References

For further information, see the following:

• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol specification
• The LDAP Application Program Interface specification

Obtaining a LDAP Component Library and Source Files

You can get a LDAP component library and the source files for the component library and the browser via the following links.

• Use the link LDAP component library to download this prepared .complib-file: LDAP_DataProviders_jdk1.5.complib.
• Get the source files by downloading the zip file Project_LDAPComponentLibrary_sources.zip.
• Get the browser source files from the zip file Project_LDAPBrowser_sources.zip.
  

Setting Up a Sample Application to Use LDAP Components

Start NetBeans IDE 6.0. Select main menu item Tools > Component Libraries and, in the dialog that opens, click the button Import...
In the Import Component Library dialog, click the button Browse... Then, in the file chooser select the stored file LDAP_DataProviders_jdk1.5.complib.

After you select the LDAP_DataProviders_jdk1.5.complib, the palette category LDAP Data Providers appears in the Import Component Library dialog. This palette category indicates the category within the Palette window where all LDAP components are placed. Click OK.

The Component Libraries dialog displays the structure of the LDAP component library. The Component List pane displays the components in the library. Click Close to continue.

Now, create a new Visual Web JSF project and call it LDAPSampleApp. Then, from the Projects window, right click the tree node Component Libraries and select Add Component Library... from the context menu.

In the Add Component Library dialog, select the list item LDAP Data Providers (1.0) and click the Add Component Library button.

The LDAP component library is added. In the Projects window, you should see a subnode LDAP Data Providers (1.0) within the Component Libraries node. Also, the Palette now includes the LDAP Data Providers category and its four LDAP components.

Now, drag and drop the component LDAP Connection on Page1 in the Design window. Although the Page1 display in the Design window remains empty, because all LDAP components are nonvisual, you can see a new subnode ldapConnection1 appears in the window Navigator under the node Page1.

Notice that the Properties windows displays two properties of ldapConnection1. The property url, which is the URL to an LDAP directory server, has to be defined correctly. By default, the value x500.bund.de is assigned to this property.

You will probably need to change the URL to the LDAP server. To change the LDAP server URL or port values, click the ellipsis button next to the property. This invokes the custom editor.

From the Palette, drag the component LDAP Search Query and drop it on Page1 in the Design window. Notice that a new subnode ldapQuery1 appears in the Navigator window beneath Page1. Click the subnode ldapQuery1 and examine its properties in the Properties window. The property connection must be set correctly. By default, it is assigned to an existing ldapConnection1. For the connection property, use the drop-down list to change its value.

You may need to set other properties for ldapQuery1. Click the ellipsis button to invoke the custom editor and define a value for the searchContext property. You can define the required search context by selecting an appropriate tree node. For example, if you choose the root tree node o=Bund,c=DE (the base Naming context always shows as o=Bund,c=DE), the search context will be o=Bund,c=DE.

Similarly, invoke the custom editor to define a value of the property resultAttributes. You can define the required set of result attributes by moving selected items from the Available attributes list to the Selected attributes list.

If you need to restrict data that is delivered by the query, you should assign an appropriate value to the property searchFilterExpression. To do so, you merely type an expression (for example, cn=B*) in the values column for this property. When you finish with these changes, the ldapQuery1 properties are as follows:

Now, drop the component LDAP Table DataProvider on Page1 in the Design window. The Navigator window displays a new subnode ldapTableDataProvider1 beneath Page1. Click the subnode ldapTableDataProvider1 and check its properties in the Properties window. The query property must be set to a correct value, which you choose from a drop-down list: At this point, the only value available is ldapQuery1.

Drop a Table component (found in the Palette window Basic category) on Page1. Right click the Table component and select Bind to Data... from the context menu. Using the drop-down list for the Get Data From field, change the value from defaultTableDataProvider to ldapTableDataProvider1.

The Selected list changes to display the names of LDAP query result attributes as names of table columns.

Running the Project

The NetBeans IDE 6.0 Standard and Full installers include the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 technology, which is a version of the Glassfish application server. You can deploy the project to this server in NetBeans IDE 6.0.
Click the Run > Run Main Project menu option or press the F6 key. When deployment of the application LDAPSampleApp finishes, the appropriate web page displays in a browser:

How It Works

You can see the library source code, or rebuild it, using the link Project_LDAPComponentLibrary_sources.zip">LDAP component library sources to download an appropriate .zip file. The zip file contains the LDAP component library project. Extract the project from the downloaded zip fileand open it using NetBeans IDE 6.0.

Most likely, you will see a message that this project has reference problems. (The project contains a reference to a designtime.jar file, but at this point the file cannot be found.) Close the warning dialog, and in the Projects window, right click the node LDAP Data Providers and select the Resolve Reference Problems... from the context menu.

In the Resolve Reference Problems dialog, click Resolve... and, in the file chooser, select the file <NetBeans_IDE-6.0_installation_dir>/visualweb1/modules/ext/designtime.jar.

After resolving the reference, build the project. The LDAP component library will be placed in the directory ldap_complib/complib/LDAP_DataProviders.complib.

Summary

Creating a NetBeans 6.0 Visual Web JSF project, which uses a JavaServer Faces component library for accessing a LDAP server, consists of the following steps:

1. Create a new project in the NetBeans 6.0 IDE.
2. Add a required JavaServer Faces component library to the project.
3. Add three nonvisual LDAP components to the project and properly customize their property values.
4. Put a visual JSF component Table on the page in the Design window, then bind the Table to an instance of LDAPTableDataProvider.
5. Deploy the project.

See Also

• Introduction to Developing Web Applications in NetBeans IDE
• Developing a Visual Web JSF Application
• Getting Started with Visual Web JSF Application Development
• NetBeans IDE 6.0 Tutorial for Web Applications
• Web Applications Learning Trail