javax.naming.directory.DirContext |
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The directory service interface, containing methods for examining and updating attributes associated with objects, and for searching the directory.
Most of the methods have overloaded versions with one taking a
Name
parameter and one taking a String
.
These overloaded versions are equivalent in that if
the Name
and String
parameters are just
different representations of the same name, then the overloaded
versions of the same methods behave the same.
In the method descriptions below, only one version is documented.
The second version instead has a link to the first: the same
documentation applies to both.
See Context for a discussion on the interpretation of the name argument to the Context methods. These same rules apply to the name argument to the DirContext methods.
The second model is that attributes are associated with a name (typically an atomic name) in a DirContext. In this model, an attribute operation on the named object is roughly equivalent to a lookup on the name of the parent DirContext of the named object, followed by the attribute operation invoked on the parent in which the caller supplies the terminal atomic name. The attributes can be viewed as being stored in the parent DirContext (again, this does not imply that the implementation must do so). Objects that are not DirContexts can have attributes, as long as their parents are DirContexts.
JNDI support both of these models. It is up to the individual service providers to decide where to "store" attributes. JNDI clients are safest when they do not make assumptions about whether an object's attributes are stored as part of the object, or stored within the parent object and associated with the object's name.
In attribute subclassing, attributes are defined in a class hierarchy. In some directories, for example, the "name" attribute might be the superclass of all name-related attributes, including "commonName" and "surName". Asking for the "name" attribute might return both the "commonName" and "surName" attributes.
With attribute type synonyms, a directory can assign multiple names to the same attribute. For example, "cn" and "commonName" might both refer to the same attribute. Asking for "cn" might return the "commonName" attribute.
Some directories support the language codes for attributes. Asking such a directory for the "description" attribute, for example, might return all of the following attributes:
Some directories have the notion of "operational attributes" which are attributes associated with a directory object for administrative purposes. An example of operational attributes is the access control list for an object.
In the getAttributes() and search() methods, you can specify that all attributes associated with the requested objects be returned by supply null as the list of attributes to return. The attributes returned do not include operational attributes. In order to retrieve operational attributes, you must name them explicitly.
There are certain methods in which the name must resolve to a context
(for example, when searching a single level context). The documentation
of such methods
use the term named context to describe their name parameter.
For these methods, if the named object is not a DirContext,
NotContextException
is thrown.
Aside from these methods, there is no requirement that the
named object be a DirContext.
An Attributes, SearchControls, or array object passed as a parameter to any method will not be modified by the service provider. The service provider may keep a reference to it for the duration of the operation, including any enumeration of the method's results and the processing of any referrals generated. The caller should not modify the object during this time. An Attributes object returned by any method is owned by the caller. The caller may subsequently modify it; the service provider will not.
All the methods in this interface can throw a NamingException or any of its subclasses. See NamingException and their subclasses for details on each exception.
Constants | |||||||||||
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int | ADD_ATTRIBUTE | This constant specifies to add an attribute with the specified values. | |||||||||
int | REMOVE_ATTRIBUTE | This constant specifies to delete the specified attribute values from the attribute. | |||||||||
int | REPLACE_ATTRIBUTE | This constant specifies to replace an attribute with specified values. |
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Inherited Constants | |||||||||||
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Public Methods | |||||||||||
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Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes.
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Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes.
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Creates and binds a new context, along with associated attributes.
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Creates and binds a new context, along with associated attributes.
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Retrieves selected attributes associated with a named object.
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Retrieves selected attributes associated with a named object.
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Retrieves all of the attributes associated with a named object.
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Retrieves all of the attributes associated with a named object.
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Retrieves the schema associated with the named object.
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Retrieves the schema associated with the named object.
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Retrieves a context containing the schema objects of the
named object's class definitions.
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Retrieves a context containing the schema objects of the
named object's class definitions.
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Modifies the attributes associated with a named object using
an ordered list of modifications.
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Modifies the attributes associated with a named object.
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Modifies the attributes associated with a named object using
an ordered list of modifications.
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Modifies the attributes associated with a named object.
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Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes,
overwriting any existing binding.
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Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes,
overwriting any existing binding.
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Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the
given search filter.
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Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the
given search filter.
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Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the
given search filter.
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Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes, and retrieves selected attributes.
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Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes.
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Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes, and retrieves selected attributes.
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Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes.
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Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the
given search filter.
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Inherited Methods | |||||||||||
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This constant specifies to add an attribute with the specified values.
