How do I run a ldap query using R?

Question

I want to make a query against a LDAP directory of how employees are distributed in departments and groups...

Something like: \"Give me the department name of all th

Answer 1

I've written a function here to parse ldap output into a dataframe, and I used the examples provided as a reference for getting everything going.

I hope it helps someone!

library(RCurl)
library(gtools)

parseldap<-function(url, userpwd=NULL)
{
  ldapraw<-getURL(url, userpwd=userpwd)
  # seperate by two new lines
  ldapraw<-gsub("(DN: .*?)\n", "\\1\n\n", ldapraw)
  ldapsplit<-strsplit(ldapraw, "\n\n")
  ldapsplit<-unlist(ldapsplit)
  # init list and count
  mylist<-list()
  count<-0
  for (ldapline in ldapsplit) {
    # if this is the beginning of the entry
    if(grepl("^DN:", ldapline)) {
      count<-count+1
      # after the first 
      if(count == 2 ) {
        df<-data.frame(mylist)
        mylist<-list()
      }
      if(count > 2) {
        df<-smartbind(df, mylist)
        mylist<-list()
      }
      mylist["DN"] <-gsub("^DN: ", "", ldapline)
    } else {
      linesplit<-unlist(strsplit(ldapline, "\n"))
      if(length(linesplit) > 1) {
        for(line in linesplit) {
          linesplit2<-unlist(strsplit(line, "\t"))
          linesplit2<-unlist(strsplit(linesplit2[2], ": "))
          if(!is.null(unlist(mylist[linesplit2[1]]))) {
            x<-strsplit(unlist(mylist[linesplit2[1]]), "|", fixed=TRUE)

            x<-append(unlist(x), linesplit2[2])
            x<-paste(x, sep="", collapse="|")
            mylist[linesplit2[1]] <- x
          } else {
            mylist[linesplit2[1]] <- linesplit2[2]  
          }
        }
      } else {
        ldaplinesplit<-unlist(strsplit(ldapline, "\t"))
        ldaplinesplit<-unlist(strsplit(ldaplinesplit[2], ": "))
        mylist[ldaplinesplit[1]] <- ldaplinesplit[2]
      }

    }

  }
  if(count == 1 ) {
    df<-data.frame(mylist)
  } else {
    df<-smartbind(df, mylist)
  }
  return(df)
}