An ADSI Primer, Part 5: Using ADO to Script Fast ADSI Searches

Editor's note: This article is the fifth part of a 12-part series about Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI). The series started in the January 1999 issue. Refer to previous installments for definitions and background information.

Microsoft's ADO technology features fast algorithms that let you quickly scan for database objects that match certain criteria, conduct database searches, and retrieve the results of searches (i.e., result sets). These same fast algorithms also let you update the retrieved data and return it to the database. Because Microsoft created an ADO database connector for ADSI (i.e., the ADO OLE DB connector), you can use ADO's database query technology on valid ADSI providers, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and Novell Directory Services (NDS).

However, the ADO OLE DB connector is currently read-only, so many of the useful ADO methods for updating data aren't available. Until this situation changes, you can use ADO only for searching and retrieving. Despite the read-only limitation, using ADO technology is still a boon. Without it, you would have to recursively search a database for objects. . . .