If attribute does not exist,
create the attribute. The resulting attribute has a union of the
specified value set and the prior value set.
Adding an attribute with no value will throw
InvalidAttributeValueException
if the attribute must have
at least one value. For a single-valued attribute where that attribute
already exists, throws AttributeInUseException
.
If attempting to add more than one value to a single-valued attribute,
throws InvalidAttributeValueException
.
The value of this constant is 1.
This constant specifies to delete the specified attribute values from the attribute.
The resulting attribute has the set difference of its prior value set and the specified value set. If no values are specified, deletes the entire attribute. If the attribute does not exist, or if some or all members of the specified value set do not exist, this absence may be ignored and the operation succeeds, or a NamingException may be thrown to indicate the absence. Removal of the last value will remove the attribute if the attribute is required to have at least one value.
The value of this constant is 3.
This constant specifies to replace an attribute with specified values.
If attribute already exists,
replaces all existing values with new specified values. If the
attribute does not exist, creates it. If no value is specified,
deletes all the values of the attribute.
Removal of the last value will remove the attribute if the attribute
is required to have at least one value. If
attempting to add more than one value to a single-valued attribute,
throws InvalidAttributeValueException
.
The value of this constant is 2.
Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes.
See bind(Name, Object, Attributes)
for details.
name | the name to bind; may not be empty |
---|---|
obj | the object to bind; possibly null |
attrs | the attributes to associate with the binding |
NameAlreadyBoundException | if name is already bound |
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InvalidAttributesException | if some "mandatory" attributes of the binding are not supplied |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes. If attrs is null, the resulting binding will have the attributes associated with obj if obj is a DirContext, and no attributes otherwise. If attrs is non-null, the resulting binding will have attrs as its attributes; any attributes associated with obj are ignored.
name | the name to bind; may not be empty |
---|---|
obj | the object to bind; possibly null |
attrs | the attributes to associate with the binding |
NameAlreadyBoundException | if name is already bound |
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InvalidAttributesException | if some "mandatory" attributes of the binding are not supplied |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Creates and binds a new context, along with associated attributes.
See createSubcontext(Name, Attributes)
for details.
name | the name of the context to create; may not be empty |
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attrs | the attributes to associate with the newly created context |
NameAlreadyBoundException | if the name is already bound |
---|---|
InvalidAttributesException | if attrs does not
contain all the mandatory attributes required for creation |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Creates and binds a new context, along with associated attributes. This method creates a new subcontext with the given name, binds it in the target context (that named by all but terminal atomic component of the name), and associates the supplied attributes with the newly created object. All intermediate and target contexts must already exist. If attrs is null, this method is equivalent to Context.createSubcontext().
name | the name of the context to create; may not be empty |
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attrs | the attributes to associate with the newly created context |
NameAlreadyBoundException | if the name is already bound |
---|---|
InvalidAttributesException | if attrs does not
contain all the mandatory attributes required for creation |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Retrieves selected attributes associated with a named object.
See getAttributes(Name, String[])
for details.
name | The name of the object from which to retrieve attributes |
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attrIds | the identifiers of the attributes to retrieve. null indicates that all attributes should be retrieved; an empty array indicates that none should be retrieved. |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
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Retrieves selected attributes associated with a named object. See the class description regarding attribute models, attribute type names, and operational attributes.
If the object does not have an attribute specified, the directory will ignore the nonexistent attribute and return those requested attributes that the object does have.
A directory might return more attributes than was requested (see Attribute Type Names in the class description), but is not allowed to return arbitrary, unrelated attributes.
See also Operational Attributes in the class description.
name | the name of the object from which to retrieve attributes |
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attrIds | the identifiers of the attributes to retrieve. null indicates that all attributes should be retrieved; an empty array indicates that none should be retrieved. |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
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Retrieves all of the attributes associated with a named object.
See getAttributes(Name)
for details.
name | the name of the object from which to retrieve attributes |
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name
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
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Retrieves all of the attributes associated with a named object. See the class description regarding attribute models, attribute type names, and operational attributes.
name | the name of the object from which to retrieve attributes |
---|
name
.
Returns an empty attribute set if name has no attributes;
never null.NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
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Retrieves the schema associated with the named object.
See getSchema(Name)
for details.
name | the name of the object whose schema is to be retrieved |
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OperationNotSupportedException | if schema not supported |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Retrieves the schema associated with the named object. The schema describes rules regarding the structure of the namespace and the attributes stored within it. The schema specifies what types of objects can be added to the directory and where they can be added; what mandatory and optional attributes an object can have. The range of support for schemas is directory-specific.
