6.6. Working With Entry Attributes

When you get an entry object, chances are you want to handle attribute values as objects. The OpenDJ LDAP SDK provides the Entry.parseAttribute() method and an AttributeParser with methods for a variety of attribute value types. You can use these methods to get attribute values as objects. 

// Use Kirsten Vaughan's credentials and her entry.
String name = "uid=kvaughan,ou=People,dc=example,dc=com";
char[] password = "bribery".toCharArray();
connection.bind(name, password);

// Make sure we have a timestamp to play with.
updateEntry(connection, name, "description");

// Read Kirsten's entry.
final SearchResultEntry entry = connection.readEntry(name,
        "cn", "objectClass", "hasSubordinates", "numSubordinates",
        "isMemberOf", "modifyTimestamp");

// Get the entry DN and some attribute values as objects.
DN dn = entry.getName();

Set<String> cn = entry.parseAttribute("cn").asSetOfString("");
Set<AttributeDescription> objectClasses =
        entry.parseAttribute("objectClass").asSetOfAttributeDescription();
boolean hasChildren = entry.parseAttribute("hasSubordinates").asBoolean();
int numChildren = entry.parseAttribute("numSubordinates").asInteger(0);
Set<DN> groups = entry
        .parseAttribute("isMemberOf")
        .usingSchema(Schema.getDefaultSchema()).asSetOfDN();
Calendar timestamp = entry
        .parseAttribute("modifyTimestamp")
        .asGeneralizedTime().toCalendar();

// Do something with the objects.
// ...

For a complete example in context, see ParseAttributes.java, one of the OpenDJ LDAP SDK examples.