LdapConnectionDetails Autoconfigure With Mulitple LDAP Connections

[Dex-too]

I apologize if this shouldn't be an issue, but this seems to fit somewhere between question, bug and enhancement, depending on the design opinions of the creators of this code.

I have a project that is using multiple LDAP connections, some for querying data, some for writing data. I included the spring-boot-starter-data-ldap dependency on my project to get the series of dependencies I need, but this also brings in the Spring Boot LDAP autoconfiguration. Maybe I shouldn't be using the Spring Boot starter for this then, and should instead specify all of the other dependencies I need individually to get the nice package this start gives me but without getting the autoconfiguration, but that seems to go against one of the purposes of these Spring Boot starters. (This is the question part of this issue that may short circuit the rest.)

The Spring Boot LDAP autoconfigure doesn't benefit me with multiple LDAP connections. As soon as it sees the additional connections, it bails on auto-configuring the primary connection. That's fine, I'll just recreate the configuration myself, using the standard "spring.ldap" properties in the usual application.yaml file. To do that I create an LdapProperties and LdapContextSource configuration. In the LdapContextSource configuration, I set the connection information directly from the LdapProperties. Because of this, I never use the LdapConnectionDetails wrapper object used in the autoconfiguration.

This is where my problem occurs. The Spring Boot autoconfigure still tries to create the LdapConnectionDetails bean despite it not being used anywhere (this is potentially the bug part of the request), but fails because there are multiple properties objects to use, one for each of the connections I have. So now I have to create this object just to have it thrown away and never used (or to then modify my context source code to pull from the wrapper instead of the properties directly, but that seems extraneous). It would be nice if this wasn't necessary (this is the enhancement part of this issue).

Further, when I try to create this bean configuration (using a qualifier to specify which properties I want it to use), I realize there is no public implementation wrapper of this interface, so I have to create a small/simple wrapper class that won't be used, in order to implement this interface, in order to stop the autoconfiguration from erroring on the multiple connections I have. If an implementation of this interface is required by the autoconfiguration (effectively), could you at least provide a simple public implementation wrapper that can be used to jump through this step, not unlike the package-private one that already exists? (This is the other enhancement part of this issue.)

Alternatively, is there a way to tell the Spring Boot autoconfigurations which qualifiers to use for their objects when the autoconfiguration runs, so I don't need to re-implement that configuration and can leverage the autoconfiguration functionality? (I believe this is a "no", but I ask in the hopes that maybe I missed something or that this could become a reality some day.)

[Adriansun]

While the Spring team is thinking about your issue, have your tried to disable the auto config part? For example:

---

Annotation:

@SpringBootApplication(exclude = {
    org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ldap.LdapAutoConfiguration.class
})
public class MyApplication { }

---

YAML:

spring:
  autoconfigure:
    exclude: org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ldap.LdapAutoConfiguration

---

Properties:

spring.autoconfigure.exclude=org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ldap.LdapAutoConfiguration

---

Maven POM:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-ldap</artifactId>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-ldap-autoconfigure</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>

---

Or as you say, try to get only the dependencies you need?

[Dex-too]

Heh. Fair enough on the disabling of it. I probably should have though of that already. I guess I was both over focused on "fixing" the existing problem that I wasn't thinking of simply turning it off, and maybe subconsciously unsure that turning it off wouldn't remove something I was using that I had forgot about. (Back in Spring Boot 2, I actually could leverage one piece of the autoconfig, but that's not the case with the newer versions.)

I used the annotation class exclusion and that seems to be working. Though, a note to you and maybe others that see this, your example uses the old package names. Now that autoconfigure is split up among the individual "modules", you need to swap the "ldap" and "autoconfigure" (making the current package name org.springframework.boot.ldap.autoconfigure.LdapAutoConfiguration).

[snicoll]

@Dex-too thanks for the suggestion.

Maybe I shouldn't be using the Spring Boot starter for this then, and should instead specify all of the other dependencies I need individually to get the nice package this start gives me but without getting the autoconfiguration, but that seems to go against one of the purposes of these Spring Boot starters.

Yes. If you have a use case for which you don't want to use the auto-configuration (because it doesn't do what you want in your scenario) you shouldn't be using the starter. In your case, adding org.springframework.ldap:spring-ldap-core should give you the bits you need to get started.

That's fine, I'll just recreate the configuration myself, using the standard "spring.ldap" properties in the usual application.yaml file. To do that I create an LdapProperties

Unfortunately, you shouldn't be doing that. LdapProperties is not public API. If you want a custom arrangement, you need to craft your own property. The multiple LdapProperties beans is not something that's supported.

This is where my problem occurs. The Spring Boot autoconfigure still tries to create the LdapConnectionDetails bean despite it not being used anywhere (

That's not really what happens. By opting-in for the module (or the starter) you want Spring Boot to configure LDAP for you, and you should provide the details of the connection to the server. You could do that, and then configure your additional connection yourself. Have you considered that?

As for the rest, this is a duplicate of #15732.