This method returns the root of the schema information tree that is applicable to the named object. Several named objects (or even an entire directory) might share the same schema.
Issues such as structure and contents of the schema tree, permission to modify to the contents of the schema tree, and the effect of such modifications on the directory are dependent on the underlying directory.
name | the name of the object whose schema is to be retrieved |
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OperationNotSupportedException | if schema not supported |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Retrieves a context containing the schema objects of the named object's class definitions.
One category of information found in directory schemas is class definitions. An "object class" definition specifies the object's type and what attributes (mandatory and optional) the object must/can have. Note that the term "object class" being referred to here is in the directory sense rather than in the Java sense. For example, if the named object is a directory object of "Person" class, getSchemaClassDefinition() would return a DirContext representing the (directory's) object class definition of "Person".
The information that can be retrieved from an object class definition is directory-dependent.
Prior to JNDI 1.2, this method returned a single schema object representing the class definition of the named object. Since JNDI 1.2, this method returns a DirContext containing all of the named object's class definitions.
name | the name of the object whose object class definition is to be retrieved |
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OperationNotSupportedException | if schema not supported |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Retrieves a context containing the schema objects of the
named object's class definitions.
See getSchemaClassDefinition(Name)
for details.
name | the name of the object whose object class definition is to be retrieved |
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OperationNotSupportedException | if schema not supported |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Modifies the attributes associated with a named object using an ordered list of modifications. The modifications are performed in the order specified. Each modification specifies a modification operation code and an attribute on which to operate. Where possible, the modifications are performed atomically.
name | the name of the object whose attributes will be updated |
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mods | an ordered sequence of modifications to be performed; may not be null |
AttributeModificationException | if the modifications cannot be completed successfully |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Modifies the attributes associated with a named object. The order of the modifications is not specified. Where possible, the modifications are performed atomically.
name | the name of the object whose attributes will be updated |
---|---|
mod_op | the modification operation, one of:
ADD_ATTRIBUTE ,
REPLACE_ATTRIBUTE ,
REMOVE_ATTRIBUTE . |
attrs | the attributes to be used for the modification; may not be null |
AttributeModificationException | if the modification cannot be completed successfully |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Modifies the attributes associated with a named object using
an ordered list of modifications.
See modifyAttributes(Name, ModificationItem[])
for details.
name | the name of the object whose attributes will be updated |
---|---|
mods | an ordered sequence of modifications to be performed; may not be null |
AttributeModificationException | if the modifications cannot be completed successfully |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Modifies the attributes associated with a named object.
See modifyAttributes(Name, int, Attributes)
for details.
name | the name of the object whose attributes will be updated |
---|---|
mod_op | the modification operation, one of:
ADD_ATTRIBUTE ,
REPLACE_ATTRIBUTE ,
REMOVE_ATTRIBUTE . |
attrs | the attributes to be used for the modification; may not be null |
AttributeModificationException | if the modification cannot be completed successfully |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes, overwriting any existing binding. If attrs is null and obj is a DirContext, the attributes from obj are used. If attrs is null and obj is not a DirContext, any existing attributes associated with the object already bound in the directory remain unchanged. If attrs is non-null, any existing attributes associated with the object already bound in the directory are removed and attrs is associated with the named object. If obj is a DirContext and attrs is non-null, the attributes of obj are ignored.
name | the name to bind; may not be empty |
---|---|
obj | the object to bind; possibly null |
attrs | the attributes to associate with the binding |
InvalidAttributesException | if some "mandatory" attributes of the binding are not supplied |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Binds a name to an object, along with associated attributes,
overwriting any existing binding.
See rebind(Name, Object, Attributes)
for details.
name | the name to bind; may not be empty |
---|---|
obj | the object to bind; possibly null |
attrs | the attributes to associate with the binding |
InvalidAttributesException | if some "mandatory" attributes of the binding are not supplied |
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NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the given search filter. Performs the search as specified by the search controls.
The format and interpretation of filter
follows RFC 2254
with the
following interpretations for attr
and value
mentioned in the RFC.
attr
is the attribute's identifier.
value
is the string representation the attribute's value.
The translation of this string representation into the attribute's value
is directory-specific.
For the assertion "someCount=127", for example, attr
is "someCount" and value
is "127".
The provider determines, based on the attribute ID ("someCount")
(and possibly its schema), that the attribute's value is an integer.
