DirectorySearcher Asynchronous using await

Question

I'm using .net 4.7.2 (not core) and C#.

I need to come up with a way to to not block my current async tasks and I have a need to search for a user as part of these tasks. I've done DirectorySearcher operations previously so I know the attachment to AD and first search can take a few seconds which will really throw a wrench in the gears if I try calling it from my existing async methods.

I found that the DirectorySearcher has an "Asynchronous" property. But I don't think it does the async pattern.

        DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher();
        ds.Asynchronous = true;
        ds.Filter = "(&(objectclass=user)(samaccountname=testaccount)";
        ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("samaccountname");
        SearchResult sr = await ds.FindOne();

Of course, the last line throws an error because FindOne is not an async method. I already know that if I remove the await it will compile. But that doesn't solve my problem with calling this from existing awaited methods. I need to find a way to do an async search in AD...

Does anyone know how I could get this to work in the .net framework (not core)?

Answer 1

Try running it on the thread pool.

private async void MyAsyncMethod()
{
   // do some asynchronous thing
   // await something

   // then, run below on thread pool, which would not block MyAsyncMethod
   Task.Run(() =>
   {
      DirectorySearcher ds = new DirectorySearcher();
      ds.Asynchronous = true;
      ds.Filter = "(&(objectclass=user)(samaccountname=testaccount)";
      ds.PropertiesToLoad.Add("samaccountnamt");
      SearchResult sr = ds.FindOne();
   });
}

For reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/system.threading.tasks.task.run

Answer 2

None of MS products do this....

I did find an active nuget project called ldap4net which does.