C# Learning - Creating new AD accounts

I've been coding in PowerShell for 2 years now, and I gotta say switching over to C# is a nightmare! I do like it though, its has been a great fun experience. Once I got past the whole "Hello world" tutorials and learning the syntax it got a lot more fun. I'm not that I'm an expert in any way, but I believe I'm starting to get a hang of what is going on, which makes me happy.

Today as part of my on going project I had to create a function to create AD users through C#, and I'm using System.DirectoryServices class which actually requires that you add each property to the user, but doesn't actually tell you what does properties are, so after some looking around I found a table in this article. It made it a lot simpler than trying to guess the names. Here is the table for those that just want to get a quick look:

LDAP Attribute	Example
C	Country: e.g GB for Great Britain.
CN - Common Name	CN=Guy Thomas.  Actually, this LDAP attribute can be made up from givenName joined to SN.
CN	Maps to 'Name' in the LDAP provider. Remember CN is a mandatory property.  See also sAMAccountName.
description	What you see in Active Directory Users and Computers.  Not to be confused with displayName on the Users property sheet.
displayName	displayName = Guy Thomas.  If you script this property, be sure you understand which field you are configuring.  DisplayName can be confused with CN or description.
DN - also distinguishedName	DN is simply the most important LDAP attribute. CN=Jay Jamieson, OU= Newport,DC=cp,DC=com
givenName	Firstname also called Christian name
homeDrive	Home Folder : connect.  Tricky to configure
initials	Useful in some cultures.
name	name = Guy Thomas.  Exactly the same as CN.
objectCategory	Defines the Active Directory Schema category. For example, objectCategory = Person
objectClass	objectClass = User.  Also used for Computer, organizationalUnit, even container.  Important top level container.
physicalDeliveryOfficeName	Office! on the user's General property sheet
postOfficeBox	P.O. box.
profilePath	Roaming profile path: connect.  Trick to set up
sAMAccountName	This is a mandatory property, sAMAccountName = guyt.  The old NT 4.0 logon name, must be unique in the domain.
sAMAccountName	If you are using an LDAP provider 'Name' automatically maps to sAMAcountName and CN. The default value is same as CN, but can be given a different value.
SN	SN = Thomas. This would be referred to as last name or surname.
title	Job title.  For example Manager.
userAccountControl	Used to disable an account.  A value of 514 disables the account, while 512 makes the account ready for logon.
userPrincipalName	userPrincipalName = guyt@CP.com  Often abbreviated to UPN, and looks like an email address.  Very useful for logging on especially in a large Forest.  Note UPN must be unique in the forest.
wWWHomePage	User's home page.
Examples of Exchange Specific LDAP attributes
homeMDB	Here is where you set the MailStore
legacyExchangeDN	Legacy distinguished name for creating Contacts. In the following example, Guy Thomas is a Contact in the first administrative group of GUYDOMAIN: /o=GUYDOMAIN/ou=first administrative group/cn=Recipients/cn=Guy Thomas
mail	An easy, but important attribute.  A simple SMTP address is all that is required billyn@ourdom.com
mAPIRecipient - FALSE	Indicates that a contact is not a domain user.
mailNickname	Normally this is the same value as the sAMAccountName, but could be different if you wished.  Needed for mail enabled contacts.
mDBUseDefaults	Another straightforward field, just the value to:True
msExchHomeServerName	Exchange needs to know which server to deliver the mail.  Example: /o=YourOrg/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Configuration/cn=Servers/cn=MailSrv
proxyAddresses	As the name 'proxy' suggests, it is possible for one recipient to have more than one email address.  Note the plural spelling of proxyAddresses.
targetAddress	SMTP:@ e-mail address.  Note that SMTP is case sensitive.  All capitals means the default address.
showInAddressBook	Displays the contact in the Global Address List.
c	Country or Region
company	Company or organization name
department	Useful category to fill in and use for filtering
homephone	Home Phone number, (Lots more phone LDAPs)
l  (Lower case L)	L = Location.  City ( Maybe Office
location	Important, particularly for printers and computers.
manager	Boss, manager
mobile	Mobile Phone number
ObjectClass	Usually, User, or Computer
OU	Organizational unit.  See also DN
pwdLastSet	Force users to change their passwords at next logon
postalCode	Zip or post code
st	State, Province or County
streetAddress	First line of address
telephoneNumber	Office Phone
userAccountControl	Enable (512) / disable account (514)
»
Examples of Obscure LDAP Attributes
dNSHostname
rID
url
uSNCreated, uSNChanged

I removed the Ads because I'm not sure if they would affect his stuff. 

Here is the difference in code from creating users in PowerShell and in C#:

PowerShell * In this particular example I'm taking the values from a CSV, which allows me to create multiple accounts very quickly. 

