[RESOLVED] grab all users from active directory (directoryservices?)

[Big Red]

I'm creating a web application for in house using vb.net 2005. I have a list box that I want to populate with all the people in the company. I know that everyone is listed in active directory, so i was wondering if i could somehow grab all those names (possibly email addresses?) from active directory with my program and put them in the list box. Ideally I'd want to show the name and have the value be the email address. But the name is the important thing. Do I have to use directory services? I'm assuming so, but I have no clue how to do it. Can anyone show me how to do something like this? Thank you much! Let me know if more info is needed.
Amanda

[Negative0]

You need to add a reference to System.directoryservices to your app and then import System.DirectoryServices.

You will have to modify the domain string to match your domain:

        Dim domain As DirectoryEntry = New DirectoryEntry("LDAP://yourdomain.com/CN=Users,DC=yourdomain,DC=com")


        Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder()

        For Each User As DirectoryEntry In domain.Children

            Console.WriteLine(User.Name)
            sb.AppendLine(User.Properties("DisplayName").Value + " - " + User.Properties("mail").Value)
        Next

        MessageBox.Show(sb.ToString())

[Hack]

This looked pretty darn cool so I thought I would try it out.

This line

sb.AppendLine(User.Properties("DisplayName").Value + " - " + User.Properties("mail").Value)

gives me:

Option Strict On prohibits operands of type Object for operator '+'

Changing the + sign to the & sign gave me the same thing for that operator.

[Big Red]

When I do that, I'm getting things like:

System
BuiltIn
Computers
Domain Controllers
Infrastructure
Users
etc.

And then the mail and DisplayName is always nothing. So all I'm ending up with is a bunch of dashes. Any suggestions?

[Hack]

Big Red: Do you have Option Strict On?

If not, then that is why you got as far as you did. If you put it on, you should get the same error that I got.

[Big Red]

I'm not sure about Option Strict. I don't know how to set it. Is this actually a property of a web application or just projects/windows apps?

[Negative0]

This looked pretty darn cool so I thought I would try it out.

This line

sb.AppendLine(User.Properties("DisplayName").Value + " - " + User.Properties("mail").Value)

gives me:

Option Strict On prohibits operands of type Object for operator '+'

Changing the + sign to the & sign gave me the same thing for that operator.

Sorry about that, I program more in C# these days .

[Negative0]

When I do that, I'm getting things like:

System
BuiltIn
Computers
Domain Controllers
Infrastructure
Users
etc.

And then the mail and DisplayName is always nothing. So all I'm ending up with is a bunch of dashes. Any suggestions?

Did you include the "/CN=Users" in your LDAP string?

[Big Red]

It should've been in there, but here is actually my code that works. I found a way to do it:

cmbworkers.Items.Clear()

        Dim objsearch As DirectorySearcher = New DirectorySearcher()
        Dim strrootdse As String = objsearch.SearchRoot.Path
      
        Dim allusers As String
        Dim searchroot As New DirectoryEntry(strrootdse)
        Dim search As New DirectorySearcher(searchroot)

        'search.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user)(objectCategory=person)(showInAddressBook=*))" '---This is used if not using the if statement below checking if it's person
        search.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user)(showInAddressBook=*))"
        search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("mail")
        search.Sort.Direction = SortDirection.Ascending
        search.Sort.PropertyName = "mail"
        search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("DisplayName")
        search.PropertiesToLoad.Add("objectClass")

        Dim result As SearchResult
        Dim resultcol As SearchResultCollection = search.FindAll()

               For Each result In resultcol
            Try

                Dim newitem As New Web.UI.WebControls.ListItem
                If result.GetDirectoryEntry().Properties("objectClass").Item(1) = "person" Then
                    newitem.Text = result.GetDirectoryEntry().Properties("DisplayName").Value
                Else
                    newitem.Text = "[" & result.GetDirectoryEntry().Properties("DisplayName").Value & "]"
                End If
                newitem.Value = result.GetDirectoryEntry().Properties("mail").Value
                newitem.Text = result.GetDirectoryEntry().Properties("DisplayName").Value
                'newitem.Attributes.CssStyle.Item("font-size") = "20pt"
                cmbworkers.Items.Add(newitem)

                            Catch ex As Exception

            End Try
        Next

Although, I'm pretty sure your code worked too. Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it!!!