[python3-ldap] Feedback on aspects of python3-ldap's API

[python3ldap]

Hi Will,
I agree that the docs are not updated  and don't reflect the latest
features of the library. I'm going through a major rewriting of the
manual, hope to have a better version soon. I will try to simplify the
simple paged operation in the connection.search() as you suggest.

Regarding the abstraction layer I've included is a module I used in a
previous project. I know there are some filter combination that are
cannot be express with it, but it very simple to use. It is still only
a "reader" tool but can be easily extended to become a "writer" one. I
don't have any particular interest in maintaining it, so if you or
somebody else has a better idea I would be happy to work on it.

Bye,
Giovanni


2014-09-23 23:09 GMT+02:00 Will Yardley <python.org at veggiechinese.net>:
>> Anyway there are some convenience functions in the
>> ldap3.extend.standard namespace that act as you intend. In the case of
>>  "paged" searches you can get the result back directly in the search
>> operation that act as a generator (or an accumulator). For example you
>> can have:
>>
>> # simple paged search with generator - useful when returning a big dataset
>> for response in self.connection.extend.standard.paged_search('o=test',
>> '(cn=*)'):
>>             do_whatever_with(response)
>
> This seems much easier than, and preferable to, the first example in
> your documentation, which looks similar to the example for dealing with
> paged results in python-ldap.
>
> However, given how common search result limits are with the default
> configs of modern LDAP implementations, both AD and other systems like
> 389, I wonder if it wouldn't be easier (from the standpoint of
> end-users) to just have an option to the connection and / or the query
> that lets you set the # of max results per query, i.e.,, why not just
> let the user specify 'paged_size=1000' and let the code handle how to
> deal with that in a less exposed way. If it's set for the connection,
> the limit would apply to all searches, and if it's set for the search,
> it would apply to that search. That way, instead of having to call,
> e.g.,
>
> connection.extend.standard.paged_search('o=test', '(cn=*)', paged_size=1000)
> you can just call
> search('o=test', '(cn=*)', paged_size=1000)
>
> and then have the results presented in a data structure in the same way
> an unpaged search would be.
>
> I do think that feedback from people with more distance from the module,
> both ordinary users and developers of other modules, might be handy.
> While python-ldap has a lot of flaws IMHO, and I've long been surprised
> at some of the things it can't do natively, if something's going to
> replace it, I'd love to see it be something that is easy to use as well
> as powerful -- the ease of use and consistency of modules is one of the
> things that I think makes Python strong. And, while there might be some
> pain in changing interfaces or maintaining backwards compatibility now,
> it's nothing compared to what it will be once the project is more widely
> used.
>
> To me, imaplib and smtplib (while they do somewhat different types of
> things) are great examples of modules that are powerful, flexible, but
> also very easy to use for simple use-cases, and have a very logical
> interface. Someone with fairly little understanding of the protocol can
> configure them to receive / send mail with just a few configuration
> options (see,
> https://docs.python.org/2/library/imaplib.html#imap4-example). But in
> cases where you need to directly access a particular method to, for
> example, start a session and send RCPT TO, without actually sending a
> message, it's also very easy to deal with.
>
> And, as I've mentioned before, I think figuring out some more abstract
> way to represent search filters would be really great, though I will
> admit to not knowing exactly how such a layer would look. I don't find
> the current one very logical personally, and from what I understand,
> there are a few types of combinations that can't be represented using
> it.
>
> w
>
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