module Net::BER::Extensions::String

def raw_utf8_encoded 

def raw_utf8_encoded
  if self.respond_to?(:encode)
    # Strings should be UTF-8 encoded according to LDAP.
    # However, the BER code is not necessarily valid UTF-8
    begin
      self.encode('UTF-8').force_encoding('ASCII-8BIT')
    rescue Encoding::UndefinedConversionError
      self
    rescue Encoding::ConverterNotFoundError
      self
    rescue Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError
      self
    end
  else
    self
  end
end

def read_ber(syntax = nil)

Nondestructively reads a BER object from this string.
# 
def read_ber(syntax = nil)
  StringIO.new(self).read_ber(syntax)
end

def read_ber!(syntax = nil)

Destructively reads a BER object from the string.
# 
def read_ber!(syntax = nil)
  io = StringIO.new(self)
  result = io.read_ber(syntax)
  self.slice!(0...io.pos)
  return result
end

def reject_empty_ber_arrays 

def reject_empty_ber_arrays
  self.gsub(/0\000/n, '')
end

def to_ber(code = 0x04)

#to_ber_contextspecific.
User code should call either #to_ber_application_string or

let the caller give us one.
with 0x04, but other values are possible depending on the context, so we
Converts a string to a BER string. Universal octet-strings are tagged
# 
def to_ber(code = 0x04)
  raw_string = raw_utf8_encoded
  [code].pack('C') + raw_string.length.to_ber_length_encoding + raw_string
end

def to_ber_application_string(code)

provided syntax code value.
Creates an application-specific BER string encoded value with the
# 
def to_ber_application_string(code)
  to_ber(0x40 + code)
end

def to_ber_bin(code = 0x04)

Active Directory
This is required for proper representation of binary data for Microsoft
Converts a string to a BER string but does *not* encode to UTF-8 first.
# 
def to_ber_bin(code = 0x04)
  [code].pack('C') + length.to_ber_length_encoding + self
end

def to_ber_contextspecific(code)

syntax code value.
Creates a context-specific BER string encoded value with the provided
# 
def to_ber_contextspecific(code)
  to_ber(0x80 + code)
end