# Ruby LDAP --- Hooray! **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 28, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357 "2006-07-28T15:58:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/1 "2006-07-28T15:58:45Z")
After unsuccessfully trying to compile a Ruby LDAP implementation a year or so ago I found another project on Rubyforge ([http://rubyforge.org/projects/net-ldap/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/net-ldap/)) that easily accomplished the task in my Windows One-Click Installer Ruby environment. It was as easy as typing in ruby setup.rb! I am so thankful for the good work performed by the project maintainer(s) and wanted to express this. Now I can work on automating some spam filtering with my upstream mail scanning host. And do so using Ruby rather than an alternative language. Once again, thanks for the job well done! ---
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/2 "2006-07-28T16:18:22Z")
Thanks. Let us know here if you hit any problems with the library or if you have any feature requests. Sounds like you may be doing more with Net::LDAP than just bind-authenticating users, so I’ll be curious to follow your progress. ---
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/3 "2006-07-28T16:32:34Z")
For this one task all I am doing is pulling the Exchange Server global address book through LDAP and uploading the derived list to an upstream provider that helps us filter out spam e-mail messages. It’s just a quick pull and the library you have made things a snap. It’s all done now. There was another project I was considering moving to LDAP. Right now I have a mobile CRM app that uses Exchange CDO for storing the contact details. Rather than use this (clunky) storage method I am thinking about moving the contact store over to an lighter weight LDAP tree. I have OpenLDAP Server on my development box and did some modeling of how things would work. Seems like a good possibility down the road sometime. Right now things work fine in regards to what’s already been done. It’s just a fine tuning matter to improve things whenever I find the time. ---
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/4 "2006-07-28T16:39:13Z")
Out of curiosity, what kind of identities are you storing in Exchange (and maybe LDAP someday) to support your mobile CRM? are they people who work for your company? or people who are your company’s customers/vendors/partners? (I ask because I’m thinking ahead about some business-oriented enhancements to the LDAP library.) ---
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/5 "2006-07-28T16:46:00Z")
Ola B. wrote: > filters was most inspired. The only missing part is real prefix > notation > for it, but I guess I can manage without. =) Ola, if I understand you correctly, you’re looking for standard RFC-2254 filter syntax. Things like (for example): (&(objectclass=person)(mail=ola\*)) If that’s what you need, it’s there now. Look in the Rdoc for Net::LDAP::Filter#construct, which will accept a string like the above. The reason we didn’t support the standard filter syntax originally was because IMHO it sucks 🙂 and we wanted to give people a better alternative. The recommended way to do filters in Net::LDAP is with the original API, but we supported the standard filter-syntax because several people requested it. ---
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/6 "2006-07-28T16:38:59Z")
Francis C. wrote: > Thanks. Let us know here if you hit any problems with the library or > if you have any feature requests. Sounds like you may be doing more > with Net::LDAP than just bind-authenticating users, so I’ll be curious > to follow your progress. I’m also using it, and it’s really good. I’m actually specifically _not_ doing authentication with LDAP in Ruby (centralized CAS server), but I am using LDAP as one of several data sources feeding a Rails application. I must say that your overloading of & and | for combining filters was most inspired. The only missing part is real prefix notation for it, but I guess I can manage without. =) ## Regards Ola B. ([http://ola-bini.blogspot.com](http://ola-bini.blogspot.com)) JvYAML, RbYAML, JRuby and Jatha contributor System Developer, Karolinska Institutet ([http://www.ki.se](http://www.ki.se)) OLogix Consulting ([http://www.ologix.com](http://www.ologix.com)) “Yields falsehood when quined” yields falsehood when quined. ---
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/7 "2006-07-28T16:55:55Z")
Francis C. wrote: > Net::LDAP::Filter#construct, which will accept a string like the above. > The reason we didn’t support the standard filter syntax originally was > because IMHO it sucks 🙂 and we wanted to give people a better > alternative. The recommended way to do filters in Net::LDAP is with the > original API, but we supported the standard filter-syntax because > several people requested it. Haha, yes, I know it’s there, but not as language syntax. That was the neat part about the filter combinations, IMHO. Regarding the standard LDAP filter syntax… well, I’m an avid Lisp lover, so, me likes it quite much. =) Each to his own. But your version is better from a Ruby perspective, of course. – Ola B. ([http://ola-bini.blogspot.com](http://ola-bini.blogspot.com)) JvYAML, RbYAML, JRuby and Jatha contributor System Developer, Karolinska Institutet ([http://www.ki.se](http://www.ki.se)) OLogix Consulting ([http://www.ologix.com](http://www.ologix.com)) “Yields falsehood when quined” yields falsehood when quined. ---
**Author:** ![gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/7feea3/32.png) [@gregarican](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gregarican)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-ldap-hooray/100357/8 "2006-07-28T17:02:49Z")
Ola B. wrote: > Haha, yes, I know it’s there, but not as language syntax. That was > the > neat part about the filter combinations, IMHO. Now I get it. So perhaps something like: AND (filter-branch-1, filter-branch-2) rather than: filter-branch-1 & filter-branch-2 Correct?