It then parses the string "127" appropriately.
Any non-ASCII characters in the filter string should be represented by the appropriate Java (Unicode) characters, and not encoded as UTF-8 octets. Alternately, the "backslash-hexcode" notation described in RFC 2254 may be used.
If the directory does not support a string representation of
some or all of its attributes, the form of search
that
accepts filter arguments in the form of Objects can be used instead.
The service provider for such a directory would then translate
the filter arguments to its service-specific representation
for filter evaluation.
See search(Name, String, Object[], SearchControls)
.
RFC 2254 defines certain operators for the filter, including substring matches, equality, approximate match, greater than, less than. These operators are mapped to operators with corresponding semantics in the underlying directory. For example, for the equals operator, suppose the directory has a matching rule defining "equality" of the attributes in the filter. This rule would be used for checking equality of the attributes specified in the filter with the attributes of objects in the directory. Similarly, if the directory has a matching rule for ordering, this rule would be used for making "greater than" and "less than" comparisons.
Not all of the operators defined in RFC 2254 are applicable to all
attributes. When an operator is not applicable, the exception
InvalidSearchFilterException
is thrown.
The result is returned in an enumeration of SearchResults.
Each SearchResult contains the name of the object
and other information about the object (see SearchResult).
The name is either relative to the target context of the search
(which is named by the name
parameter), or
it is a URL string. If the target context is included in
the enumeration (as is possible when
cons
specifies a search scope of
SearchControls.OBJECT_SCOPE
or
SearchControls.SUBSTREE_SCOPE
), its name is the empty
string. The SearchResult may also contain attributes of the
matching object if the cons argument specified that attributes
be returned.
If the object does not have a requested attribute, that nonexistent attribute will be ignored. Those requested attributes that the object does have will be returned.
A directory might return more attributes than were requested (see Attribute Type Names in the class description) but is not allowed to return arbitrary, unrelated attributes.
See also Operational Attributes in the class description.
name | the name of the context or object to search |
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filter | the filter expression to use for the search; may not be null |
cons | the search controls that control the search. If null, the default search controls are used (equivalent to (new SearchControls())). |
InvalidSearchFilterException | if the search filter specified is not supported or understood by the underlying directory |
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InvalidSearchControlsException | if the search controls contain invalid settings |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the given search filter. Performs the search as specified by the search controls.
The interpretation of filterExpr
is based on RFC
2254. It may additionally contain variables of the form
{i}
-- where i
is an integer -- that
refer to objects in the filterArgs
array. The
interpretation of filterExpr
is otherwise
identical to that of the filter
parameter of the
method search(Name, String, SearchControls)
.
When a variable {i}
appears in a search filter, it
indicates that the filter argument filterArgs[i]
is to be used in that place. Such variables may be used
wherever an attr, value, or
matchingrule production appears in the filter grammar
of RFC 2254, section 4. When a string-valued filter argument
is substituted for a variable, the filter is interpreted as if
the string were given in place of the variable, with any
characters having special significance within filters (such as
'*'
) having been escaped according to the rules of
RFC 2254.
For directories that do not use a string representation for some or all of their attributes, the filter argument corresponding to an attribute value may be of a type other than String. Directories that support unstructured binary-valued attributes, for example, should accept byte arrays as filter arguments. The interpretation (if any) of filter arguments of any other type is determined by the service provider for that directory, which maps the filter operations onto operations with corresponding semantics in the underlying directory.
This method returns an enumeration of the results.
Each element in the enumeration contains the name of the object
and other information about the object (see SearchResult
).
The name is either relative to the target context of the search
(which is named by the name
parameter), or
it is a URL string. If the target context is included in
the enumeration (as is possible when
cons
specifies a search scope of
SearchControls.OBJECT_SCOPE
or
SearchControls.SUBSTREE_SCOPE
),
its name is the empty string.
The SearchResult may also contain attributes of the matching object if the cons argument specifies that attributes be returned.
If the object does not have a requested attribute, that nonexistent attribute will be ignored. Those requested attributes that the object does have will be returned.
A directory might return more attributes than were requested (see Attribute Type Names in the class description) but is not allowed to return arbitrary, unrelated attributes.
If a search filter with invalid variable substitutions is provided to this method, the result is undefined. When changes are made to this DirContext, the effect on enumerations returned by prior calls to this method is undefined.
