Fedora directory users - Feb 2007 - Announce: Net-LDAPapi version 2.00 released

A new release of Net::LDAPapi module is now available for Perl via CPAN. 
This release includes compilation against OpenLDAP libraries from version 
2.1 forward.  It now supports LDAPv3, including SASL binds.

Support for the Netscape (now Mozilla) C SDK has been kept, but not tested. 
I welcome feedback on the usability with the Mozilla C SDK.

Many thanks to Howard Chu and Symas Corporation for the work done to 
realize LDAPv3 support with Net::LDAPapi.

Net::LDAPapi can be obtained from:

<http://search.cpan.org/~mishikal/Net-LDAPapi-2.00/>


For those who have never used Net::LDAPapi, it uses the C interface for its 
LDAP operations.  This means that it is much faster than the pure perl 
Net::LDAP module from the perl-ldap package.  However, it also relies on 
having the C libraries it was linked against available.

--Quanah

--
Quanah Gibson-Mount
Principal Software Developer
ITS/Shared Application Services
Stanford University
GnuPG Public Key: http://www.stanford.edu/~quanah/pgp.html

Quanah Gibson-Mount wrote:
> A new release of Net::LDAPapi module is now available for Perl via CPAN. 
> This release includes compilation against OpenLDAP libraries from 
> version 2.1 forward.  It now supports LDAPv3, including SASL binds.
Great, glad to see this finally making it back out to the world.
> Support for the Netscape (now Mozilla) C SDK has been kept, but not 
> tested. I welcome feedback on the usability with the Mozilla C SDK.
> 
> Many thanks to Howard Chu and Symas Corporation for the work done to 
> realize LDAPv3 support with Net::LDAPapi.
> 
> Net::LDAPapi can be obtained from:
> 
> <http://search.cpan.org/~mishikal/Net-LDAPapi-2.00/>
> 
> 
> For those who have never used Net::LDAPapi, it uses the C interface for 
> its LDAP operations.  This means that it is much faster than the pure 
> perl Net::LDAP module from the perl-ldap package.  However, it also 
> relies on having the C libraries it was linked against available.
We''ve observed a 100:1 speed difference between Net::LDAPapi and
Net::LDAP.
Usually people writing perl scripts don''t seem to take performance or 
efficiency into account, because they''re just coding up a "quickie
tool." But
it then evolves into something else, and eventually gets deployed into 
production. We''ve seen this happen over and over with perl-based web
login
scripts, where gradually the web server gets bogged down under its 
authentication load. Switching from Net::LDAP to Net::LDAPapi has helped a 
number of our customers get their systems back up on their feet.

-- 
   -- Howard Chu
   Chief Architect, Symas Corp.  http://www.symas.com
   Director, Highland Sun        http://highlandsun.com/hyc
   Chief Architect, OpenLDAP     http://www.openldap.org/project/

> From:  Quanah Gibson-Mount <quanah@stanford.edu>
> Date:  Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:24:52 -0800
>
> A new release of Net::LDAPapi module is now available for Perl via CPAN. 
> This release includes compilation against OpenLDAP libraries from version 
> 2.1 forward.  It now supports LDAPv3, including SASL binds.
I hate to sound critical, but...

Who''s responsible for the "object oriented" interface?  It
bugs me when a
package claims to have an OO interface, yet there''s no use of OO
concepts in
the interface.  It took me a while to convince myself that the values returned 
by first_entry and next_entry aren''t actually objects on which I would
then use
the get_values method.

I''d rather just use the non-OO interface since it wouldn''t
mislead me into
expecting OO behavior.  I assume that still works even though it''s no
longer
documented.  Do I just stick "ldap_" on the front of all the method
names?

Chris

-- 
Chris Garrigues                         Trinsic Solutions
President                               710-B West 14th Street
                                        Austin, TX  78701-1755

512-322-0180                            http://www.trinsics.com

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                 Your Proactive IT Management Partner

--On Friday, February 09, 2007 5:21 PM -0600 Chris Garrigues 
<cwg-dated-1171495262.257439@Trinsics.Com> wrote:
>> From:  Quanah Gibson-Mount <quanah@stanford.edu>
>> Date:  Fri, 09 Feb 2007 01:24:52 -0800
>>
>> A new release of Net::LDAPapi module is now available for Perl via
CPAN.
>> This release includes compilation against OpenLDAP libraries from
>> version  2.1 forward.  It now supports LDAPv3, including SASL binds.
>
> I hate to sound critical, but...
>
> Who''s responsible for the "object oriented" interface? 
It bugs me when a
> package claims to have an OO interface, yet there''s no use of OO
concepts
> in  the interface.  It took me a while to convince myself that the values
> returned  by first_entry and next_entry aren''t actually objects on
which
> I would then use  the get_values method.
The interface has not been particularly or heavily modified since it was 
last touched in 1998.  The initial 2.00 release is to get a version out 
that actually works with the modern LDAP api''s available, which the old
version flat out didn''t do.  As time allows, I will be going through
the
code and updating it to conform to current practices and procedures.

> I''d rather just use the non-OO interface since it
wouldn''t mislead me
> into  expecting OO behavior.  I assume that still works even though
it''s
> no longer  documented.  Do I just stick "ldap_" on the front of
all the
> method names?
I personally haven''t used it, but I''d assume so, given the
following
comment in the Changes file:

    - Added Perl-OO methods for virtually all API calls.  The C style
      API calls still work, and will work in all future versions.
      Note that I haven''t added named arguments yet, so argument order
      matters.  This should be in the next version.


--Quanah



--
Quanah Gibson-Mount
Principal Software Developer
ITS/Shared Application Services
Stanford University
GnuPG Public Key: http://www.stanford.edu/~quanah/pgp.html

Quanah,

I would love to be able to try this new perl module in our OpenLdap 
environment. Unfortunately, it does not have a StartTLS method.
Our server requires ''security tls=128'' for connections. Are
there
any plans to add such a method to the package?

We currently use the perlldap module which does have this capability
and it works well for us (albeit a little slow). A faster C SDK module
would be much appreciated here.

Thanks,

Jim Schultz

On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 01:24:52AM -0800, Quanah Gibson-Mount
wrote:
> A new release of Net::LDAPapi module is now available for Perl via CPAN. 
> This release includes compilation against OpenLDAP libraries from version 
> 2.1 forward.  It now supports LDAPv3, including SASL binds.
> 
> Support for the Netscape (now Mozilla) C SDK has been kept, but not tested.
> I welcome feedback on the usability with the Mozilla C SDK.
> 
> Many thanks to Howard Chu and Symas Corporation for the work done to 
> realize LDAPv3 support with Net::LDAPapi.
> 
> Net::LDAPapi can be obtained from:
> 
> <http://search.cpan.org/~mishikal/Net-LDAPapi-2.00/>
> 
> 
> For those who have never used Net::LDAPapi, it uses the C interface for its
> LDAP operations.  This means that it is much faster than the pure perl 
> Net::LDAP module from the perl-ldap package.  However, it also relies on 
> having the C libraries it was linked against available.
> 
> --Quanah
> 
> --
> Quanah Gibson-Mount
> Principal Software Developer
> ITS/Shared Application Services
> Stanford University
> GnuPG Public Key: http://www.stanford.edu/~quanah/pgp.html
-- 
Jim Schultz
ITS UNIX Systems Architecture
Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Co.
303-737-1818
email james.schultz@gwl.com