Directory Services

IADs Property Methods

The property methods of the IADs interface get or set the properties described in the following table. For more information about property methods, see Interface Property Methods.

Properties

Property	Description
ADsPath [Visual Basic] Access: Read-only DataType: BSTR [C++] `HRESULT get_ADsPath ([out] BSTR* pbstrADsPath);`	The ADsPath string of this object. The string uniquely identifies this object in a network environment. The object can always be retrieved using this path.
Class [Visual Basic] Access: Read-only DataType: BSTR [C++] `HRESULT get_Class ([out] BSTR* pbstrClass);`	The name of the object Schema class.
GUID [Visual Basic] Access: Read-only DataType: BSTR [C++] `HRESULT get_GUID ([out] BSTR* pbstrGUID);`	The globally unique identifier of the directory object. The IADs interface converts the GUID from an octet string, as stored on a directory server, into a string format.
Name [Visual Basic] Access: Read-only DataType: BSTR [C++] `HRESULT get_Name ([out] BSTR* pbstrName);`	The relative name of the object as named within the underlying directory service. This name distinguishes this object from its siblings.
Parent [Visual Basic] Access: Read-only DataType: BSTR [C++] `HRESULT get_Parent ([out] BSTR* pbstrParent);`	The ADsPath string of the parent container. Active Directory does not permit the formation of the ADsPath of a given object by concatenating the Parent and Name properties. While this operation might work in some providers, it is not guaranteed to work for all implementations. The ADsPath is guaranteed to be valid and should always be used to retrieve an object's interface pointer.
Schema [Visual Basic] Access: Read-only DataType: BSTR [C++] `HRESULT get_Schema ([out] BSTR* pbstrSchema);`	The ADsPath string of the Schema class object of this object.

Remarks

In Active Directory, the GUID returned from IADs::get_GUID or obj.GUID is a string of hexadecimals. Use the resultant GUID to bind to the object directly.

Dim x As IADs
Set x = GetObject("LDAP://servername/<GUID=xxx>")

where xxx is the value returned from the obj.GUID property or the IADs::get_GUID property method. For more information, see Using objectGUID to Bind to an Object. Be aware that if you use a GUID to bind to an object, the Name, ADsPath, and Parent property methods return values that are different from the normal values that would be returned if you used a distinguished name (DN) to bind to the same object. For example, the following table lists the values returned when using the two different binding methods to bind to the same user object.

	Bind using DN	Bind using GUID
Name	CN=Jeff Smith	<GUID=c0f59dfcf507d311a99e0000f879f7c7>
Parent	LDAP://server/CN=Users,DC=Fabrikam,DC=com	LDAP://server
ADsPath	LDAP://server/CN=Jeff Smith,CN=Users,DC=Fabrikam,DC=com	LDAP://server/<GUID=c0f59dfcf507d311a99e0000f879f7c7>

The GUID-binding technique returns values that may not be useful. For example, to bind to an object's parent to move or delete the object using the IADsContainer methods. To do this after binding to an object using a GUID, first rebind to the object using the DN and then use the second binding to retrieve the binding path for the parent object. The following code example shows how to do this.

' Bind to an object using its GUID.
Set objFromGUID = GetObject("LDAP://<GUID=c0f59dfcf507d311a99e0000f879f7c7>")

' Rebind to the object using its distinguished name.
Set objFromDN = GetObject("LDAP://" & objFromGUID.Get("distinguishedName"))

' Use the second binding to get the object's parent.
Set parent = GetObject(objFromDN.Parent)

Windows XP: Binding with a GUID using the LDAP provider no longer returns a 'GUID ADsPath' for the Name and Parent property methods, and rebinding is not required when attempting to bind using the returned path strings. However, the ADsPath property method will still return a 'GUID ADsPath' when GUID binding is performed.

Note The WinNT provider does not support binding using the object GUID, and returns the GUID property in a slightly different string format.

Note The NDS and NWCOMPAT providers do not support binding using the object GUID.

Example Code [Visual Basic]

The following code example shows how to retrieve object data using property methods of the IADs interface.

Dim x As IADs
Dim parent As IADsContainer
Dim cls As IADsClass
Dim op As Variant

On Error GoTo Cleanup

Set x = GetObject("WinNT://Fabrikam/Administrator")
Debug.Print "Object Name: " & x.Name
Debug.Print "Object Path: " & x.ADsPath
Debug.Print "Object Class: " & x.Class
 
' Get more data about the object schema.
Set cls = GetObject(x.Schema)
Debug.Print "Class Name is: " & cls.Name
For Each op In cls.OptionalProperties
	Debug.Print "Optional Property: " & op
Next op

Cleanup:
	If (Err.Number<>0) Then
		MsgBox("An error has occurred. " & Err.Number)
	End If
	Set x = Nothing
	Set parent = Nothing
	Set cls = Nothing

Example Code [VBScript]

The following code example shows how to retrieve object data using property methods of the IADs interface.

<HTML>
<head><title></title></head>

<body>
<%
Dim x 
On Error Resume Next
 
Set x = GetObject("WinNT://Fabrikam/Administrator")
Response.Write "Object Name: " & x.Name & "<br>"
Response.Write "Object Path: " & x.ADsPath & "<br>"
Response.Write "Object Class: " & x.Class & "<br>"
 
' Get more data about the object schema.
Set cls = GetObject(x.Schema)
Response.Write "Class Name is: " & cls.Name & "<br>"
For Each op In cls.OptionalProperties
	Response.Write "Optional Property: " & op & "<br>"
Next op
%>

</body>
</html>

Example Code [C++]

The following code example shows how to work with the property methods of the IADs interface.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <activeds.h>
 
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
	IADs *pADs = NULL;
	IADsUser *pADsUser = NULL;
	IADsClass *pCls = NULL;
	CComBSTR sbstr;
 
	HRESULT hr = CoInitialize(NULL);
	if (hr != S_OK) { return 0; }
 
	hr=ADsGetObject(L"WinNT://Fabrikam/Administrator",
				IID_IADsUser,
				(void**) &pADsUser);
	if (hr != S_OK) { goto Cleanup; }
 
	hr = pADsUser->QueryInterface(IID_IADs, (void**) &pADs);
	if( hr !=S_OK) { goto Cleanup;}
 
	pADsUser->Release();
 
	if( S_OK == pADs->get_Name(&sbstr) ) {
		printf("Object Name: %S\n",sbstr);
}
 
	if( S_OK == pADs->get_ADsPath(&sbstr) ) {
		printf("Object path: %S\n",sbstr);
}
 
	if( S_OK == pADs->get_Class(&sbstr) ) {
		printf("Object class: %S\n",sbstr);
}
 
	hr = pADs->get_Schema(&sbstr);
	if ( hr != S_OK) {goto Cleanup;}
 
	hr = ADsGetObject(sbstr,IID_IADsClass, (void**)&pCls);
	if ( hr != S_OK) {goto Cleanup;}
	if( S_OK == pCls->get_Name(&sbstr) ) {
		printf("Class name is %S\n", sbstr);
}
 
 Cleanup:
	if(pADs)
		pADs->Release();

	if(pIADsUser)
		pADsUser->Release();

	if(IADsClass)
		pADsClass->Release();

	CoUninitialize();

	if(hr==S_OK)
	{
		return 1;
}
	else
	{
		return 0;
}
}

Requirements

Client: Included in Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional.
Server: Included in Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server.
Redistributable: Requires Active Directory Client Extension on Windows NT 4.0 SP6a and Windows 95/98/Me.
Header: Declared in Iads.h.