ldap_connect link id not working when returned by ref

[trrobnett]

I hope this is the right list to post to, php-db seems to be more SQL oriented and less LDAP inclined. If I am in the wrong spot please let me know.

My problem is: I have written a function to authenticate users who enter their credentials in a web form against an LDAP directory. The function works in so much as I can send it valid and invalid data and it can return a true or a false with no problem.

Now for the real problem; I am making my connection to the LDAP server inside my ldap_auth_function but I would like to reuse that connection and those permissions again outside of the function. I have tried registering the connection variable as a global and I have also tried passing the value by reference instead of by value. However the net result is essentially the same.

By value I get:
"ldap_search(): supplied argument is not a valid ldap link resource"

By reference I get
"ldap_search(): 1 is not a valid ldap link resource"

I expect the behaviour I get from by val just not by ref. What am I doing wrong?

[trrobnett]

UPDATE:

According to the documentation at

http://www.zend.com/manual/function.ldap-connect.php

It states that:

"If no arguments are specified then the link identifier of the already opened link will be returned."

When I run a 'print ldap_connect();' three times in a row the number keeps incrementing, if I have a correct understanding of the man page then it should always return the current connection. Am I missing something here? I apologize for the low quality of my post, I am quite new to programming so I may not be phrasing my questions correctly. If someone would like more info I will gladly provide it.

--
Regards,
Timothy R. Robnett

[mmilano]

have you tried making a class? then you could access class members outside the function.