Active Directory Cookbook

10.8. Viewing an Attribute

Problem

You want to view the properties of an attribute.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Open the Active Directory Schema snap-in.

2. In the left pane, click on the Attributes folder.

3. In the right pane, double-click the attribute you want to view.

4. Click on each tab to view the available properties.

Using a command-line interface

In the following command, replace <AttrCommonName> with the common name (not LDAP display dame) of the attribute you want to view:

> dsquery * cn=schema,cn=configuration,<ForestRootDN> -scope onelevel -attr *[RETURN]
-filter "(&(objectcategory=attributeSchema)(cn=<AttrCommonName>))"

Using VBScript

' This code displays the attributes for the specified attributeSchema object
' Refer to Recipe 4.2 for the DisplayAttributes( ) function code.
' ------ SCRIPT CONFIGURATION ------
' Set to the common name (not LDAP display dame) of the attribute
strAttrName = "<AttrCommonName>"   ' e.g. surname
' ------ END CONFIGURATION ---------

set objRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE")
set objAttr = GetObject("LDAP://cn=" & strAttrName & "," & _
                        objRootDSE.Get("schemaNamingContext"))
objAttr.GetInfo
WScript.Echo "Properties for " & strAttrName & ":"
DisplayAttributes(objAttr.ADsPath)

Discussion

In the CLI and VBScript solutions, I mention that you need to specify the common name or cn of the attribute you want to view. The common name is a source of confusion for many people. For example, the surname attribute has the following distinguished name in ...