getting info from DirectoryOperationException in C#

Question

We have a C# project, which interacts with Active Directory services.

For the context : we use objects from the System.DirectoryServices.Protocols namespace, namely :

• LdapConnection to connect to the server
• SearchRequest to scan through entries
• DirSyncRequestControl to use DirSync capabilities on the SearchRequest

We got stuck for some time on understanding an error which triggered a DirectoryOperationException, before realizing the description of the error what not included in the exception.Message , but was nested further down in the exception object.

We used to have a very simple exception logging when catching such an error :

catch (DirectoryOperationError de) {
    log("ERROR directory error {0} : {1}", de.GetType(), de.Message);
    throw;
}

We now have the following code :

catch (DirectoryOperationException de)
{
    log("ERROR directory error {0} : {1}", de.GetType(), de.Message);

    var resp = de.Response;
    if (resp == null)
    {
        log("          -- no response object linked to exception --");
        throw;
    }

    log("ERROR     directoryresponse error message:'{0}'", resp.ErrorMessage);

    int errorCode;
    var hexCode = resp.ErrorMessage.Substring(0, 8);
    if (!int.TryParse(hexCode, System.Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber, null, out errorCode)){
        log("          -- could not figure out error code from '{0}' --", hexCode);
        throw;
    }

    var win32exception = new System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception(errorCode);
    var msg = win32exception.Message;

    log("ERROR     errcode:{0} : {1}", errorCode, msg);

    throw;
}

which ranks pretty high on my "hocus pocus" scale (especially the part where we rely on the string message beginning by an 8 char long hex integer).

Question

Is there a more direct way to access the underlying LDAPError and translate it into a meaningful message using C# ?

Answer 1

Is there a reason for using Directory Services? Can you make folder shared and use code like below?

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Linq;
using System.IO;

namespace SAveDirectoriesXml
{
    class Program
    {
        const string FILENAME = @"c:\temp\test.xml";
        const string FOLDER = @"c:\temp";
        static XmlWriter writer = null;
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
            settings.Indent = true;

            writer = XmlWriter.Create(FILENAME, settings);
            writer.WriteStartDocument(true);

            DirectoryInfo info = new DirectoryInfo(FOLDER);
            WriteTree(info);

            writer.WriteEndDocument();
            writer.Flush();
            writer.Close();
            Console.WriteLine("Enter Return");
            Console.ReadLine();

        }
        static long WriteTree(DirectoryInfo info)
        {
            long size = 0;
            writer.WriteStartElement("Folder");
            try
            {
                writer.WriteAttributeString("name", info.Name);
                writer.WriteAttributeString("numberSubFolders", info.GetDirectories().Count().ToString());
                writer.WriteAttributeString("numberFiles", info.GetFiles().Count().ToString());
                writer.WriteAttributeString("date", info.LastWriteTime.ToString());


                foreach (DirectoryInfo childInfo in info.GetDirectories())
                {
                    size += WriteTree(childInfo);
                }

            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                string errorMsg = string.Format("Exception Folder : {0}, Error : {1}", info.FullName, ex.Message);
                Console.WriteLine(errorMsg);
                writer.WriteElementString("Error", errorMsg);
            }

            FileInfo[] fileInfo = null;
            try
            {
                fileInfo = info.GetFiles();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                string errorMsg = string.Format("Exception FileInfo : {0}, Error : {1}", info.FullName, ex.Message);
                Console.WriteLine(errorMsg);
                writer.WriteElementString("Error",errorMsg);
            }

            if (fileInfo != null)
            {
                foreach (FileInfo finfo in fileInfo)
                {
                    try
                    {
                        writer.WriteStartElement("File");
                        writer.WriteAttributeString("name", finfo.Name);
                        writer.WriteAttributeString("size", finfo.Length.ToString());
                        writer.WriteAttributeString("date", info.LastWriteTime.ToString());
                        writer.WriteEndElement();
                        size += finfo.Length;
                    }
                    catch (Exception ex)
                    {
                        string errorMsg = string.Format("Exception File : {0}, Error : {1}", finfo.FullName, ex.Message);
                        Console.WriteLine(errorMsg);
                        writer.WriteElementString("Error", errorMsg);
                    }
                }
            }

            writer.WriteElementString("size", size.ToString());
            writer.WriteEndElement();
            return size;

        }
    }
}