Article

This cool solution is useful for the LDAP Application developers who tend to use Novell's LDAP Libraries for C#, which is a C# implementation of the client side LDAP SDK. And this article will let the readers know how to use the Novell.Directory.Ldap..dll (which is the library that has the LDAP APIs defined as part of the SDK) on Windows and Linux.

Prerequisite:

1. You need to have the library Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll for setting up.
   Download the Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll file from 'Downloads' section of http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/LDAP_Libraries_for_C_sharp, if you don't have it.
2. You need to have Mono installed on Linux. Or if your OS is windows, you need to have Mono / Microsoft .Net installed.

On Linux:

1. Copy the library Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll to your customized project workspace.
2. Set MONO_PATH variable to point the directory containing Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll as follows (and to the directory having Mono.Security.dll, which will be installed as part of Mono, if use secured LDAP operations).
   

   Click to view.

3. In your project makefile set reference to Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll using /r:/home/proj/csharp/Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll (and /r:<path to the directory/Mono.Security.dll, if use secured LDAP operations)
4. Start writing your application including your LDAP Namespace as follows:
   Using Novell.Directory.Ldap;

On Windows (using .Net):

1. Copy the library Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll and the Mono.Security.dll (This library will be used in case your application needs secured operations to be done. And this will be part of Mono. If you do have Mono installed, get the library from http://www.mono-project.com) to your customized project workspace.
2. Start Visual Studio .NET. Select File -> New -> Project.
3. In the Project tab, select the appropriate type to create a C# project.
4. Select an appropriate project template in the template tab.
5. Enter the project name and click OK.
6. Select Project -> Add reference -> Browse.
   

   Click to view.

7. In Browse, select Novell.Directory.Ldap.dll and mono.security.dll from the location you copied in Step 1. And click OK to Add Reference.
8. Start writing your application including your LDAP Namespace as follows:
   Using Novell.Directory.Ldap;

For the further references on the details of API and usage, you can visit http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/LDAP_Libraries_for_C_sharp