Active Directory via C#.Net 3.5

Before .Net managing Active Directory objects is a bit lengthy and you need a good knowledge on the principal store to have your head around on what you want to do.  We ususally use the System.DirectoryServices namespace but with .Net 3.5 they introduced System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement which is manages directory objects independent of the System.DirectoryServices namespace.

So what are the advantages of using this if I have already a library created for the whole AD Methods that System.DirectoryServices exposed?  Because everything is really simple in terms of managing a user, computer or group principal and performing queries on the stores are much faster thanks to the Fast Concurrent Bind (FSB) feature which caches the connection which decreases the number of ports used in the process.

I remember I had posted a while back Active Directory Objects and C# which is basically everything regarding AD Methods in terms of Users and Group management and if you see the codebase is a bit lengthy and you need a bit of understanding on setting and getting hex values thats why I ennumerated it.  Now I had rewritten it using the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace, fucntionalities remain the same but its easier to understand and there are fewer lines.|

The code is divided into several regions but here are the 5 key regions with their methods explained

Validate Methods

• ValidateCredentials – This Method will validate the users credentials.
• IsUserExpired – Checks if the User Account is Expired.
• IsUserExisiting – Checks if user exsists on AD.
• IsAccountLocked  – Checks if user account is locked

Search Methods

• GetUser – This will return a UserPrincipal Object if the User Exists

User Account Methods

• SetUserPassword – This Method will set the Users Password
• EnableUserAccount – This Method will Enable a User Account
• DisableUserAccount – This Methoid will Disable the User Account
• ExpireUserPassword – This Method will Force Expire a Users Password
• UnlockUserAccount – This Method will unlocks a User Account
• CreateNewUser – This Method will Create a new User Directory Object
• DeleteUser – This Method will Delete an AD User based on Username.

Group Methods

• CreateNewGroup – This Method will create a New Active Directory Group
• AddUserToGroup – This Method will add a User to a group
• RemoveUserFromGroup – This Method will remove a User from a Group
• IsUserGroupMember – This Method will Validate whether the User is a Memeber of a Group
• GetUserGroups – This Method will return an ArrayList of a User Group Memberships

Helper Methods

• GetPrincipalContext – Gets the base principal context

Now here are the codes

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Text;
using System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;

public class ADMethodsAccountManagement
{

#region Variables

private string sDomain = "test.com";
private string sDefaultOU = "OU=Test Users,OU=Test,DC=test,DC=com";
private string sDefaultRootOU = "DC=test,DC=com";
private string sServiceUser = @"ServiceUser";
private string sServicePassword = "ServicePassword";

#endregion
#region Validate Methods

/// <summary>
/// Validates the username and password of a given user
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sUserName">The username to validate</param>
/// <param name="sPassword">The password of the username to validate</param>
/// <returns>Returns True of user is valid</returns>
public bool ValidateCredentials(string sUserName, string sPassword)
{
    PrincipalContext oPrincipalContext = GetPrincipalContext();
    return oPrincipalContext.ValidateCredentials(sUserName, sPassword);

}

/// <summary>
/// Checks if the User Account is Expired
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sUserName">The username to check</param>
/// <returns>Returns true if Expired</returns>
public bool IsUserExpired(string sUserName)
{
    UserPrincipal oUserPrincipal = GetUser(sUserName);
    if (oUserPrincipal.AccountExpirationDate != null)
    {
        return false;
    }
    else
    {
        return true;
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Checks if user exsists on AD
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sUserName">The username to check</param>
/// <returns>Returns true if username Exists</returns>
public bool IsUserExisiting(string sUserName)
{
    if (GetUser(sUserName) == null)
    {
        return false;
    }
    else
    {
        return true;
    }
}

/// \<summary\>
/// Checks if user accoung is locked
/// \</summary\>
/// \<param name="sUserName"\>The username to check\</param\>
/// \<returns\>Retruns true of Account is locked\</returns\>
public bool IsAccountLocked(string sUserName)
{
    UserPrincipal oUserPrincipal = GetUser(sUserName);
    return oUserPrincipal.IsAccountLockedOut();
}
#endregion