Net::LDAP::Control(3)

NAME
Net::LDAP::Control - LDAPv3 control object base class

SYNOPSIS
 use Net::LDAP::Control;
 use Net::LDAP::Constant qw( LDAP_CONTROL_MATCHEDVALS );
 $ctrl = Net::LDAP::Control->new(
   type     => "1.2.3.4",
   value    => "help",
   critical => 0
 );
 $mesg = $ldap->search( @args, control => [ $ctrl ]);
 $ctrl = Net::LDAP::Control->new( type => LDAP_CONTROL_MATCHEDVALS );

DESCRIPTION
"Net::LDAP::Control" is a base-class for LDAPv3 control objects.

CONSTRUCTORS

new ARGS
    ARGS is a list of name/value pairs, valid arguments are.

    critical
        A booloean value, if TRUE and the control is unrecognized by the server or is inappropriate for the requested operation then the server will return an error and the operation will not be performed.

        If FALSE and the control is unrecognized by the server or is inappropriate for the requested operation then the server will ignore the control and perform the requested operation as if the control was not given.

        If absent, FALSE is assume.

    type
        A dotted-decimal representation of an OBJECT IDENTIFIER which uniquely identifies the control. This prevents conflicts between control names.

        This may be ommitted if the contructor is being called on a sub-class of Net::LDAP::Control which has registered to be associated with an OID. If the contructor is being called on the Net::LDAP::Control package, then this argument must be given. If the given OID has been registered by a package, then the returned object will be of the type registered to handle that OID.

    value
        Optional information associated with the control. It's format is specific to the particular control.

from_asn ASN
    ASN is a HASH reference, normally extracted from a PDU. It will contain a "type" element and optionally "critical" and "value" elements. On return ASN will be blessed into a package. If "type" is a registered OID, then ASN will be blessed into the registered package, if not then ASN will be blessed into Net::LDAP::Control.

    This constructor is used internally by Net::LDAP and assumes that HASH passed contains a valid control. It should be used with caution.

METHODS
In addition to the methods listed below, each of the named parameters to "new" is also avaliable as a method. "type" will return the OID of the control object. "value" and "critical" are set/get methods and will return the current value for each attribute if called without arguments, but may also be called with arguments to set new values.

error
    If there has been an error returns a description of the error, otherwise it will return "undef"

init
    "init" will be called as the last step in both contructors. What it does will depend on the sub-class. It must always return the object.

register OID
    "register" is provided for sub-class implementors. It should be called as a class method on a sub-class of Net::LDAP::Control with the OID that the class will handle. Net::LDAP::Control will remember this class and OID pair and use it in the following situations.

    •   "new" is called as a class method on the Net::LDAP::Control package and OID is passed as the type. The returned object will be blessed into the package that registered the OID.

    •   "new" is called as a class method on a registered package and the "type" is not specified. The "type" will be set to the OID registered by that package.

    •   "from_asn" is called to construct an object from ASN. The returned object will be blessed into the package which was registered to handle the OID in the ASN.

to_asn
    Returns a structure suitable for passing to Convert::ASN1 for encoding. This method will be called by the Net::LDAP manpage when the control is used.

    The base class implementation of this method will call the "value" method without arguments to allow a sub-class to encode it's value. Sub-classes should not need to override this method.

valid
    Returns true if the object is valid and can be encoded. The default implementation for this method is to return TRUE if there is no error, but sub-classes may override that.

SEE ALSO
the Net::LDAP manpage

AUTHOR
Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>

Please report any bugs, or post any suggestions, to the perl-ldap mailing list <perl-ldap-dev@lists.sourceforge.net>

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1999-2000 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

$Id: Control.pm,v 1.6 2001/08/24 19:31:14 gbarr Exp $