//This is needed Import-Module ActiveDirectory New-ADUser -AccountPassword (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText "PASSWORDHERE" -Force) -Server 'DCHOSTNAME' `         -Enabled $true `         -Name $file.username `         -GivenName $file.name `         -Surname $file.lastname `         -Initials $file.middle `         -DisplayName $file.displayname `         -SamAccountName $file.username `         -Office $file.office `         -Department $file.Department `         -Company $file.company `         -StreetAddress $file.Street `         -City $file.city `         -State $file.state `         -PostalCode $file.postalcode `         -Country $file.country  `         -Description $file.description `         -Path $file.path `         -UserPrincipalName $file.userprincipalname `         -EmailAddress $file.userprincipalname `         -OtherAttributes @{'co'="United States"; 'countryCode'="840"}

C# * Please note that I am passing the variables from the "OnClick" function for a button, and also that all the properties name are not provided to you as they are in PowerShell. Final note there is some parameters that have not yet been used as they will be added at a later point when I create the mailbox. 

//These are required using System.DirectoryServices; using System.DirectoryServices.ActiveDirectory; public void createUser(int ticketnumber, string firstname, string middleIn, string lastName,  string samaccountname, string email, string telephone, string hemisphere, string company,  string office, string address, string city, string state, string division, string Code,  string OrganizationalUnit, string country, string department, string title, string displayName,  string postalCode, string co, string Manager)         {             string path = "LDAP://" + OrganizationalUnit;             int NORMAL_ACCOUNT = 0x200;             int PWD_NOTREQD = 0x20;             try             {                 using (DirectoryEntry ou = new DirectoryEntry(path))                 {                     DirectoryEntry user = ou.Children.Add("CN=" + samaccountname, "user");                     user.Properties["SamAccountName"].Add(samaccountname);                     user.Properties["userPrincipalName"].Add(samaccountname + "@DOMAIN");                     user.Properties["name"].Add(firstname + " " + lastName);                     user.Properties["givenName"].Add(firstname);                     user.Properties["initials"].Add(middleIn);                     user.Properties["SN"].Add(lastName);                     user.Properties["telephoneNumber"].Add(telephone);                     user.Properties["company"].Add(company);                     user.Properties["physicalDeliveryOfficeName"].Add(office);                     user.Properties["streetAddress"].Add(address);                     user.Properties["l"].Add(city);                     user.Properties["st"].Add(state);                     user.Properties["co"].Add(country);                     user.Properties["C"].Add(co);                     user.Properties["department"].Add(department);                     user.Properties["title"].Add(title);                     user.Properties["userAccountControl"].Value = NORMAL_ACCOUNT | PWD_NOTREQD;                     user.Properties["description"].Add("AC #" + ticketnumber + " JB | Created with JBSoftware");                     user.Properties["displayName"].Add(displayName);                     user.Properties["objectCategory"].Add("PERSON");                     user.Properties["postalCode"].Add(postalCode);                     user.Properties["manager"].Add(Manager);                     user.CommitChanges();                 }             }             catch (System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryServicesCOMException E)             {                 MessageBox.Show(E, "ERROR!", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);                 throw;             }        }

Well I think that is it for the day, I hope that this information might be useful to someone out there!

Edit >
It seems that I forgot a simple o in the Country property. (see in bold)

C# - ComboBox with all countries

I suppose two posts won't hurt anyone, this one will be short don't worry. 

I am learnong C# on the side, and as a learning project  I am currently developing a program to help our Service desk automate Account creations and modifications. One of the fields that I want them to fill out when creating accounts is the Country where the user is located, but I honestly didn't want to trust their typing skills on this so I though I could try to create a drop down menu - or ComboBox as its called in the Toolbox - and I figured I should look online maybe there is a text list that I can find already made. 

It turns out there is a whole reference to get the list that you can use for this. Here is the Sauce where I found the information, and I'll put the information below in case you are looking for a quick answer:

Add reference

using System.Globalization;

Country combobox without list of country with NativeName and so more.

country.CurrencyEnglishName
            country.CurrencyNativeName              
            country.CurrencySymbol
            country.EnglishName
            country.GeoId
            country.ISOCurrencySymbol
            country.ThreeLetterISORegionName
            country.ThreeLetterWindowsRegionName
            country.TwoLetterISORegionName

Code :

private void PopulateCountryComboBox()
        {
            RegionInfo country = new RegionInfo(new CultureInfo("en-US", false).LCID);
            List countryNames = new List();
            foreach (CultureInfo cul in CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures))
            {
                country = new RegionInfo(new CultureInfo(cul.Name, false).LCID);
                countryNames.Add(country.DisplayName.ToString());
            }

            IEnumerable nameAdded = countryNames.OrderBy(names => names).Distinct();

            foreach (string item in nameAdded)
            {
                comboBox1.Items.Add(item);

            }
        }

Country dropdown HTML 

 Afghanistan Ã…Land Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua And Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia And Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island And Mcdonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic Of Iraq Ireland Isle Of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People'S Republic Of Korea, Republic Of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People'S Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Federated States Of Moldova, Republic Of Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts And Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre And Miquelon Saint Vincent And The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome And Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia And Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard And Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province Of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic Of Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad And Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks And Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S. Wallis And Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe