File: entry.rb [net-ldap-0.11 Documentation]

Last Modified
  2015-08-10 17:32:36 +0000
Requires
  - net/ldap/dataset

## Description

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.