Query Active Directory for list of roles (.NET 3.5)

Here is a snippet of code to retrieve a list of roles for a user in .NET 3.5. This code uses the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace which is exclusive to 3.5.

        /// <summary>

        /// Retrieve listing of all roles to which a specified user belongs.

        /// </summary>

        /// <param name="identity">Current Windows Identity</param>

        /// <returns>String array of roles</returns>

        public string[] GetRolesForUser(IIdentity identity)

        {

            //Create an ArrayList to store our resultant list of groups.

            ArrayList results = new ArrayList();

            //PrincipalContext encapsulates the server or domain against which all operations are performed.

            using (PrincipalContext context = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, null, "NORTHWAVE"))

            {

                try

                {

                    //Create a referance to the user account we are querying against.

                    UserPrincipal p = UserPrincipal.FindByIdentity(context, IdentityType.SamAccountName, identity.Name);

                    //Get the user's security groups.  This is necessary to return nested groups, but will NOT return distribution groups.

                    var groups = p.GetGroups();

                    foreach (GroupPrincipal group in groups)

                    {

                        results.Add(group.SamAccountName);

                    }

                }

                catch (Exception ex)

                {

                    throw ex;

                }

            }

            return results.ToArray(typeof(String)) as String[];

        }