Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Active Directory Service

Article
11/18/2022

The Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) Provider allows ADO to connect to heterogeneous directory services through ADSI. This gives ADO applications read-only access to the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000 directory services, in addition to any LDAP-compliant directory service and Novell Directory Services. ADSI itself is based on a provider model, so that if there is a new provider giving access to another directory, the ADO application will be able to access it seamlessly. The ADSI provider is free-threaded and Unicode enabled.

Connection String Parameters

To connect to this provider, set the Provider argument of the ConnectionString property to the following:

ADSDSOObject

Reading the Provider property will return this string as well.

Typical Connection String

A typical connection string for this provider is as follows:

"Provider=ADSDSOObject;User ID=MyUserID;Password=MyPassword;"

The string consists of the following keywords.

Keyword	Description
Provider	Specifies the OLE DB Provider for Active Directory Service.
User ID	Specifies the user name. If this keyword is omitted, the current logon is used.
Password	Specifies the user password. If this keyword is omitted. Then the current logon is used.

Note

If you are connecting to a data source provider that supports Windows authentication, you should specify Trusted_Connection=yes or Integrated Security = SSPI instead of user ID and password information in the connection string.

Command Text

A four-part command text string is recognized by the provider in the following syntax:

"Root; Filter; Attributes[; Scope]"

Value	Description
Root	Indicates the ADsPath object from which to start the search (that is, the root of the search).
Filter	Indicates the search filter in the RFC 1960 format.
Attributes	Indicates a comma-delimited list of attributes to be returned.
Scope	Optional. A String that specifies the scope of the search. Can be one of the following: - Base - Search only the base object (root of the search). - OneLevel - Search only one level. - Subtree - Search the whole subtree.

For example:

"<LDAP://DC=ArcadiaBay,DC=COM>;(objectClass=*);sn, givenName; subtree"

The provider also supports SQL SELECT for command text. For example:

"SELECT title, telephoneNumber From 'LDAP://DC=Microsoft, DC=COM' WHERE   
objectClass='user' AND objectCategory='Person'"

Remarks

The provider does not accept stored procedure calls or simple table names (for example, the CommandType property will always be adCmdText). See the Active Directory Service Interfaces documentation for a more thorough description of the command text elements.

Recordset Behavior

The following tables list the features available on a Recordset object opened by using this provider. Only the static cursor type (adOpenStatic) is available.

For more information about Recordset behavior for your provider configuration, run the Supports method and enumerate the Properties collection of the Recordset to determine whether provider-specific dynamic properties are present.

Availability of standard ADO Recordset properties:

Property	Availability
AbsolutePage	read/write
AbsolutePosition	read/write
ActiveConnection	read-only
BOF	read-only
Bookmark	read/write
CacheSize	read/write
CursorLocation	always adUseServer
CursorType	always adOpenStatic
EditMode	always adEditNone
EOF	read-only
Filter	read/write
LockType	read/write
MarshalOptions	not available
MaxRecords	read/write
PageCount	read-only
PageSize	read/write
RecordCount	read-only
Source	read/write
State	read-only
Status	read-only

Availability of standard ADO Recordset methods:

Method	Available?
AddNew	No
Cancel	No
CancelBatch	No
CancelUpdate	No
Clone	Yes
Close	Yes
Delete	No
GetRows	Yes
Move	Yes
MoveFirst	Yes
MoveLast	Yes
MoveNext	Yes
MovePrevious	Yes
NextRecordset	Yes
Open	Yes
Requery	Yes
Resync	Yes
Supports	Yes
Update	No
UpdateBatch	No

For more information about ADSI and the specifics of the provider, refer to the Active Directory Service Interfaces documentation or visit the ADSI Web page.