Active Directory in ASP.NET Web Forms Application

Question

I notice there are several different namespaces/classes for accessing Active Directory. What are the differences between using the following ?

• System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement
• System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory
• System.Web.Security.ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider

Answer 1

The items under AccountManagement deal with working with various LDAP type data stores. Not just Active Directory, but NDS and WinNT as well. If you know your backing store is LDAP compliant or may switch between various LDAP stores then this is probably the best to use.

The ActiveDirectory namespace is specifically for AD. Usually you only care to use this if you are going to stay strictly within an AD environment.

The ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider has a slightly different focus. This is usually used by Web Apps as one of the membership providers. Other membership providers include the SqlMembershipProvider or even custom ones that you might create. This is used when your backing store might be AD, but could also be changed to use SQL server or some other random store in the future.

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In summary, it all boils down to how your app currently functions and how it might grow in the future. If you have a desktop app, then use the System.DirectoryServices namespace. If you have a web app that might be deployed into unknown environments, use the membership providers.

Note that I have used a combination of a SqlMembershipProvider and the System.DirectoryServices space together in some apps. Specifically to authenticate into an LDAP store (AD/NDS) while authorization stays in my app.