VB.NET - How to see if Current User's Group Name matches a specified Group Name using Active Directory Roles and SID's

Question

I'm trying to match up a specific group name and see if it exists for the currently logged in user using Active Directory roles. If the Group Name exists for the Current User, I want that group name to be displayed in a drop down list. Example: If current user is in BIG Group, display BIG in drop down list.

Problem: All I am getting is SIDs and I'm not able to get anything to match up to the group name and nothing will show up in the drop down list.

I also get the following Error:

         Error: Object variable or WIth block variable not set.

How do I fix this??

here is the code I am using:

Private Sub GetMarketingCompanies()

        ' code to populate marketing company drop down list based on the current logged in users active directory group that 
        ' corresponds to which marketing company they are in 

        Dim irc As IdentityReferenceCollection
        Dim ir As IdentityReference
        irc = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Groups
        Dim strGroupName As String

        For Each ir In irc
            ' Dim mktGroup As IdentityReference = ir.Translate(GetType(NTAccount))
            MsgBox(mktGroup.Value)
            Debug.WriteLine(mktGroup.Value)
            strGroupName = mktGroup.Value.ToString
        Next 

        For Each UserGroup In WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Groups
            If mktGroup.Value = "BIG" Then
                Dim Company = ac1.Cast(Of MarketingCompany).Where(Function(ac) ac.MarketingCompanyShort = "BIG").FirstOrDefault
                If Company IsNot Nothing Then
                    marketingCo.Items.Add(String.Format("{0} | {1}", Company.MarketingCompanyShort, Company.MarketingCompanyName))
                End If
            End If
        Next

Thanks for looking! Any helpful answers will be up-voted!

Answer 1

I ended up doing the following to fix the code:

• deleting the the For loop that calls UserGroup In WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Groups
• putting all the code under the For Each Loop that calls IdentityReference In IdentityReferenceCollection
• adding mcisloaded boolean variable to make the admin, not admin if statements work
• disabling MsgBox(mktGroup.Value) as this was just for trial and error to see what values were getting returned

Here's the code:

Private Sub GetMarketingCompanies()
    Try
        Dim ac1 As Array
        ac1 = proxy.GetMarketingCompanyNames("test", "test")

        ' code to populate marketing company drop down list based on the current logged in users active directory group that 
        ' corresponds to which marketing company they are in 

        Dim irc As IdentityReferenceCollection
        Dim ir As IdentityReference
        irc = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Groups
        Dim strGroupName As String
        Dim mcisloaded As Boolean

        ' Translate the current user's active directory groups 

        For Each ir In irc
            Dim mktGroup As IdentityReference = ir.Translate(GetType(NTAccount))
            ' MsgBox(mktGroup.Value)
            Debug.WriteLine(mktGroup.Value)
            strGroupName = mktGroup.Value.ToString

            ' If the user is in the admin group, load all marketing companies   
            If mktGroup.Value = "ALG\ACOMP_USER_ADMIN" Then
                mcisloaded = True
                For Each item In ac1
                    marketingCo.Items.Add(String.Format("{0} | {1}", item.MarketingCompanyShort, item.MarketingCompanyName))
                Next
            End If

            'If the user is not in the admin group, load marketing companies individually
            If Not mktGroup.Value = "ALG\ACOMP_USER_ADMIN" Then
                mcisloaded = False

                If mcisloaded = False Then

                    If mktGroup.Value = "ALG\ACOMP_USER_BIG" Then
                        Dim Company = ac1.Cast(Of MarketingCompany).Where(Function(ac) ac.MarketingCompanyShort = "BIG").FirstOrDefault
                        If Company IsNot Nothing Then
                            marketingCo.Items.Add(String.Format("{0} | {1}", Company.MarketingCompanyShort, Company.MarketingCompanyName))
                        End If
                    End If

