Telephone Directory

Phone Directory for Active Directory

For those who do not want to read the article, immediately repository on github .

And the rest under the cut is waiting for an incoherent and meaningless story about how I came to such a life , with the help of node-webkit, wrote the application that I waited for the year .
Throughout my adult life as a sysadmin career, I have admired MS's Active Directory. And as soon as such an opportunity appeared, I implemented it at the enterprise where I work.
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And it started ... I began to integrate everything I reach, with AD. Proxy authentication, employee database for ACS, Anti-Virus, etc. And I did not have enough for the happiness of a telephone directory that would take all the data from the database AD. Already half a year I now and again torment Google on this topic, but the results are not comforting.

Basic requirements for such a directory:

1. separate portable application. Every time I bumped into a web-based directory I thought, “if I’ve already raised a server for this, I’ll make a full-fledged corporate portal there, and now I need only a small directory.
2. free
3. The simplest and most convenient to use. He always seemed to me just a table with sorting and searching

From the entire zoo of this software that I discovered, there are several types:

• Cumbersome : Any corporate portals jomportal , onlyoffice ...
• Paid : Basically, what you need from dovestones , from ithicos ...
• Having a fatal flaw : from gourami (dumb, did not start, also frimium), from dmtsoft (one of the best, about its shortcomings just below.), Or a thousand all kinds of VB scripts generating HTML file.

_{I saw once again a server version in php, although I did not find it when writing an article. It can be attributed to the 3rd group, as the server requirement for me is a disadvantage.}
Nothing foreshadowed troubles solving this problem, but the day before yesterday I found out about node-webkit !

The ability to write a desktop application in a familiar language - what could be better? My joy knew no bounds.
But here's the bad luck ... At home, a small child, constantly demanding attention, and at work suddenly work. Coding categorically once and nowhere.
But fate was favorable to me - the child decided to sleep on Sunday afternoon. My wife, apparently remembering my enthusiastic cries about how cool the node-webkit is, and having solved my secret desires, in response to the question “what do we do while the child sleeps?”

replied "okay ... go program already"

Episode 1: March to the prototype

So. I have 1.5 - 2 hours to master the new technology (even two, since I also did not know the nodejs) and write with its help software that for some reason none of the programmers have yet written .

First of all, I asked Google about the connection of nodejs with ActiveDirectory. He prompted two modules: node-activedirectory and ldapjs . Understand that what time was not, so the choice fell on the first.
Attempting to poke the second module led to the same result, but for more time. Mana smoking, kicking the familiar nodejs nickname and crazy luck still gave the result: for some reason, the superradmin domain is not authenticated, but the powerless juzverev created for the sake of the guest Internet has worked !

HOORAY

There is no time for the proceedings with the rights - we drove on.

1. git init
2. License
3. dirty debugging hack

    require('nw.gui').Window.get().showDevTools(); 

4. copy-paste old code

Voila

You can start creating magic ... But it's been almost an hour. A child can wake up at any moment. There is no time for magic - we take everything ready.
Fast googling gave a great script to work with the TinyTable table. I copy it all with an example to me.

Tadam

From the crib came the joyful cry.

Episode 2: Morning Coffee

At 6:50 am, I have about 20 minutes ...

1. We remove the address bar and call the window
   package.json

    "window": { "title": "Telephone Directory", "toolbar": false } 

2. Autofocus on the search field
   users2table

    $('#query').focus(); 

3. we add a department to the table, or rather, we pick up not just anything, but only the full name, phone, email, department
   Hidden text

    var ad = new ActiveDirectory(credentials.dn, credentials.dc, credentials.user, credentials.pass, {attributes: {user: [ 'cn', 'telephonenumber', 'mail', 'department']}}); 

    tablehtml+= '<td>'+user.department+'</td>' 

4. And open the window to full screen, so as not to sweat about the size
   Hidden text

    require('nw.gui').Window.get().maximize(); 

Already very well

But already half past seven and I have to run.

Episode 3: Directing the mafet

During lunch, I returned to the code again.
First of all, I added a feature that I was considering all the way to work - caching. For each time, waiting for the download (even if only a few seconds) looking at the empty window is annoying.

Fixed a couple of bugs, combed, added mailto links for emails ... In principle, everything.

READY!

Just lunch is over.
But this functionality already fully covers all my plans, so I stopped at this point for now.

Installation

1. put node-webkit
2. download release
3. place the file private.js
   content

    module.exports = { dn:"ldap://example.com" ,dc:"dc=example,dc=com" ,user:"user" ,pass:"pass" }; 

4. run

    path\to\nodewebkit\nw.exe path\to\telephone-directory 

Spread

1. Pack the telephone-directory in .zip
2. Rename the archive to .nw
3. Little magic

    copy /b path\to\nodewebkit\nw.exe+path\to\telephone-directory telephone-directory.exe 

4. Exit all other files from node-webkit except nw.exe to the directory with telephone-directory.exe

It should turn out like this:

All - you can upload to a network drive or distribute as you like

PS

The code was written in a hurry, so it does not shine with beauty. Many things can and should be improved. But without the help of the community, I can hardly do anything more than what is already there. For what already is - works and fully satisfies the requirements - and more is not needed.

Pps

The application is designed for an office with about 100 employees (like the one in which I work) . With less, AD is hardly used. And with more, some kind of code optimization may be required, but the building portal or something like that is probably already used.

PPPS

The code is 45 lines , so I am sure that even for system administrators who do not know JS, fitting the project to fit their needs is not difficult.