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c#active-directorydirectoryservicesdirectoryentry

Convert Distinguished Name to Canonical Name

Using System.DirectoryServices (i.e. the DirectoryEntry class) is there a way to convert the DistinguishedName attribute to, or get the Canonical Name that would normally appear in the Active Directory Users & Computers snap-in? I realize I could do this using regular expressions, but I would prefer a more reliable approach.

For example, I want to convert this

CN=Murdock\, James,OU=Disabled Users,OU=GOG,DC=contoso,DC=local

to this

contoso.local/GOG/Disabled Users/Murdock, James

Solution

  • It's a constructed attribute. On a DirectoryEntry, you need to use RefreshCache:

    var de = new DirectoryEntry("CN=Murdock\, James,OU=Disabled Users,OU=GOG,DC=contoso,DC=local");
de.RefreshCache(new string[] {"canonicalName"});