Active Directory Service Interfaces 2.5 - Extension

What's ADSI Extension?

An ADSI extension is a special COM object that allows developers to extend an ADSI object. Each extension is associated with a specified class in the directory. With this extension model, developers can give more dynamic meaning to an object by adding methods. In a traditional directory programming model, an object is accessed by setting and getting the object’s attributes. Using ADSI, you will be able to add semantics to an object in the directory.

How the extension methods are implemented is up to the extension writer. An extension writer may implement a method that is totally outside the scope of the directory. For example, he may use an ISV to backup and restore software plans to extend a computer object. The extension will create two method calls: BackUp and Restore. These methods will operate remotely on the physical computer that is pointed to by the computer object in the directory. By participating as an extension, the component automatically gains access to the ADSI infrastructure, and is viewed by ADSI clients as an integral part of the ADSI programming model.

For more information on ADSI extension, please see the documentation in the Platform SDK.

ADSI Extension Tutorials

This SDK comes with ADSI Extension Tutorials and tutorial source code. It also comes with a slideshow about how ADSI extension works.