python-ldap-dev

best way to make mods to entries

[Anil J. <an...@en...>]

Whats the recommend way to make modifications to an LDAP entry?

Right now I am using ldap.modify (MOD_ADD,  MOD_DELETE, or
MOD_REPLACE) but it seems cumbersome because there are multiple
possiblities for each modification depending on wether its a
multi-value attribute or single-value or required attribute or
optional attribute...

This is a rough code of what I am talking about:
# optional attr
if attribute not in newentry:
  MOD_DELETE
if new_attribute and old_attribute are diff:
  if old_attr is None:
     MOD_ADD
  else:
     MOD_REPLACE

# required attributes
....


It would be nice if there is a class available to simply pass in the
DN, and the *new* LDIF and it would be taken care of. I am just
looking through some documentation and I guess something like
ldif.LDIFWriter().

Unless I am missing something that is there already....

Thanks.

Re: best way to make mods to entries

[<mi...@st...>]

Anil Jangity wrote:
> Whats the recommend way to make modifications to an LDAP entry?

In general
1. you should do as many modifications in a single modify as possible
since a single modify operations is atomic.
2. you should try to avoid mods which need equality matching rules at
the server side for sorting out specific attribute values.

> Right now I am using ldap.modify (MOD_ADD,  MOD_DELETE, or
> MOD_REPLACE) but it seems cumbersome because there are multiple
> possiblities for each modification depending on wether its a
> multi-value attribute or single-value or required attribute or
> optional attribute...

Maybe the output of function ldap.modlist.modifyModlist() gives you some
ideas:

http://python-ldap.sourceforge.net/doc/python-ldap/module-ldap.modlist.html

> It would be nice if there is a class available to simply pass in the
> DN, and the *new* LDIF and it would be taken care of.

Not LDIF. ldap.modlist.modifyModlist() handles dictionaries.

> I am just
> looking through some documentation and I guess something like
> ldif.LDIFWriter().

It's fairly easy to glue ldif.LDIFReader() and
ldap.modlist.modifyModlist() together.

Ciao, Michael.