Question

I’m looking at the DirectoryServices namespace and I’m trying to get a list of all groups in the AD and load them into a listbox.

When I select a group, I want it to fill a text box with the manager’s name as well another listbox with all users assigned to that group. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the process. Could someone help me out?

If I get a full example of this, I’m fairly sure that I’ll understand the bigger picture a lot better. TIA

Answer 1

If you’re running on .NET 3.5 or newer, you can use a PrincipalSearcher and a “query-by-example” principal to do your searching:

// create your domain context
PrincipalContext ctx = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain);

// define a "query-by-example" principal - here, we search for a GroupPrincipal 
GroupPrincipal qbeGroup = new GroupPrincipal(ctx);

// create your principal searcher passing in the QBE principal    
PrincipalSearcher srch = new PrincipalSearcher(qbeGroup);

// find all matches
foreach(var found in srch.FindAll())
{
     GroupPrincipal foundGroup = found as GroupPrincipal;

     if(foundGroup != null)
     {
        // do whatever you need to do, e.g. put name into a list of strings or something
     }
}

If you haven’t already – absolutely read the MSDN article Managing Directory Security Principals in the .NET Framework 3.5 which shows nicely how to make the best use of the new features in System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement

When you have a given group, you can easily get all its group members by using:

// find the group in question (or load it from e.g. your list)
GroupPrincipal group = GroupPrincipal.FindByIdentity(ctx, "YourGroupNameHere");

// if found....
if (group != null)
{
   // iterate over members
   foreach (Principal p in group.GetMembers())
   {
      Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", p.StructuralObjectClass, p.DisplayName);
      // do whatever you need to do to those members
   }
}