After I started using :adapter => 'net_ldap' in ActiveLdap, my belongs_to associations all broke with when constructing a search filter with Net::LDAP

invalid filter syntax (Net::LDAP::LdapError)

The classes look something like this:

 class Person  'uid', :prefix => 'ou=people', 
       :classes => ['top', 'mozillaAddressBookEntry']
   belongs_to :family, :class => 'Family', 
      :foreign_key => 'dn', :primary_key => 'member'
 end
 
 class Family  'uid', :prefix => 'ou=families', 
       :classes => ['top','family', 'mozillaAddressBookEntry']
   has_many :people, :class => 'Person', 
      :wrap => 'member', :primary_key => 'dn'
 end
 

As I found out per this thread, Ruby Net::LDAP apparently can’t handle search filters with “=” or “,” characters, and doesn’t allow escaping with “\3D” or the like.

I switched back to the default Ruby/LDAP adapter, and the belongs_to associations work as expected.

Prior to version 0.8.2, ActiveLdap required Ruby/LDAP for its underlying connection. This posed an annoyance, if not a problem, as Ruby/LDAP does not exist as a gem. As of 0.8.2, ActiveLdap supports both Ruby/LDAP and the bona fide, gemified Net::LDAP.

The default connection is still Ruby/LDAP, however, and the official docs aren’t abundantly clear on how to make the connections with Net::LDAP. I couldn’t find an answer with Google until after I had puzzled it out myself and was about to write this post. Googling for the answer found for me this post to the ActiveLdap mailing list, which is mostly correct. The value for :adapter should be ‘net_ldap’, not ‘net-ldap’, according to the Constants list at the very bottom of the front page of the Rdocs for ActiveLdap.

Thus:

ActiveLdap::Base.establish_connection(
 :adapter => 'net_ldap',
 :host => 'localhost',
 :base => 'dc=mycooldomain,dc=com', 
 # doo wa doo shbop
 )