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Dissappointing state of LDAP support in Ruby
By Jesse Morgan | August 4, 2007
So I’ve been working on a new project called Ruma(more on it later), and I’m beginning to get frustrated with the LDAP support. So far I’ve found
* ruby/ldap, ruby-ldap, ldap-ruby by ian macdonald, last release 8/2006
* net-ldap, Net::LDAP by Francis Cianfrocca, last release 8/2006
* ruby-activeldap, ActiveLDAP-ruby by Will Drewry, last release 5/2007
ldap-ruby appears to be the frontrunner, but hasn’t been updated in a year- the forums appear to think it’s been abandoned. Net::LDAP appears to be a work in progress that isn’t quite complete. ActiveLDAP-ruby appears to be mainly for rails, so I don’t know how useful it is.
When you search for ruby ldap, you can any of those name combinations, and it’s impossible to figure out which is alive, which is stable, and which is useful. At this point I don’t think any of the projects meets all three criteria at the moment.
Topics: Development, Hobbies, Open Source |
August 5th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
ActiveLdap imitates ActiveRecord, and like ActiveRecord can be useful outside of Ruby on Rails. ActiveLdap depends for its LDAP interface, however, on either Ruby/LDAP or Net::LDAP.
Net::LDAP exists as a Rubyforge gem, which makes it easier to install. Ruby/LDAP must be compiled on systems where it isn’t available through a package manager, but I have had less trouble with ActiveLdap when using it.
August 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
I privately maintain a fairly significant fork of ActiveLDAP that seems to be compatible enough with how ActiveRecord works. I have talked to Will about merging it with mainline, but he’s never seemed too interested in taking patches. Perhaps I need to make my fork public and start taking patches. Anybody have ideas for a name?
August 8th, 2007 at 5:10 am
Here’s an idea - try one and see if it accomplishes what you need. I use net-ldap and it works just fine for me. They are all “alive”, btw. Watch the forums, not the release schedule. One year without a release doesn’t mean anything, especially if it’s already stable.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Net::LDAP has had unanswered posts in it’s forum since May.
ldap-ruby hasn’t had a post in it’s help forum since 2006, and none in it’s developer forum since 2002. At that point, strictly looking at the forums, it’s fair to ask if a project is fading.
I am currently trying one- ldap-ruby- and it’s not meeting my needs, hence this complaint. I’m currently talking to the lead dev of Net::LDAP and seeing what I can do to help.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
[~4 months later...]
Matthew King has it right regarding activeldap - it provides an orm for ldap data. You can use it as you like. Recent work has brought it more in line with rails, but originally it didn’t play to nicely
As to Joe’s comment, I’ve taken many patches over the years, but I’m not an active maintainer right now. I just roll releases for kou (who took over a while ago now). If you would like to get patches integrated, please send them over. We can see where they’ll fit. I’m pretty bad with my personal mail so I know I’ve dropped a few submissions on the floor. Feel free to email ruby-activeldap-discuss@rubyforge.org or file an issue on rubyforge.
As to new releases, 0.9.0 will probably be stamped out in a week or two.
cheers,
will