NAME

Net::LDAP::Entry - An LDAP entry object

SYNOPSIS

use Net::LDAP;

$ldap = Net::LDAP->new ( $host );
$mesg = $ldap->search ( @search_args );

my $max = $mesg->count;
for ( $i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++ ) {
  my $entry = $mesg->entry ( $i );
  foreach my $attr ( $entry->attributes ) {
    print join( "\n ", $attr, $entry->get_value( $attr ) ), "\n";
  }
}

# or

use Net::LDAP::Entry;

$entry = Net::LDAP::Entry->new;

$entry->dn($dn);

$entry->add (
  attr1 => 'value1',
  attr2 => [ qw(value1 value2) ]
);

$entry->delete ( 'unwanted' );

$entry->replace (
  attr1 => 'newvalue'
  attr2 => [ qw(new values) ]
);

$entry->update ( $ldap ); # update directory server

$entry2 = $entry->clone; # copies entry

# new alternate syntax

$entry = Net::LDAP::Entry->new ( $dn 
  , attr1 => 'value1'
  , attr2 => [ qw(value1 value2) ]
)->add(
  attr3   => 'value'
)->update( $ldap );

DESCRIPTION

The Net::LDAP::Entry object represents a single entry in the directory. It is a container for attribute-value pairs.

A Net::LDAP::Entry object can be used in two situations. The first and probably most common use is in the result of a search to the directory server.

The other is where a new object is created locally and then a single command is sent to the directory server to add, modify or replace an entry. Entries for this purpose can also be created by reading an LDIF file with the Net::LDAP::LDIF module.

CONSTRUCTORS

new ( )

Create a new entry object with the changetype set to 'add'. Optionally, you can provide a DN and a list of arguments passed to the add method.

Net::LDAP::Entry->new()

# or 
Net::LDAP::Entry->new( $dn )

# or 
Net::LDAP::Entry->new( $dn ,
 objectClass => [qw( top posixAccount )] , uid => 'admin' 
)

clone ( )

Returns a copy of the Net::LDAP::Entry object.

METHODS

add ( ATTR => VALUE, ... )

Add more attributes or values to the entry and returns the entry itself. Each VALUE should be a string if only a single value is wanted in the attribute, or a reference to an array of strings if multiple values are wanted. The values given will be added to the values which already exist for the given attributes.

$entry->add ( 'sn' => 'Barr' );

$entry->add ( 'street' => [ '1 some road','nowhere' ] );

NOTE: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on the directory server until the update method is called. As add returns the entry, you can write something like.

$entry->add ( 'sn' => 'Barr' )->update( $ldap );

attributes ( OPTIONS )

Return a list of attributes in this entry

nooptions => 1

Return a list of the attribute names excluding any options. For example for the entry

name: Graham Barr
name;en-us: Bob
jpeg;binary: **binary data**

then

@values = $entry->attributes;
print "default: @values\n";

@values = $entry->attributes ( nooptions => 1 );
print "nooptions: @values\n";

will output

default: name name;en-us jpeg;binary
nooptions: name jpeg

changetype ( )

Returns the type of operation that would be performed when the update method is called.

changetype ( TYPE )

Set the type of operation that will be performed when the update method is called to TYPE. Returns the entry itself.

Possible values for TYPE are

add

The update method will call the add method on the client object, which will result in the entry being added to the directory server.

delete

The update method will call the delete method on the client object, which will result in the entry being removed from the directory server.

$entry->delete->update( $ldap )

modify

The update method will call the modify method on the client object, which will result in any changes that have been made locally being made to the entry on the directory server.

moddn/modrdn

The update method will call the moddn method on the client object, which will result in any DN changes that have been made locally being made to the entry on the directory server. These DN changes are specified by setting the entry attributes newrdn, deleteoldrdn, and (optionally) newsuperior.

delete ( )

Delete the entry from the server on the next call to update.

delete ( ATTR => [ VALUE, ... ], ... )

Delete the values of given attributes from the entry. Values are references to arrays; passing a reference to an empty array is the same as passing undef, and will result in the entire attribute being deleted. For example:

$entry->delete ( 'mail' => [ 'foo.bar@example.com' ] );
$entry->delete ( 'description' => [ ], 'streetAddress' => [ ] );

NOTE: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on the directory server until the update method is called.

dn ( )

Get the DN of the entry.

dn ( DN )

Set the DN for the entry, and return the previous value.

NOTE: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on the directory server until the update method is called.

ldif ( OPTION => VALUE, ... )

Returns the entry as an LDIF string. possible options

change => VALUE

If given a true value then the LDIF will be generated as a change record. If flase, then the LDIF generated will represent the entry content. If unspecified then it will fefault to true if the entry has changes and false if no changes have been applied to the entry.

dump ( [ FILEHANDLE ] )

Dump the entry to the given filehandle.

This method is intended for debugging purposes and does not treat binary attributes specially.

See Net::LDAP::LDIF on how to generate LDIF output.

If FILEHANDLE is omitted STDOUT is used by default.

exists ( ATTR )

Returns TRUE if the entry has an attribute called ATTR.

get_value ( ATTR, OPTIONS )

Get the values for the attribute ATTR. In a list context returns all values for the given attribute, or the empty list if the attribute does not exist. In a scalar context returns the first value for the attribute or undef if the attribute does not exist.

alloptions => 1

The result will be a hash reference. The keys of the hash will be the options and the hash value will be the values for those attributes. For example if an entry had:

name: Graham Barr
name;en-us: Bob

Then a get for attribute "name" with alloptions set to a true value

$ref = $entry->get_value ( 'name', alloptions => 1 );

will return a hash reference that would be like

{
  ''       => [ 'Graham Barr' ],
  ';en-us' => [ 'Bob' ]
}

If alloptions is not set or is set to false only the attribute values for the exactly matching name are returned.

asref => 1

The result will be a reference to an array containing all the values for the attribute, or undef if the attribute does not exist.

$scalar = $entry->get_value ( 'name' );

$scalar will be the first value for the name attribute, or undef if the entry does not contain a name attribute.

$ref = $entry->get_value ( 'name', asref => 1 );

$ref will be a reference to an array, which will have all the values for the name attribute. If the entry does not have an attribute called name then $ref will be undef.

NOTE: In the interest of performance the array references returned by get_value are references to structures held inside the entry object. These values and thier contents should NOT be modified directly.

replace ( ATTR => VALUE, ... )

Similar to add, except that the values given will replace any values that already exist for the given attributes.

NOTE: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on the directory server until the update method is called.

update ( CLIENT [, OPTIONS ] )

Update the directory server with any changes that have been made locally to the attributes of this entry. This means any calls that have been made to add, replace or delete since the last call to changetype or update was made.

This method can also be used to modify the DN of the entry on the server, by specifying moddn or modrdn as the changetype, and setting the entry attributes newrdn, deleteoldrdn, and (optionally) newsuperior.

CLIENT is a Net::LDAP object where the update will be sent to.

OPTIONS may be options to the Net::LDAP actions on CLIENT corresponding to the entry's changetype.

The result will be an object of type Net::LDAP::Message as returned by the add, modify or delete method called on CLIENT.

SEE ALSO

Net::LDAP, Net::LDAP::LDIF

AUTHOR

Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>.

Please report any bugs, or post any suggestions, to the perl-ldap mailing list <perl-ldap@perl.org>.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1997-2004 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.