The CData ADO.NET Provider for Microsoft Active Directory implements two ADO.NET interfaces you can use to retrieve data from Microsoft Active Directory: ActiveDirectoryDataAdapter and ActiveDirectoryDataReader objects. Whereas ActiveDirectoryDataAdapter objects retrieve a single result set of all the data that matches a query, ActiveDirectoryDataReader objects fetch data in subset increments as needed.

Using the ActiveDirectoryDataAdapter

Use the adapter's Fill method to retrieve data from the data source. An empty DataTable instance is passed as an argument to the Fill method. When the method returns, the DataTable instance is populated with the queried data. Note that the ActiveDirectoryDataAdapter is slower than the ActiveDirectoryDataReader because the Fill method needs to retrieve all data from the data source before returning.

The following example selects the Id and CN columns of the User table:

C#

string connectionString = "User=MyUserName;Password=MyPassword;Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;BaseDN=MyDN;";

using (ActiveDirectoryConnection connection = new ActiveDirectoryConnection(connectionString)) {
  ActiveDirectoryDataAdapter dataAdapter = new ActiveDirectoryDataAdapter(
  "SELECT Id, CN FROM User", connection);

  DataTable table = new DataTable();
  dataAdapter.Fill(table);

  Console.WriteLine("Contents of User.");

  foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows) {
    Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", row["Id"], row["CN"]);
  }
}

VB.NET

Dim connectionString As String = "User=MyUserName;Password=MyPassword;Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;BaseDN=MyDN;"

Using connection As New ActiveDirectoryConnection(connectionString)
  Dim dataAdapter As New ActiveDirectoryDataAdapter("SELECT Id, CN FROM User", connection)

  Dim table As New DataTable()
  dataAdapter.Fill(table)

  Console.WriteLine("Contents of User.")

  For Each row As DataRow In table.Rows
    Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", row("Id"), row("CN"))
  Next
End Using