Please Help - To keep LDAP connection alive

Question

Hi,
I have used the below function to communicate with LDAP which I have taken and modified from one of the posts in this forum.
My issue is, each time the function opens a connection, search and closing the connection and its seriously affects the performance.
I hope we can resolve this by keeping the connection alive. As I am new to this concept, I am not sure how to do this.
It would be great, if some one help me to keep the connection alive for the below function. Thanks in advance.
create or replace FUNCTION <name> (loginname VARCHAR2)
RETURN NUMBER
IS
-- Adjust as necessary.
l_ldap_host VARCHAR2(256) := '';
l_ldap_port VARCHAR2(256) := '';
l_ldap_user VARCHAR2(256) := '';
l_ldap_passwd VARCHAR2(256) := '';
l_ldap_base VARCHAR2(256) := '';
l_retval PLS_INTEGER;
l_session DBMS_LDAP.session;
l_attrs DBMS_LDAP.string_collection;
l_message DBMS_LDAP.message;
l_filter varchar2(35):='xxxx='|| loginname;
l_count NUMBER:=0;
BEGIN
-- Choose to raise exceptions.
DBMS_LDAP.USE_EXCEPTION := TRUE;
-- Connect to the LDAP server.
l_session := DBMS_LDAP.init(hostname => l_ldap_host,portnum => l_ldap_port);
l_retval := DBMS_LDAP.simple_bind_s(ld => l_session,dn => l_ldap_user,passwd => l_ldap_passwd);
-- Get attribute
l_attrs(1) := 'xxxx';
l_retval := DBMS_LDAP.search_s(ld => l_session, base => l_ldap_base, scope => DBMS_LDAP.SCOPE_SUBTREE, filter => l_filter, attrs => l_attrs, attronly => 0, res => l_message);
l_count:=DBMS_LDAP.count_entries(ld => l_session, msg => l_message);
-- Disconnect from the LDAP server
l_retval := DBMS_LDAP.unbind_s(ld => l_session);
return l_count;
EXCEPTION
WHEN OTHERS THEN
dbms_output.put_line('Error :'||SQLERRM);
return 0;
END <fun name>;
Thanks,
Praveen
Edited by: 920577 on Mar 13, 2012 9:40 AM
Edited by: 920577 on Mar 13, 2012 9:41 AM

Answer 1

The basic template looks as follows:
SQL> create or replace package Foo as
  2 
  3  procedure LdapLogoff;
  4  function GetData( empName varchar2 )  return number;
  5 
  6  end;
  7  /
Package created.
SQL>
SQL> create or replace package body Foo as
  2 
  3  isLoggedOn boolean;
  4 
  5  procedure LdapLogon is
  6  begin
  7          DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line( '..running logon()' );
  8          isLoggedOn := true;
  9  end;
10 
11  procedure LdapLogoff is
12  begin
13          DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line( '..running logoff()' );
14          isLoggedOn := false;
15  end;
16 
17  function GetData( empName varchar2 ) return number is
18  begin
19          if not isLoggedOn then
20                  LdapLogon();
21          end if;
22         
23          DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line( '..running GetData() for '||empName );
24          return(
25                  round(DBMS_RANDOM.Value(1,100))
26          );
27  end;
28 
29 
30  --// main()
31  begin
32          DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line( 'Package Foo loaded into memory' );
33          isLoggedOn := false;
34  end;
35  /
Package body created.
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> select empno, ename, Foo.GetData(ename) as ID from emp order by empno;
     EMPNO ENAME              ID
      7369 SMITH              23
      7499 ALLEN              47
      7521 WARD               88
      7566 JONES              71
      7654 MARTIN             91
      7698 BLAKE              28
      7782 CLARK              92
      7788 SCOTT              91
      7839 KING               48
      7844 TURNER             89
      7876 ADAMS              64
      7900 JAMES              16
      7902 FORD               18
      7934 MILLER             35
14 rows selected.
Package Foo loaded into memory
..running logon()
..running GetData() for SMITH
..running GetData() for ALLEN
..running GetData() for WARD
..running GetData() for JONES
..running GetData() for MARTIN
..running GetData() for BLAKE
..running GetData() for CLARK
..running GetData() for SCOTT
..running GetData() for KING
..running GetData() for TURNER
..running GetData() for ADAMS
..running GetData() for JAMES
..running GetData() for FORD
..running GetData() for MILLER
SQL>
SQL> select empno, ename, Foo.GetData(ename) as ID from emp where rownum = 1;
     EMPNO ENAME              ID
      7369 SMITH               9
..running GetData() for SMITH
SQL>
// call Foo.Logoff manually when done, or leave it to
// Oracle to close and release resources when the
// session terminates