=head1 NAME

Net::LDAP::Entry - An LDAP entry object

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 use Net::LDAP;

 $ldap = Net::LDAP->new ( $host );
 $mesg = $ldap->search ( @search_args );

 my $max = $mesg->count;
 for ( $i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++ ) {
   my $entry = $mesg->entry ( $i );
   foreach my $attr ( $entry->attributes ) {
     print join( "\n ", $attr, $entry->get_value( $attr ) ), "\n";
   }
 }

 # or

 use Net::LDAP::Entry;

 $entry = Net::LDAP::Entry->new;

 $entry->dn($dn);

 $entry->add (
   attr1 => 'value1',
   attr2 => [ qw(value1 value2) ]
 );

 $entry->delete ( 'unwanted' );

 $entry->replace (
   attr1 => 'newvalue'
   attr2 => [ qw(new values) ]
 );

 $entry->update ( $ldap ); # update directory server

 $entry2 = $entry->clone; # copies entry

 # new alternate syntax

 $entry = Net::LDAP::Entry->new ( $dn
   , attr1 => 'value1'
   , attr2 => [ qw(value1 value2) ]
 )->add(
   attr3   => 'value'
 )->update( $ldap );




=head1 DESCRIPTION

The B<Net::LDAP::Entry> object represents a single entry in the
directory.  It is a container for attribute-value pairs.

A B<Net::LDAP::Entry> object can be used in two situations. The first
and probably most common use is in the result of a search to the
directory server.

The other is where a new object is created locally and then a single
command is sent to the directory server to add, modify or replace an
entry. Entries for this purpose can also be created by reading an LDIF
file with the L<Net::LDAP::LDIF> module.

=head1 CONSTRUCTORS

=over 4

=item new ( )

Create a new entry object with the changetype set to C<'add'>.
Optionally, you can provide a DN and a list of arguments passed to the
add method.

 Net::LDAP::Entry->new()

 # or
 Net::LDAP::Entry->new( $dn )

 # or
 Net::LDAP::Entry->new( $dn ,
  objectClass => [qw( top posixAccount )] , uid => 'admin'
 )


=item clone ( )

Returns a copy of the B<Net::LDAP::Entry> object.

=back

=head1 METHODS

=over 4

=item add ( ATTR =E<gt> VALUE, ... )

Add more attributes or values to the entry and returns the entry itself. Each
C<VALUE> should be a string if only a single value is wanted in the attribute,
or a reference to an array of strings if multiple values are wanted. The values
given will be added to the values which already exist for the given attributes.

 $entry->add ( 'sn' => 'Barr' );

 $entry->add ( 'street' => [ '1 some road','nowhere' ] );

B<NOTE>: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on
the directory server until the C<update> method is called. As C<add> returns the
entry, you can write something like.

 $entry->add ( 'sn' => 'Barr' )->update( $ldap );


=item attributes ( OPTIONS )

Return a list of attributes in this entry

=over 4

=item nooptions =E<gt> 1

Return a list of the attribute names excluding any options. For
example for the entry

  name: Graham Barr
  name;en-us: Bob
  jpeg;binary: **binary data**

then

  @values = $entry->attributes;
  print "default: @values\n";

  @values = $entry->attributes ( nooptions => 1 );
  print "nooptions: @values\n";

will output

  default: name name;en-us jpeg;binary
  nooptions: name jpeg

=back

=item changetype ( )

Returns the type of operation that would be performed when the update
method is called.

=item changetype ( TYPE )

Set the type of operation that will be performed when the update
method is called to C<TYPE>. Returns the entry itself.

Possible values for C<TYPE> are

=over 4

=item add

The update method will call the add method on the client object, which
will result in the entry being added to the directory server.

=item delete

The update method will call the delete method on the client object,
which will result in the entry being removed from the directory
server.

 $entry->delete->update( $ldap )

=item modify

The update method will call the modify method on the client object,
which will result in any changes that have been made locally being
made to the entry on the directory server.

=item moddn/modrdn

The update method will call the moddn method on the client object,
which will result in any DN changes that have been made locally being
made to the entry on the directory server. These DN changes are
specified by setting the entry attributes newrdn, deleteoldrdn, and
(optionally) newsuperior.

=back

=item delete ( )

Delete the entry from the server on the next call to C<update>.

