How can I read the Active Directory schema programmatically - active-directory

Question

I did some programming for reading the data from Active Directory such as user account or Orgnization info and so on. The code below is like something what I did.
DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(
"LDAP://CN=Users,DC=domain,DC=com",
null,
null,
AuthenticationTypes.Secure
);
DirectorySearcher search = new DirectorySearcher(entry);
using (SearchResultCollection src = search.FindAll())
{
foreach (SearchResult result in src)
{
Console.WriteLine(result.Properties["name"][0] + " : " +
result.Properties["department"][0]);
}
}
The problem is how can I know what properties that target objects have then I can use them to filter the data before get it all.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you have a DirectoryEntry, you can inspect its .SchemaEntry:
DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://......");
DirectoryEntry schema = entry.SchemaEntry;
This should - if you have the necessary permissions - give you access to the properties defined in the schema - things like MandatoryProperties or OptionalProperties:
foreach (var prop in schema.Properties.PropertyNames)
{
string propName = prop.ToString();
var propValue = schema.Properties[propName].Value;
}
Does that help you get started??
You might also want to have a look at BeaverTail - my C# open-source LDAP browser.
(source: mvps.org)
It will allow you to inspect any LDAP node and see all its properties.