Question

I’m working on a .NET application written in C# and WPF. In this application we will authenticate the users towards an Active Directory server. In the end we might want to support other LDAP implementations too, so if I can build this without being ActiveDirectory-specific that would be an advantage.

What’s the best approach to get started with this? Are there any good resources I should check out? I’ve heard there is a library in .NET for handling the communication with Active Directory – or is there a general LDAP library? Any advice is appreciated!

Note: I’m using .NET 3.5.

Answer 1

.NET 3.5 made this tremendously easier than it used to be by adding the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace. Unless you’re not on .NET 3.5, I’d go directly into this namespace. As usual, The Code Project has something up showing a lot of example uses.

Simplicity example, authenticating a user:

var pc = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, "MyDomain", "DC=MyDomain,DC=com");
return pc.ValidateCredentials(username, pass);