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Under the things that make you go wtf??? category…

by @ 3:49 pm on 8/12/2008. Filed under tech

How do you get [ADSI] as a shortcut for System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry()???? Seriously.

From MSDN

What is ADSI?

Active Directory Services Interfaces (ADSI) is a set of open interfaces that abstract the capabilities of directory services from different network providers to present a single view for accessing and managing network resources. Administrators and developers can use ADSI services to enumerate and manage resources in a directory service, no matter which network environment contains the resource. This can be an LDAP-based, NDS-based, or NTDS-based directory. It does not matter so long as a service provider is available for that directory service.

While there is a provider in ADSI to access AD, just because AD is in the name doesn’t mean ADSI is all about AD.  

I think something like SDSDE might have made a trifle more sense, or maybe DSDE, or DS.DE if you can put in periods.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

4 Responses to “Under the things that make you go wtf??? category…”

  1. Cause, System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry is a wrapper for ADSI 🙂

    Perhaps the problem is that System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry is incorrectly named 😛

  2. Andrew from Vancouver says:

    Righto. The “Active” is only there in the name to marry up with Microsoft branding at the time it was rolled out.

    I like the way Don Jones over at ScriptingAnswers said this in a Technet Magazine column:

    “ADSI stands for Active Directory® Services Interface. Despite the name, ADSI isn’t actually specific to Active Directory. A more accurate way to read the name would be “Active (pause) Directory Services Interface,” because ADSI can connect to a variety of directory services, including Windows NT®-style directories—not just Windows NT domains, mind you, but also to the local Security Accounts Manager (SAM) on standalone and member computers.”

    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc162323.aspx

  3. joe says:

    Brandon: What happens when the .NET folks stop using ADSI for the underpinnings and write actual code to do that work because people get sick of thunking down from PowerShell, to .NET, to ADSI, to the stuff that does the real work? They want to put an ADSI alias into PoS, then go straight to ADSI, if you are going to .NET stuff, name the alias after the .NET stuff.

    I have more I could say on this in other directions but I think the point is pretty clear that this was a silly alias name.

  4. I don’t Disagree… I was just being silly.

    I think just [AD] would have been find, or even [DC].

    [AD]”LDAP://corp.lab”
    or
    [DC]”LDAP://corp.lab”

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