Chapter 28. Getting Started with VB.NET and System.Directory Services
Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave in recent years, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Microsoft’s latest initiative, called .NET. At a low level, .NET is the basis for a new programming platform, including a completely new set of APIs to manage Microsoft-based products and develop Windows applications. Microsoft even released a new programming language in conjunction with .NET called C# (C-sharp). At a higher level, Microsoft has morphed the concept of .NET to the point where it is hard to define its true boundaries. Here is the definition provided on Microsoft’s website: “Microsoft .NET is a set of software technologies designed to connect your world of information, people, systems, and devices.”
As far as Active Directory goes, the impact of .NET has been pretty
minimal so far. Windows Server 2003 Active Directory was an
evolutionary step, not revolutionary. Perhaps the biggest
.NET-influenced change is with the new APIs called
System.DirectoryServices
that were developed for
Active Directory. In this chapter, we will discuss the
System.DirectoryServices
interfaces and cover
numerous examples for how they can be used to query and manipulate
data in Active Directory. Before getting into that, we first need to
talk a bit about the .NET Framework.
The .NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a new set of interfaces intended to replace the old Win32 and COM APIs. A couple of the major design goals for the .NET Framework were ...
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