javax.naming.ldap
Interface Control

All Superinterfaces:

Serializable

public interface Control

extends Serializable

This interface represents an LDAPv3 control as defined in RFC 2251.

The LDAPv3 protocol uses controls to send and receive additional data to affect the behavior of predefined operations. Controls can be sent along with any LDAP operation to the server. These are referred to as request controls. For example, a "sort" control can be sent with an LDAP search operation to request that the results be returned in a particular order. Solicited and unsolicited controls can also be returned with responses from the server. Such controls are referred to as response controls. For example, an LDAP server might define a special control to return change notifications.

This interface is used to represent both request and response controls.

Since:

1.3

See Also:

ControlFactory

Field Summary

static boolean	CRITICAL Indicates a critical control.
static boolean	NONCRITICAL Indicates a non-critical control.

Method Summary

byte[]	getEncodedValue() Retrieves the ASN.1 BER encoded value of the LDAP control.
String	getID() Retrieves the object identifier assigned for the LDAP control.
boolean	isCritical() Determines the criticality of the LDAP control.

Field Detail

CRITICAL

public static final boolean CRITICAL

Indicates a critical control. The value of this constant is true.

NONCRITICAL

public static final boolean NONCRITICAL

Indicates a non-critical control. The value of this constant is false.

Method Detail

getID

public String getID()

Retrieves the object identifier assigned for the LDAP control.

Returns:

The non-null object identifier string.

isCritical

public boolean isCritical()

Determines the criticality of the LDAP control. A critical control must not be ignored by the server. In other words, if the server receives a critical control that it does not support, regardless of whether the control makes sense for the operation, the operation will not be performed and an OperationNotSupportedException will be thrown.

Returns:

true if this control is critical; false otherwise.

getEncodedValue

public byte[] getEncodedValue()

Retrieves the ASN.1 BER encoded value of the LDAP control. The result is the raw BER bytes including the tag and length of the control's value. It does not include the controls OID or criticality. Null is returned if the value is absent.

Returns:

A possibly null byte array representing the ASN.1 BER encoded value of the LDAP control.