Creating a JDBC Data Source

You can create a JDBC data source to connect from your Java application. Creating a JDBC data source based on the CData JDBC Driver for LDAP consists of three basic steps:

• Add the driver JAR file to the classpath. The JAR file is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory. Note that the .lic file must be located in the same folder as the JAR file.
• Provide the driver class. For example:
  

  cdata.jdbc.ldap.LDAPDriver

• Provide the JDBC URL. For example:
  

  jdbc:ldap:user=MyUserName;password=MyPassword;Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;
  
  or
  
  jdbc:cdata:ldap:user=MyUserName;password=MyPassword;Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;

  The second format above can be used whenever there is a conflict in your application between drivers using the same URL format to ensure you are using the CData driver. The URL must start with either "jdbc:ldap:" or "jdbc:cdata:ldap:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

Connecting to LDAP

The CData driver for the LDAP supports connecting to LDAP server objects. To connect, set the required properties.

Required Properties

• Server: The domain name or IP of the LDAP server.
• Port: The port setting defaults to port=389. Specifying the port to a different setting is optional.
• BaseDN: This property is used for limiting results to specific subtrees. Specifying a narrow BaseDN (Base Distinguished Name) may greatly increase performance. For example, a value of cn=users,dc=domain only returns results contained within cn=users and its children.

Optional Properties

Optional properties can be used to further refine control of the returned results.

• FollowReferrals: This property follows referrals when TRUE. The returned response then becomes read only. To modify data returned by a referral server, open a new connection to the server by specifying server and port.
• Scope: This property enables more control over the search depth of the LDAP tree, starting with BaseDN. Limiting the Scope can greatly improve search performance. Set the Scope to one of the following values:
  • WholeSubtree: Limit the scope of the search to the BaseDN and all of its descendants.
  • SingleLevel: Limit the scope of the search to the BaseDN and its direct descendants.
  • BaseObject: Limit the scope of the search to the base object only.
• LDAPVersion: The LDAP version used to connect to and communicate with the server. Set this property to 2.

Authenticating to LDAP

To authenticate requests, set the User and Password properties to valid LDAP credentials. For example: set User to Domain\\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain.

The AuthMechanism properties for the driver are as follows:

• SIMPLE: The default plaintext value of the authentication mechanism to login to the server.
• DIGESTMD5: Authenticates to the LDAP server using DIGESTMD5 authentication.
• NEGOTIATE: Negotiates whether to use NTLN or Kerberos when authenticating to the server.

SSL Configuration

By default, the driver uses plaintext when communicating with the server set to port=389. The driver automatically switches to use SSL when talking to the LDAP on port=636. You can force the connection to use the SSL connection property when set to SSL=TRUE.

Customizing Tables

The driver surfaces the columns most often needed from LDAP entities. However, if you need to work with other data, the tables are easy to modify. Tables are defined in schema files, which have a simple format.

See Working with LDAP Tables for a guide to extending the default schemas or writing your own. To use custom schemas, set the Location property to the folder containing the schema files. For more on tables and views, see Data Model.