NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

        use Net::LDAP::Control;
        use Net::LDAP::Constant qw( LDAP_CONTROL_MANAGEDSAIT );

        my $req_ctrl1 = Net::LDAP::Control->new( type => LDAP_CONTROL_MANAGEDSAIT );
        my $req_ctrl2 = Net::LDAP::Control->new(
          type     => "1.2.3.4",
          value    => "help",
          critical => 0
        );

        $mesg = $ldap->search( @args, control => [ $req_ctrl1, $req_ctrl2 ]);

        my @res_ctrls = $mesg->control();

DESCRIPTION

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

       Controls provide a mechanism that allows one to extend the semantics and arguments of LDAP
       operations.  Controls may be attached to LDAP operations, and only affect the semantics of
       the operation they are attached to.

       Controls sent by clients are termed request controls, and are set using the "control"
       option of the respective LDAP operations.  Controls sent by servers are called response
       controls, they can be found using the "control()" method of the response message objects.

       Servers announce the controls they support in the attribute "supportedControls" in their
       RootDSE.

CONSTRUCTORS

       new ( ARGS )
           ARGS is a list of name/value pairs, valid arguments are:

           critical
               A Boolean 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 assumed.

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

               This may be omitted if the constructor is being called on a sub-class of
               Net::LDAP::Control which has registered to be associated with an OID.  If the
               constructor 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. Its 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
       available 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 constructors. 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 Net::LDAP 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

       Net::LDAP, Net::LDAP::RootDSE, Net::LDAP::Control::Assertion,
       Net::LDAP::Control::DontUseCopy, Net::LDAP::Control::EntryChange,
       Net::LDAP::Control::ManageDsaIT, Net::LDAP::Control::MatchedValues,
       Net::LDAP::Control::Paged, Net::LDAP::Control::PasswordPolicy,
       Net::LDAP::Control::PersistentSearch, Net::LDAP::Control::PostRead,
       Net::LDAP::Control::PreRead, Net::LDAP::Control::ProxyAuth, Net::LDAP::Control::Relax,
       Net::LDAP::Control::Sort, Net::LDAP::Control::SortResult, Net::LDAP::Control::SyncDone,
       Net::LDAP::Control::SyncRequest, Net::LDAP::Control::SyncState, Net::LDAP::Control::VLV,
       Net::LDAP::Control::VLVResponse

AUTHOR

       Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>

       Please report any bugs, or post any suggestions, to the perl-ldap mailing list
       <perl-ldap@perl.org>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1999-2004 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.