CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpactive-directoryldap
Andre
Andre

Reputation: 4635

How do I set a LDAP Attribute to NULL

I am using the PHP LDAP library to access Microsofts Active Directory and I am looking for a clean way to empty single value attributes.

I am using ldap_modify (http://php.net/manual/de/function.ldap-modify.php) to update active directory contacts. Unfortunately, I receive a syntax error from the ldap library when I try to write an empty string (''). This happens when I try to override a single value contacts attribute while I do not have a new one.

Is there a clean way to delete ldap attributes with single values? My only solution right now is to write ' ' (single space), but I feel like this could cause other problems.

Cleaning up multi value attributes is simple by the way. LDAP does allow inserting empty arrays (array()).

Thanks a lot for your support.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3214

Answers (1)

Andre
Andre

Reputation: 4635

I found a good way to empty active directory attributes.

For both, multi value and single value attributes, submitting an empty array with ldap_modify does empty the attribute. 

$entry = array();
$entry["member"] = array();
ldap_modify($link, $dn, $entry);

Why I was confused in the first place: it is not allowed however to submit an empty array via ldap_add(). I used the same mapping function for both ldap_modify and ldap_add operations and I got errors tryping to submit empty attributes via ldap_add. This is not allowed.

Nice to know: it is allowed to submit an empty array via ldap_modify even if this attribute has been empty or not even set yet.

Upvotes: 6

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