Computers and the GAL
Finding and Modifying the Display Specifier - createDialog
It is often asked how the Display Name for user and contact objects in the Active Directory (GUI) management tools (and the GAL) can be changed from the default of to something else, perhaps , , so that this happens by default. This article explains how to make the necessary changes to achieve this.
Default behaviour
When creating user and contact objects in the Active Directory Users and Computers (DSA.MSC) management snap-in the default behaviour of the create new < object > dialog is to populate the displayName attribute with the givenName attribute, a space, and then the sn attribute.
Note. Please refer to the final section of this article for a brief mapping of the GUI field names to the LDAP attribute names.
Discovering the current setting
The value that defines this behaviour is defined in the attribute createDialog of the object:
CN=User-Display, CN=409, CN=DisplaySpecifiers, CN=Configuration, DC=domain-name
This can be viewed using ADSIEdit.msc or LDP. You can also query this attribute using DSQUERY or ADSI.
Using DSQUERY
Type the following command into a command prompt on a domain member as a user with read permissions in the Configuration container.
C:\dev\ad>dsquery * cn=user-Display,cn=409,cn=displaySpecifiers,cn=configuration,dc=domain-name -scope base -attr createDialog
This will provide output like the following example:
C:\dev\ad>dsquery * cn=user-Display,cn=409,cn=displaySpecifiers,cn=configuration,dc=r2,dc=test-lab,dc=com -scope base -attr createDialog
createDialog %, %
Using VB Script
-
Create an .VBS file with the following contents, changing the locale to your specific locale:
' view-createDialog.vbs '
' Script outputs the value of createDialog; which is an attribute ' of domain-name/configuration/DisplaySpecifiers/409/user-Display '
' This attribute defines the default display name syntax, e.g. ' "Smith, John" or "Jane Doe"
'
' Paul Williams, msresource.net, Jan 2004 '
Option explicit dim oRootDse,oBase
dim sCreateDialog set oRootDse=GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE") set oBase=GetObject("LDAP://cn=User-Display,cn=409,"&_
"cn=DisplaySpecifiers,"&oRootDse.get("configurationNamingContext")) on error resume next sCreateDialog=oBase.get("createDialog") if(sCreateDialog="")then
wscript.echo"Value not set. Default value is % %" else
wscript.echo"Value set to "&sCreateDialog end if
-
Save the file as .vbs, e.g. view-createDialog.vbs
-
Then, from a command prompt (or simply double-click if WScript is preferred) run:
C:\dev\ad\vbs\>cscript view-createDialog.vbs
Changing this behaviour
To change this behaviour you must modify the createDialog attribute of the User-Display display specifier with the attributes that you wish, prefixed with a percent (%) symbol. The User-Display display specifier has the following DN:
cn=user-Display, cn=<locale&rt;, cn=DisplaySpecifiers, cn=Configuration, dc=<forest-root&rt;, dc=<1st level suffix>
Note. For clarity of reading, and manageability of text layout on the screen, the DN includes spaces after each separator (comma); this in not the case when writing a DN in script, query or code.
Using the GUI
The easiest way of making this change is using the GUI tool ADSIEdit.msc, which is a Windows Support Tool.
Note. For more information on the Windows Support Tools, information on how to obtain and install them, as well as information on what tools are included in the different versions, please refer to the following msresource.net
knowledgebase article:
-- INFO: The Windows Server Support & Resource Kit Tools
-
To do this, load ADSIEdit.msc by typing ADSIEdit.msc at the Run command
-
In ADSIEdit.msc, expand the Configuration container, and then expand each of the following in turn -CN=Configuration, CN=DisplaySpecifiers, CN=, where is your locale.
-
Select CN=user-Display
Note. CN=409 is the locale for US English; CN=408 is the locale for UK English.
-
In the right-hand pane, Right-click on CN=user-Display and choose properties
-
Find and edit the createDialog attribute with the value you wish the new default to be
Examples
There are very few possibilities for this attribute, as only givenName, sn and initial can be used (as these are the only attributes that are guaranteed to be available at the time of creation as they are defined in the same form). The following are some examples of what you might enter.
createDialog attribute Value
Display Name/ cn value example %, % Williams, Paul %, % % Hambling, Emma L % % % David L Murphy
Other ways of changing this attribute
There are obviously several other ways of modifying this attribute, for example LDP, LDIFDE, VB Script, ADMOD, .NET code, etc.
Two such examples are an LDIF file (for use with LDIFDE) and a script (written in VB Script). They are as follows.
Using LDIFDE
-
Create an .LDF file with the following contents, changing the locale and domain name to your configuration
dn: cn=user-Display,cn=409,cn=DisplaySpecifiers,cn=Configuration,dc=winnet-solutions,dc=com changetype: modify
replace: createDialog
createDialog: %<sn&rt;, %<givenname&rt; %<initial&rt;
-
Save the file as <file name&rt;.ldf
-
Then, from a command prompt run: C:\dev\ad\ldif\>ldifde -i -f mod-createDialog.ldf Using VB Script -
Create an .VBS file with the following contents, changing the locale to your specific locale:
' mod-createDialog.vbs '
' Script sets the value of createDialog with the value that you ' enter. createDialog is an attribute of:
' -- domain-name/configuration/DisplaySpecifiers/409/user-Display '
' This attribute defines the default display name syntax, e.g. ' "Smith, John" or "Jane Doe"
'
' Paul Williams, msresource.net, Jan 2004 '
Option explicit dim oRootDse,oBase
dim sDefaultDisplayNameConfiguration set oRootDse=GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE") set oBase=GetObject("LDAP://cn=User-Display,cn=409,"&_
"cn=DisplaySpecifiers,"&oRootDse.get("configurationNamingContext"))
sDefaultDisplayNameConfiguration=InputBox("Please enter a new value for "&_ "the default displayName."&vbCrLf&vbCrLf&"For example, enter:"&vbCrLf&_ vbTab&"%, % %"&vbCrLf&vbCrLf&" To have a "&_
"default display name of: Smith, John F. "&vbCrLf,"Enter new value "&_
"for User-Display","%<sn&rt;, %<givenname&rt;") if(sDefaultDisplayNameConfiguration<>"")then
oBase.put"createDialog",sDefaultDisplayNameConfiguration obase.setInfo
wscript.echo"Set the default display name to the following "&_ "syntax: "&sDefaultDisplayNameConfiguration&"."
else
wscript.echo"No input received. Doing nothing." end if wscript.echo"Script finished."
- Save the file as .vbs
- Then, from a command prompt (or simply double-click if WScript is preferred) run:
C:\dev\ad\vbs\>cscript mod-createDialog.vbs
LDAP display name to GUI label name mappings
This article has mentioned a number of user object attributes, and has used the LDAP display names when referring to these attributes. The following table simply maps the LDAP display names of the attributes to the Text Labels used in the Active Directory Users and Computers management snap-in.
GUI Text Field/ Display Name
LDAP Display Name First Name givenName Initials initial Surname sn Description description Full Name cn Display Name displayName
Pre Windows 2000 User Name sAMAccountName
User name userPrincipalName . Document information Author: Paul Williams Written: 17-09-2005 Version: 2.0
Last updated: 02-08-2007 Last updated by: Paul Williams
