributes to only those you actually want to use later.
// However, note that it is faster to select unneeded attributes than
// refetching an entry later to just get those attributes.
$options = array(
    'scope' => 'sub',
    'attributes' => array('sn')
);

// Perform the search!
$search = $ldap->search($searchbase, $filter, $options);

// Test for search errors:
if (PEAR::isError($search)) {
    die($search->getMessage() . "\n");
}

// Say how many entries we have found:
echo "Found " . $search->count() . " entries!";