Catalyst, LDAP User Auto_complete and arrays with grep

ghenry has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear Master Monks,

I am unsure why I can't pass @founds_users straight to my auto_complete prototype function, but need to copy it first?

Also, any advice on caching the LDAP searches? LDAP is so fast and our indexes are all active, that I don't think it's necessary, but maybe on a Directory of 500,000 - 1,000,000 users?

Any advice on handling an array of this size if the LDAP search returns "many" users?

sub suggest_ldap_user : Local {
    my ($self, $c) = @_;
    $c->stash->{template} = "resetuser.tt";
    
    my $tabs = "\t\t\t\t\t\t";
    $c->log->debug( 
                    "Reading config:",
                    "$tabs". $c->config->{base}, 
                    "$tabs". $c->config->{scope}, 
                    "$tabs". $c->config->{user_filter}, 
                    "$tabs". $c->config->{attrs},
                  );

    # Search for the LDAP users and stick them in @users
    my $search =
        $c->model('User')->search(
                                    base   => $c->config->{base},
                                    scope  => $c->config->{scope},
                                    filter => $c->config->{user_filter
+},
                                    attrs  => [$c->config->{attrs}],
                                 );
    my @users = $search->entries;
    $c->log->debug( 
                    "Checking first entry in search result array:",
                    "$tabs". $users[0]->get_value('uid'), 
                  );


    for my $user ( @users ) {
        for my $uid ( $user->attributes ) {
            # We don't want workstations, or the nobody user
            # (they have $ on end of name)
            my $ldap_user = $user->get_value( $uid );
            next if ( $ldap_user =~ /\$$/ );
            next if ( $ldap_user =~ /^nobody/ );
            
            push @{$c->stash->{'users'}}, $ldap_user;
        }
    }


    # Grab the search term
    my $req = $c->req->param('ldap_user');
    
    $c->log->debug();
    $c->log->debug( "Search term to auto_complete is $req"); 
    $c->log->debug();
    $c->log->debug( "Looking through these users: @{$c->stash->{'users
+'}}" );
    
    # Only return users that start with the above letter
    my @found_users = grep { /^$req/ } @{$c->stash->{'users'}};
    
    $c->log->debug( "Found user/s @found_users as per your search. 
                     Sending results.." );
    $c->log->debug();
    
    # Only works this way and not by just passing @found_users?
    my @ldap_users = @found_users;

    # Send results   
    $c->res->output( $c->prototype->auto_complete_result(\@ldap_users)
+ );
}
[download]

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Re: Catalyst, LDAP User Auto_complete and arrays with grep by aquarium (Curate) on Mar 31, 2006 at 13:41 UTC
your auto_complete_result function is taking a reference to @ldap_users array....so it should also work by passing a reference to @found_users, without the needless array copy...like so `$c->res->output( $c->prototype->auto_complete_result(\@found_users));` [download] the hardest line to type correctly is: stty erase ^H	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Catalyst, LDAP User Auto_complete and arrays with grep by ghenry (Vicar) on Mar 31, 2006 at 14:56 UTC
It doesn't ;-) That's what I was asking. If I swap `@found_users` back to `@ldap_users` without the copy, nothing appears, only with the copy. If I don't use `grep` and just leave the array as is, it works fine. Just with no filtering. I don't know why.... Walking the road to enlightenment... I found a penguin and a camel on the way..... Fancy a yourname@perl.me.uk? Just ask!!!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Catalyst, LDAP User Auto_complete and arrays with grep by bluto (Curate) on Apr 04, 2006 at 17:55 UTC
Any advice on handling an array of this size if the LDAP search returns "many" users? Will the "callback" option of Net::LDAP's search method help? It will allow you to handle the entries one at a time as they are returned. You can build an array, or even serialize them to disk if find out the array is getting large. If you must keep a large number of entries in memory then it may not be worth it.	[reply]