=item delete ( ATTR =E<gt> [ VALUE, ... ], ... )

Delete the values of given attributes from the entry. Values are
references to arrays; passing a reference to an empty array is the
same as passing C<undef>, and will result in the entire attribute
being deleted. For example:

 $entry->delete ( 'mail' => [ 'foo.bar@example.com' ] );
 $entry->delete ( 'description' => [ ], 'streetAddress' => [ ] );

B<NOTE>: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on
the directory server until the C<update> method is called.

=item dn ( )

Get the DN of the entry.

=item dn ( DN )

Set the DN for the entry, and return the previous value.

B<NOTE>: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on
the directory server until the C<update> method is called.

=item ldif ( OPTION =E<gt> VALUE, ... )

Returns the entry as an LDIF string. Possible options are

=over

=item change =E<gt> VALUE

If given a true value then the LDIF will be generated as a change record.
If false, then the LDIF generated will represent the entry content. If
unspecified then it will default to true if the entry has changes and
false if no changes have been applied to the entry.

=back

=item dump ( [ FILEHANDLE ] )

Dump the entry to the given filehandle.

This method is intended for debugging purposes and does not
treat binary attributes specially.

See L<Net::LDAP::LDIF> on how to generate LDIF output.

If C<FILEHANDLE> is omitted C<STDOUT> is used by default.


=item exists ( ATTR )

Returns C<TRUE> if the entry has an attribute called C<ATTR>.

=item get_value ( ATTR, OPTIONS )

Get the values for the attribute C<ATTR>. In a list context returns
all values for the given attribute, or the empty list if the attribute
does not exist. In a scalar context returns the first value for the
attribute or undef if the attribute does not exist.

=over 4

=item alloptions =E<gt> 1

The result will be a hash reference. The keys of the hash will be the
options and the hash value will be the values for those attributes.
For example if an entry had:

 name: Graham Barr
 name;en-us: Bob

Then a get for attribute "name" with alloptions set to a true value

 $ref = $entry->get_value ( 'name', alloptions => 1 );

will return a hash reference that would be like

 {
   ''       => [ 'Graham Barr' ],
   ';en-us' => [ 'Bob' ]
 }

If alloptions is not set or is set to false only the attribute values
for the exactly matching name are returned.

=item asref =E<gt> 1

The result will be a reference to an array containing all the values
for the attribute, or C<undef> if the attribute does not exist.

 $scalar = $entry->get_value ( 'name' );

$scalar will be the first value for the C<name> attribute, or C<undef>
if the entry does not contain a C<name> attribute.

 $ref = $entry->get_value ( 'name', asref => 1 );

$ref will be a reference to an array, which will have all the values
for the C<name> attribute. If the entry does not have an attribute
called C<name> then $ref will be C<undef>.

=back

B<NOTE>: In the interest of performance the array references returned
by C<get_value> are references to structures held inside the entry
object. These values and their contents should B<NOT> be modified
directly.

=item replace ( ATTR =E<gt> VALUE, ... )

Similar to C<add>, except that the values given will replace any
values that already exist for the given attributes.

B<NOTE>: these changes are local to the client and will not appear on
the directory server until the C<update> method is called.

=item update ( CLIENT [, OPTIONS ] )

Update the directory server with any changes that have been made
locally to the attributes of this entry. This means any calls that
have been made to add, replace or delete since the last call to
changetype or update was made.

This method can also be used to modify the DN of the entry on the
server, by specifying moddn or modrdn as the changetype, and setting
the entry attributes newrdn, deleteoldrdn, and (optionally)
newsuperior.

C<CLIENT> is a C<Net::LDAP> object where the update will be sent to.

C<OPTIONS> may be options to the C<Net::LDAP> actions on CLIENT
corresponding to the entry's changetype.

The result will be an object of type L<Net::LDAP::Message> as returned
by the add, modify or delete method called on CLIENT.

Alternatively C<CLIENT> can also be a C<Net::LDAP::LDIF> object, that
must be an LDIF file opened for writing.

In this case, the entry, together with any C<OPTIONS> is passed as
arguments to the C<write_entry> method of the C<CLIENT> object.

Here too, the result is an object class C<Net::LDAP::Message>.
On error, the error code is C<LDAP_OTHER> with the LDIF error message
in the error text.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<Net::LDAP>,
L<Net::LDAP::LDIF>

=head1 AUTHOR

Graham Barr E<lt>gbarr@pobox.comE<gt>.

Please report any bugs, or post any suggestions, to the perl-ldap
mailing list E<lt>perl-ldap@perl.orgE<gt>.

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1997-2004 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.

=cut