LDAP/Active Directory Reader Parameters

About Database Connections

Database formats include a Database Connection parameter that defines and stores authentication information. For general information about sharing database connections, please see Using Database Connections. Using Database Connections.

Note that Database Connection parameters differ slightly, depending on context and/or database format.

Connection

From the Connection parameter in a database format, you can do one of the following:

  • Select an existing, previously defined connection. See the section Reusing a Database Connection in Using Database Connections
  • Select Add Database Connection to define a new connection. See database-specific parameters below, as well as the section Adding a Database Connection in a Workspace in Using Database Connections. The new connection can be made visible only to the current user, or can be shared among multiple users.

Connection Parameters

The IP/host of the LDAP server.

The port of the LDAP server.

Whether or not to use TLS/SSL connections over LDAP.

Enter the username and password to access the service.

The time, in seconds, after which to terminate a query to the database if it has not yet returned a result.

If set to 0, there is no timeout. The default is 30.

Note  If this value is not set high enough, then the query will return the error Provider Error - Timeout Expired.
  • Object Only: Read attributes of specified object(s).
  • Immediate Children Only: Read attributes of immediate children of specified object(s).
  • Object and All Children: Read attributes of specified object(s) and children at any depth.

Constraints

After you have specified the database connection, enter a path for the base DN that will be used for the Object Listing.

Example

Pretend you want to access an object called cn=Users, and this object is a child of dc=fme, which is a child of dc=internal.

The path to cn=Users can then be represented as dc=internal/dc=fme/cn=Users in the style of a file system.

However, the entries that make up a Distinguished Name in LDAP are reversed (so the parent of each object is to its right) and comma-separated – so the Distinguished Name for the cn=Users object would be cn=Users,dc=fme,dc=internal.

After you have specified the database connection, click the Browse button to select objects for import. A connection window appears while the system compiles an object list from the database. The immediate children of the Base Distinguished Name (DN) will be shown.

Once the object list appears, you can select one or more objects, and then click OK to dismiss the window. The object name(s) will appear in the Object List field in the parameter box.

Additional Attributes to Expose

Use this parameter to expose Format Attributes in FME Workbench when you create a workspace:

  • In a dynamic scenario, it means these attributes can be passed to the output dataset at runtime.
  • In a non-dynamic scenario, this parameter allows you to expose additional attributes on multiple feature types. Click the browse button to view the available format attributes (which are different for each format) for the reader.
 

Advanced

This parameter allows for the execution of SQL statements before opening a table for reading. For example, it may be necessary to create a temporary view before attempting to read from it.

For detailed information about SQL functions, click the corresponding menu item in the SQL to Run editor helpClosed.

Available menu options depend on the format.

Multiple SQL commands can be delimited by a character specified using the FME_SQL_DELIMITER directive, embedded at the beginning of the SQL block. The single character following this directive will be used to split the SQL block into SQL statements, which will then be sent to the database for execution. Note: Include a space before the character.

For example:

FME_SQL_DELIMITER ;
DELETE FROM instructors ;
DELETE FROM people
WHERE LastName='Doe' AND FirstName='John'

Multiple delimiters are not allowed and the delimiter character will be stripped before being sent to the database.

Any errors occurring during the execution of these SQL statements will normally terminate the reader or writer (depending on where the SQL statement is executed) with an error. If the specified statement is preceded by a hyphen (“-”), such errors are ignored.

This parameter allows for the execution of SQL statements after a set of tables has been read. For example, it may be necessary to clean up a temporary view after creating it.

For detailed information about SQL functions, click the corresponding menu item in the SQL to Run editor helpClosed.

Available menu options depend on the format.

Multiple SQL commands can be delimited by a character specified using the FME_SQL_DELIMITER directive, embedded at the beginning of the SQL block. The single character following this directive will be used to split the SQL block into SQL statements, which will then be sent to the database for execution. Note: Include a space before the character.

For example:

FME_SQL_DELIMITER ;
DELETE FROM instructors ;
DELETE FROM people
WHERE LastName='Doe' AND FirstName='John'

Multiple delimiters are not allowed and the delimiter character will be stripped before being sent to the database.

Any errors occurring during the execution of these SQL statements will normally terminate the reader or writer (depending on where the SQL statement is executed) with an error. If the specified statement is preceded by a hyphen (“-”), such errors are ignored.