Plugin / Active Directory Employee Listing

Description

This plugin allows you to query an active directory server to retrieve an optionally filtered list of users and display it as a list within a WordPress site. Some of the features of this plugin include:

• Widget – a widget is provided, with a few filtering/formatting options, to allow you to display a user list in any widgetized area
• Shortcode – a shortcode is provided, with all of the plugin’s filtering/formatting options, to allow you to display a user list within any page or post
• Output builder – a full-featured output builder is provided, allowing you to completely customize the format in which each user is displayed within the list. The output builder even allows conditional (if…elseif…else) statements.
• Format options – in addition to the output builder (which is used for each individual user), the following formatting options are also available:
  • before_list – Any HTML code you would like to appear before the list of employees. This code is output before the opening title_wrap tag.
  • after_list – Any HTML code you would like to appear after the list of employees. This code is output after the closing list_wrap tag.
  • after_title – Any HTML code you would like to appear between the closing title_wrap tag and the opening list_wrap tag.
  • title_wrap – The HTML element you would like to use to wrap the list title (if set). Just the element name, please; no opening or closing brackets.
  • title_class – The CSS class you would like applied to the list title (if set). If you would prefer that no CSS class be applied to the title, leave this blank.
  • title_id – If you would like to apply an HTML ID to the list title, you can indicate that here. Remember that IDs should be unique, so, if you plan on using multiple employee lists on a single page, you should leave this blank.
  • title – The title you would like to appear at the top of the list. The title is output prior to the opening of the list itself.
  • list_wrap – The HTML element you would like to use to wrap the entire list. Just the element name, please; no opening or closing brackets.
  • list_class – The CSS class you would like to assign to the opening list_wrap tag, aiding in styling the entire list. If you would prefer that no CSS class be applied to the list, leave this blank.
  • list_id – If you would like to apply an HTML ID to the list itself, you can indicate that here. Remember that IDs should be unique, so, if you plan on using multiple employee lists on a single page, you should leave this blank.
  • item_wrap – The HTML element you would like to use to wrap each individual employee in the list. Just the element name, please; no opening or closing brackets.
  • item_class – The CSS class you would like to assign to each individual employee in the list. If you would prefer that no CSS class be applied to the list, leave this blank.
  • item_id – If you would like to apply an HTML ID to each individual employee in the list, you can indicate that here. You can use placeholder variables for user information (any of the fields that are set to be retrieved, plus the user’s username (samaccountname). Simply wrap the placeholder variable with percent symbols (so, to use a placeholder for samaccountname, use %samaccountname%) All disallowed characters (the @ symbol, dots, spaces, etc.) will be replaced with hyphens. Remember that IDs should be unique, so, if you plan on using multiple employee lists that may include the same employee multiple times on a single page, you should leave this blank. Likewise, you should use a placeholder variable that will be unique.
• Field chooser – choose which Active Directory fields to retrieve from the server (note that any fields included in the output builder must be chosen in the field chooser, otherwise they won’t be retrieved and, therefore, won’t be displayed)
• Single user display – feed a username to the shortcode or widget, and a single user will be retrieved and displayed, rather than a list of users
• Search form – a simple search form (the input keyword is searched against all fields being retrieved) is provided
• Multisite-compatible – Options can be set for the entire network, and can be overridden on each individual site within the network. Some options can even be overridden in the widget or shortcode itself.
• Information cache – Information retrieved by this plugin is cached for 24 hours after it is retrieved (this option is not currently configurable, but will probably be in future versions) in order to avoid hitting the AD server more than necessary.

You can connect to the Active Directory server using SSL and/or TLS, if desired. You can also provide multiple Active Directory server addresses to allow load-balancing (a random server is chosen from the list before connecting and querying).

Compatibility Note and Credits

This plugin currently utilizes version 3.3.2 (with some extended functionality built specifically for this plugin) of the adLDAP class from Scott Barnett & Richard Hyland. It has also been tested with version 3.1-Extended and version 3.3.2-Extended as they are included with various versions of the Active Directory Authentication Integration and Active Directory Integration plugins. This plugin is potentially incompatible (and has not been tested) with Active Directory Integration, though; as it all depends on in which order the adLDAP class is instantiated (if this plugin’s copy of adLDAP is included before that plugin’s version, that plugin may not work properly).

This plugin was developed by Curtiss Grymala for the University of Mary Washington. It is licensed under the GPL2, which basically means you can take it, break it and change it any way you want, as long as the original credit and license information remains somewhere in the package.

Important Note

At this time, this plugin has only been tested on a handful of WordPress installations (all on similar server configurations) with a single Active Directory server, so it is entirely possible that there will be bugs or errors that stop it (or other plugins) from working properly. In order to improve this plugin, please share any feedback you have.

To Do

• Implement pagination
• Provide a work-around for the PHP “paging” error
• Investigate allowing results to be filtered by multiple groups
• Investigate allowing results to be filtered by multiple usernames