PHP Manual: ldap

Description

resource ldap_connect ( [string hostname [, int port]] )

Returns a positive LDAP link identifier on success, or FALSE on error. When OpenLDAP 2.x.x is used, ldap_connect() will always return a resource as it does not actually connect but just initializes the connecting parameters. The actual connect happens with the next calls to ldap_* funcs, usually with ldap_bind().

ldap_connect() establishes a connection to a LDAP server on a specified hostname and port. Both the arguments are optional. If no arguments are specified then the link identifier of the already opened link will be returned. If only hostname is specified, then the port defaults to 389.

If you are using OpenLDAP 2.x.x you can specify a URL instead of the hostname. To use LDAP with SSL, compile OpenLDAP 2.x.x with SSL support, configure PHP with SSL, and use ldaps://hostname/ as host parameter. The port parameter is not used when using URLs.

Note: URL and SSL support were added in 4.0.4.

Example 1. Example of connecting to LDAP server.

<?php

// LDAP variables
$ldaphost = "ldap.example.com";  // your ldap servers
$ldapport = 389;                 // your ldap server's port number

// Connecting to LDAP
$ldapconn = ldap_connect($ldaphost, $ldapport) 
          or die("Could not connect to $ldaphost");

?>

Example 2. Example of connecting securely to LDAP server.

<?php

// make sure your host is the correct one
// that you issued your secure certificate to
$ldaphost = "ldaps://ldap.example.com/";

// Connecting to LDAP
$ldapconn = ldap_connect($ldaphost) 
          or die("Could not connect to {$ldaphost}");

?>