See also Operational Attributes in the class description.
name | the name of the context or object to search |
---|---|
filterExpr | the filter expression to use for the search.
The expression may contain variables of the
form "{i} " where i
is a nonnegative integer. May not be null. |
filterArgs | the array of arguments to substitute for the variables
in filterExpr . The value of
filterArgs[i] will replace each
occurrence of "{i} ".
If null, equivalent to an empty array. |
cons | the search controls that control the search. If null, the default search controls are used (equivalent to (new SearchControls())). |
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException | if filterExpr contains
{i} expressions where i is outside
the bounds of the array filterArgs |
---|---|
InvalidSearchControlsException | if cons contains invalid settings |
InvalidSearchFilterException | if filterExpr with filterArgs represents an invalid search filter |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the
given search filter. Performs the search as specified by
the search controls.
See search(Name, String, Object[], SearchControls)
for details.
name | the name of the context or object to search |
---|---|
filterExpr | the filter expression to use for the search.
The expression may contain variables of the
form "{i} " where i
is a nonnegative integer. May not be null. |
filterArgs | the array of arguments to substitute for the variables
in filterExpr . The value of
filterArgs[i] will replace each
occurrence of "{i} ".
If null, equivalent to an empty array. |
cons | the search controls that control the search. If null, the default search controls are used (equivalent to (new SearchControls())). |
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException | if filterExpr contains
{i} expressions where i is outside
the bounds of the array filterArgs |
---|---|
InvalidSearchControlsException | if cons contains invalid settings |
InvalidSearchFilterException | if filterExpr with filterArgs represents an invalid search filter |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes, and retrieves selected attributes.
See search(Name, Attributes, String[])
for details.
name | the name of the context to search |
---|---|
matchingAttributes | the attributes to search for |
attributesToReturn | the attributes to return |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
---|
Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes.
This method returns all the attributes of such objects.
It is equivalent to supplying null as
the atributesToReturn parameter to the method
search(Name, Attributes, String[])
.
See search(Name, Attributes, String[])
for a full description.
name | the name of the context to search |
---|---|
matchingAttributes | the attributes to search for |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
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Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes, and retrieves selected attributes.
The search is performed using the default
SearchControls
settings.
For an object to be selected, each attribute in
matchingAttributes
must match some attribute of the
object. If matchingAttributes
is empty or
null, all objects in the target context are returned.
An attribute A1 in
matchingAttributes
is considered to match an
attribute A2 of an object if
A1 and A2 have the same
identifier, and each value of A1 is equal
to some value of A2. This implies that the
order of values is not significant, and that
A2 may contain "extra" values not found in
A1 without affecting the comparison. It
also implies that if A1 has no values, then
testing for a match is equivalent to testing for the presence
of an attribute A2 with the same
identifier.
The precise definition of "equality" used in comparing attribute values
is defined by the underlying directory service. It might use the
Object.equals
method, for example, or might use a schema
to specify a different equality operation.
For matching based on operations other than equality (such as
substring comparison) use the version of the search
method that takes a filter argument.
When changes are made to this DirContext, the effect on enumerations returned by prior calls to this method is undefined.
If the object does not have the attribute specified, the directory will ignore the nonexistent attribute and return the requested attributes that the object does have.
A directory might return more attributes than was requested (see Attribute Type Names in the class description), but is not allowed to return arbitrary, unrelated attributes.
See also Operational Attributes in the class description.
name | the name of the context to search |
---|---|
matchingAttributes | the attributes to search for. If empty or null, all objects in the target context are returned. |
attributesToReturn | the attributes to return. null indicates that all attributes are to be returned; an empty array indicates that none are to be returned. |
attributesToReturn
and the name of the corresponding object, named relative
to the context named by name
.NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
---|
Searches in a single context for objects that contain a
specified set of attributes.
See search(Name, Attributes)
for details.
name | the name of the context to search |
---|---|
matchingAttributes | the attributes to search for |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |
---|
Searches in the named context or object for entries that satisfy the
given search filter. Performs the search as specified by
the search controls.
See search(Name, String, SearchControls)
for details.
name | the name of the context or object to search |
---|---|
filter | the filter expression to use for the search; may not be null |
cons | the search controls that control the search. If null, the default search controls are used (equivalent to (new SearchControls())). |
InvalidSearchFilterException | if the search filter specified is not supported or understood by the underlying directory |
---|---|
InvalidSearchControlsException | if the search controls contain invalid settings |
NamingException | if a naming exception is encountered |