Connect to LDAP Objects in RapidMiner

This article shows how you can easily integrate the CData JDBC driver for LDAP into your processes in RapidMiner. This article uses the CData JDBC Driver for LDAP to transfer LDAP objects to a process in RapidMiner.

Connect to LDAP in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

You can follow the procedure below to establish a JDBC connection to LDAP:

1. Add a new database driver for LDAP: Click Connections -> Manage Database Drivers.
2. In the resulting wizard, click the Add button and enter a name for the connection.
3. Enter the prefix for the JDBC URL:

   jdbc:ldap:
   

4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.ldap.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class:

   cdata.jdbc.ldap.LDAPDriver
   

   👁 The JDBC driver configuration. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Create a new LDAP connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the LDAP driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

   To establish a connection, the following properties under the Authentication section must be provided:

   • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
   • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

   • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

     Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the LDAP JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.ldap.jar
   

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   A typical connection string is below:

   User=Domain\BobF;Password=bob123456;Server=10.0.1.1;Port=389;
   

10. Enter your username and password if necessary. 👁 The connection to the JDBC data source. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

You can now use your LDAP connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve LDAP objects, drag the Retrieve operator from the Operators view. 👁 A Retrieve operation to select data. (Salesforce is shown.)
With the Retrieve operator selected, you can then define which table to retrieve in the Parameters view by clicking the folder icon next to the "repository entry." In the resulting Repository Browser, you can expand your connection node to select the desired example set.

Finally, wire the output to the Retrieve process to a result, and run the process to see the LDAP objects.