How to get "Active Directory" groups in Sharepoint 2013 using "Client Object Model"

Question

I tried this code, but I get only the SharePoint Groups.

var groupCollection;

function getAllGroups() {
    var ctx = new SP.ClientContext();
    groupCollection = ctx.get_web().get_siteGroups();
    ctx.load(groupCollection);
    ctx.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, this.onSuccess), Function.createDelegate(this, this.onFailure));
}

function onSuccess() {
    var grpColEnum = groupCollection.getEnumerator();
    var ulcollection = document.getElementById('ulGroup');
    while (grpColEnum.moveNext())
    {
        var currentGrp = grpColEnum.get_current();
        ulcollection.innerHTML += '<li>' + currentGrp.get_id() + ':' + currentGrp.get_title() + '</li>';
    }

}

function onFailure(sender, args) {
    alert('Failed:' + args.get_message() + '\n' + args.get_stackTrace());
}

Please do needful to get "Active Directory" groups and group members.

Answer 1

You can get AD users and groups that have already been ensured in SharePoint. That means users that have at least once logged in to the site, or have been resolved in user picker.

There is no API to query AD through SharePoint and no way to resolve users from AD group.

Active Directory groups appear in SharePoint as users (so you cannot get members). SharePoint groups, users, AD groups are all principals in JSOM. You can check type of principal using get_principalType() method.

Sample code:

var context = SP.ClientContext.get_current()
var web = context.get_web()
var user = web.getUserById(1)
context.load(user)
context.executeQueryAsync(..., ...)

//rest executed in success callback
user.get_principalType()

Some of the possible results:

• 1 - user
• 4 - AD group
• 8 - SharePoint group