                    If mktGroup.Value = "ALG\ACOMP_USER_AMG" Then
                        Dim Company = ac1.Cast(Of MarketingCompany).Where(Function(ac) ac.MarketingCompanyShort = "AMG").FirstOrDefault
                        If Company IsNot Nothing Then
                            marketingCo.Items.Add(String.Format("{0} | {1}", Company.MarketingCompanyShort, Company.MarketingCompanyName))
                        End If
                    End If

                    ' ... Code for loading the rest of the marketing groups 

                End If
            End If

Update 6-7-11: Here's a cleaner version of cycling through all the active directory group names by using a string splitter to get the last 3 letters that identifies the marketing company, instead of a series of if statements for each marketing company:

Private Sub GetMarketingCompanies()
    Try
        Dim marketingCompanyNamesArray As Array
        marketingCompanyNamesArray = proxy.GetMarketingCompanyNames("test", "test")

        ' code to populate marketing company drop down list based on the current logged in users active directory group that 
        ' corresponds to which marketing company they are in 

        Dim identityReferenceCollection As IdentityReferenceCollection
        Dim identityReference As IdentityReference
        identityReferenceCollection = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Groups
        Dim strGroupName As String
        Dim mcisloaded As Boolean

        ' Translate the current user's active directory groups 
        For Each identityReference In identityReferenceCollection
            Dim mktGroup As IdentityReference = identityReference.Translate(GetType(NTAccount))
            ' MsgBox(mktGroup.Value)
            ' Debug.WriteLine(mktGroup.Value) 
            strGroupName = mktGroup.Value.ToString

            ' Locally User group is ALG\ACOMP_USER_ADMIN , deployed ALGWEB\ACOMP_USER_ADMIN
            ' If the user is in the admin group, load all marketing companies   
            If mktGroup.Value = "ALG\ACOMP_USER_ADMIN" Then
                mcisloaded = True
                For Each item In marketingCompanyNamesArray
                    marketingCo.Items.Add(String.Format("{0} | {1}", item.MarketingCompanyShort, item.MarketingCompanyName))
                Next

            Else
                'If not admin user (mcisloaded = False) load each group individually if it appears in AD 
                ' For Each UserGroup In WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Groups that begins with ALG\ACOMP_USER, load marketing companies 

                Dim MarketingCompanyShortName As String = ""
                Dim mktGroupName As String = mktGroup.Value
                If mktGroupName.StartsWith("ALG\ACOMP_USER") Then
                    Dim marketingGroupNameParts() As String = Split(mktGroupName, "_")
                    'Load MarketingCompanyShortName from the end of marketingGroupNameParts - example: ACOMP_USER_BIG
                    MarketingCompanyShortName = marketingGroupNameParts(2)

                    'If MarketingCompanyShortName exists, load it into the dropdownlist 
                    Dim Company = marketingCompanyNamesArray.Cast(Of MarketingCompany).Where(Function(ac) ac.MarketingCompanyShort = MarketingCompanyShortName).FirstOrDefault
                    If Company IsNot Nothing Then
                        marketingCo.Items.Add(String.Format("{0} | {1}", Company.MarketingCompanyShort, Company.MarketingCompanyName))
                    End If

                End If
            End If 

Answer 2

I'm not sure what you are referring to by roles but the following will list the current users groups (both local and domain):

For Each ir As IdentityReference In WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent.Groups
    Debug.WriteLine(CType(ir.Translate(GetType(NTAccount)), NTAccount).Value)
Next

Answer 3

In response to your answer - Strikes me that if this is what you want to do the following is probably more efficient and easier to read:

Dim p As WindowsPrincipal = New WindowsPrincipal(WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent()) 
If p.IsInRole("ALG\ACOMP_USER_ADMIN") Then 
    'load all groups 
ElseIf p.IsInRole("ALG\ACOMP_USER_BIG") Then 
    'load BIG groups 
ElseIf p.IsInRole("ALG\ACOMP_USER_AMG") Then 
    'load AMG groups 
    'etc
End If