CLR via C#, Second Edition

Windows Forms 2.0 Programming (2nd Edition) (Microsoft Net Development Series)

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics

Framework Design Guidelines : Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries (Microsoft Net Development Series)

Database Design

The .NET Developer's Guide to Directory Services Programming (Microsoft Net Development Series)

Format: Paperback
Author: Joe Kaplan
ReleaseDate: 08 May, 2006
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Rating:

definitive guide to .Net AD programming
Net, this is the book to get. If you're looking to write AD or ADAM code in . Joe and Ryan do a great job of covering this topic, balancing a light writing style with deep coverage of the material and practical advice about writing directory-enabled code in real-world environments. For me, the ideal technical reference is one that I can read cover-to-cover as well as jump to a particular topic as-need to get immediate help. This book serves both those needs extremely well; easily one of the best programming references I've read in a while and literally the only decent source for practical System. DirectoryServices advice.

many useful code examples
NET Framework. Active Directory is an important offering by Microsoft, primarily for use within its . What Kaplan and Dunn suggest here is that the programmer-level documentation for Active Directory being furnished by Microsoft is somewhat awkward to use and understand. So this book is offered. The context is how to code LDAP in the namespace of System. DirectoryServices.

The code examples are from both . NET 1. 1 and . NET 2. 0. Though the reader should probably migrate to 2. 0 anyway, as this is significantly improved over 1. 1. Also, the examples are given in C#. If you are an experienced VB coder, you should still be able to easily follow the C# logic. The code examples are brief enough to enable that, and C# is a very clean language, notationally.

Part 2 of the book is probably the key section for most readers. You might be trying to integrate a corporate-wide directory with other applications. Perhaps to authorise those applications, depending on a valid user, as given by Active Directory, say. So Part 2 delves heavily into user and group management. For the latter, its definition and populating it with users is shown to be straightforward. From which you can build higher level logic.

Excellent coverage of a difficult, poorly documented topic
NET and ASP. This book is for all of you who need to write Active Directory based programs for .NET.

The voice of bitter experience: As anyone who has tried to learn how to program against Active Directory or ADAM knows, the on-line information at MSDN is extraordinarily confusing, not least because Microsoft has introduced several different technologies to access Active Directory--Native LDAP, System. DirectoryServices, System. DirectoryServices. ActiveDirectory, System. DirectoryServices. Protocols, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), ADSI, and the Net* and Ds* APIs. MSDN's sample code, once you get beyond the basics, is mostly written in C++ and/or VB script. Trust me, you don't want to go there without a knowledgeable mentor at your side. This book can be your guide.

Both of the authors have a welcome presence on Active Directory forums and in the blogosphere. They are well-known as the go-to guys for Active Directory questions. The book reflects their practical experience responding to programmers' reasonable but difficult questions, such as "What's the best way to determine a user's effective group memberships, taking group nesting into account". I couldn't find this answer on MSDN.

The book's first two chapters sort out the confusion about the many layers of Active directory programming in lucid, well-organized prose.

Then, chapter-by-chapter, the book explains how to do just about anything a sane . NET programmer would want to do: CRUD operations, searching, schema, user and group management, authentication, and COM interop. Each sub-topic is succinct, explains advantages and disadvantages of various techniques, and contains code snippets that are valuable and easy to drop into your own code.

The book is not padded with copy-and-paste material from MSDN. Nor is the book cast in the form of a sample application--my own pet peeve of how to hide useful information. The material is original and directly useful. The technique chapters are reasonably stand-alone. You don't have to read all that has gone before to get your question answered.

The authors have a website for the book that contains downloadable code and a few free utilities. [. . . ]
Pros and cons:
1) If you are a sysadmin this probably isn't for you. The book is addressed strictly to programmers.
2) All of the examples are in C#. VB code is promised on the website but it's not there as of this writing. In any event, the Active Directory code examples are really agnostic under the . NET CLR. It should be easy enough for a programmer at the level of this book's intended audience to make the C# to VB translation.
3) There are some typos in the printed examples. The ones I have noticed are corrected in the on-line code.
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