Spring Ldap With Spring Boot | Spring Ldap

1. Introduction

Spring LDAP is a Spring framework extension that simplifies LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) access in Java applications. This tutorial will guide you through the steps to integrate Spring LDAP with Spring Boot, allowing you to easily manage LDAP operations such as authentication and user management.

2. Prerequisites

Before you start, ensure you have the following tools and technologies installed:

Java Development Kit (JDK) 8 or higher
Apache Maven
An IDE (Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, etc.)
Access to an LDAP server (e.g., OpenLDAP, Active Directory)

3. Setting Up Spring Boot Project

Create a new Spring Boot project using Spring Initializr. Include the following dependencies:

Spring Web
Spring LDAP
Spring Boot DevTools

Once your project is created, you will have a basic structure to work with.

4. Configuring LDAP Properties

In your application.properties file, add the following configurations to connect to your LDAP server:

application.properties

spring.ldap.urls=ldap://localhost:389
spring.ldap.base=dc=springframework,dc=org
spring.ldap.username=cn=admin,dc=springframework,dc=org
spring.ldap.password=admin

Make sure to replace the URLs, base DN, and credentials with those relevant to your LDAP server.

5. Creating Configuration Class

Create a configuration class to set up the LDAP context source and template. This class will handle the connection to the LDAP server.

LdapConfig.java

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.ldap.core.LdapTemplate;
import org.springframework.ldap.core.support.LdapContextSource;

@Configuration
public class LdapConfig {
    @Bean
    public LdapContextSource contextSource() {
        LdapContextSource contextSource = new LdapContextSource();
        contextSource.setUrl("ldap://localhost:389");
        contextSource.setBase("dc=springframework,dc=org");
        contextSource.setUserDn("cn=admin,dc=springframework,dc=org");
        contextSource.setPassword("admin");
        return contextSource;
    }

    @Bean
    public LdapTemplate ldapTemplate() {
        return new LdapTemplate(contextSource());
    }
}

6. Performing LDAP Operations

You can now use the LdapTemplate to perform various LDAP operations, such as searching for users or adding new entries. Below is an example of how to search for users in the LDAP directory.

UserService.java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.ldap.core.LdapTemplate;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;
import java.util.List;
import org.springframework.ldap.core.DirContextOperations;

@Service
public class UserService {
    @Autowired
    private LdapTemplate ldapTemplate;

    public List findAllUsers() {
        return ldapTemplate.search("ou=users", "(objectClass=inetOrgPerson)", (attributes, name) -> name.toString());
    }
}

7. Testing the Application

To test your application, you can create a simple REST controller that invokes the UserService to return a list of users.

UserController.java

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import java.util.List;

@RestController
public class UserController {
    @Autowired
    private UserService userService;

    @GetMapping("/users")
    public List getUsers() {
        return userService.findAllUsers();
    }
}

Run your application and navigate to http://localhost:8080/users to see the list of users from your LDAP directory.

8. Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to integrate Spring LDAP with Spring Boot. We covered the setup process, configuration, and basic LDAP operations. You can now expand on this foundation to create more complex applications that interact with an LDAP directory.

Spring LDAP with Spring Boot Tutorial