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Novell eDirectory LDAP lookup using Visual Studio .Net 2003 VB.NET - InvalidCastException

What I am doing is using an LDAP lookup to query an individual group in eDirectory, then I'm setting their personal information as parameters for a stored procedure which then adds their information into a SQL Database. Everything works fine except for the LDAP photo property. So no need to worry about the LDAP piece. I'm getting a Cast from type 'Byte()' to type 'String' is not valid on the line I declare photo. As far as I can tell the LDAP is returning a Byte() which cannot be casted to a string. Is there a way around this. I just need to assign the result to a stored procedure parameter. My code is below and is part of the Page_Load event. A value for photo when the exception is being thrown is like this... /myFolder/Photos/OurPhotos/A_Fake_Folder/cn=XXX_ou=XXX_o=XX.jpg

Dim oDirEntry As System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry
Dim sUserPath As String

oDirEntry = New System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("LDAP://XXX.XXX.X.XXX/cn=XXX,ou=XXX,o=XXX")

SqlConnection1.Open()
For Each sUserPath In oDirEntry.Properties("member")
Dim oUserEntry As New System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("LDAP://XXX.XXX.X.XXX/" & sUserPath)
Dim firstName As String = CType(oUserEntry.Properties("givenName").Value, String)
Dim lastName As String = CType(oUserEntry.Properties("sn").Value, String)
Dim photo As String = CType(oUserEntry.Properties("photo").Value, String) <<<==== The problem is here

If firstName > "" And email > "" Then
SqlCommand1.Parameters("@FirstName").Value = firstName
SqlCommand1.Parameters("@LastName").Value = lastName
SqlCommand1.Parameters("@Photo").Value = photo

SqlCommand1.ExecuteNonQuery()
End If
Next
SqlConnection1.Close()
End If

williamwatkins

ASKER

Anyone have an idea??? If you need more information please let me know!

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

ihenry

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williamwatkins

ASKER

Yes, that is exactly what I was looking for. I have one small problem... Some of the values in eDirectory are null. So when I call on the fuction I'm getting an "Array cannot be null. Parameter name: bytes" error. I modified the fuction to not convert if the value passed in is null. I'm still getting the same error though. I'm missing something??? My code is below...

Thanks ihenry for the help so far. You knew exactly what I needed.

Public Function FromASCIIByteArray(ByVal characters As Byte()) As String
Dim encoding As New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding
If Not IsDBNull(characters) Then
Dim constructedString As String = encoding.GetString(characters)
Return constructedString
Else
Return ""
End If
End Function

ihenry

Use PropertyCollection.Contains method to check whether the DirectoryEntry object has the photo attribute.

Dim photo As String
If oUserEntry.Properties.Contains( "photo" ) Then
photo = FromASCIIByteArray( oUserEntry.Properties("photo") )
End If

Or modify the FromASCIIByteArray function to

Public Function FromASCIIByteArray(ByVal characters As Byte()) As String
If characters Is Nothing Then
Return ""
End If
Dim encoding As New System.Text.ASCIIEncoding
.....
.....
' continue here
End Function

williamwatkins

ASKER

Perfect! I used the PropertyCollection.Contains method, tweaked it a little bit, and got the results I wanted. Thanks again ihenry and great job!

ihenry

You're welcome. Please post .NET related question to .NET TA, you'd get better chances there.