An ADsPath string for Microsoft's LDAP provider starts either with "LDAP: <>" or "LDAP://<>" where "<>" is an LDAP provider path.
An LDAP provider path is an ldap server name followed by zero or more component names separated with forward slashes in the ADsPath format. After the second component that identifies an ldap server, the remaining components can be listed in either a top-down or bottom-up hierarchy. Whichever way you first specify is carried through by ADSI ADsPath names. More information about the distinguished name notation used by LDAP-compliant directory services can be found at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1779.txt.
For example, the following list of ADsPath names are valid:
LDAP://ldapsvr/O=Internet/DC=COM/DC=MSFT/DC=DEV/CN=TopHat
LDAP://ldapsvr/CN=TopHat,DC=DEV,DC=MSFT,DC=COM,O=Internet
LDAP://MyDomain.microsoft.com/CN=TopHat,DC=DEV,DC=MSFT,DC=COM,O=Internet
LDAP://CN=TopHat,DC=DEV,DC=MSFT,DC=COM,O=Internet
Reserved characters for an ADsPath string in the LDAP provider include:
| Special Characters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Double quote | " | Delimiter of ADsPath. |
| Backward slash | \ | Escape character, used to precede special characters to signify they should be used as literals. |
| Comma, Forward slash Semicolon |
, / ; |
Separates component from class specifier in last component. |
| Equal | = | Joins a naming class specifier with a component, for example, "OU=Finance". |