diff --git a/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/GroupDetailSelector.java b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/GroupDetailSelector.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6874d550ed26406ebbaae8cd9489f1a82b23f11a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/GroupDetailSelector.java
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+/*
+************************************************************************
+*******************  CANADIAN ASTRONOMY DATA CENTRE  *******************
+**************  CENTRE CANADIEN DE DONNÉES ASTRONOMIQUES  **************
+*
+*  (c) 2011.                            (c) 2011.
+*  Government of Canada                 Gouvernement du Canada
+*  National Research Council            Conseil national de recherches
+*  Ottawa, Canada, K1A 0R6              Ottawa, Canada, K1A 0R6
+*  All rights reserved                  Tous droits réservés
+*
+*  NRC disclaims any warranties,        Le CNRC dénie toute garantie
+*  expressed, implied, or               énoncée, implicite ou légale,
+*  statutory, of any kind with          de quelque nature que ce
+*  respect to the software,             soit, concernant le logiciel,
+*  including without limitation         y compris sans restriction
+*  any warranty of merchantability      toute garantie de valeur
+*  or fitness for a particular          marchande ou de pertinence
+*  purpose. NRC shall not be            pour un usage particulier.
+*  liable in any event for any          Le CNRC ne pourra en aucun cas
+*  damages, whether direct or           être tenu responsable de tout
+*  indirect, special or general,        dommage, direct ou indirect,
+*  consequential or incidental,         particulier ou général,
+*  arising from the use of the          accessoire ou fortuit, résultant
+*  software.  Neither the name          de l'utilisation du logiciel. Ni
+*  of the National Research             le nom du Conseil National de
+*  Council of Canada nor the            Recherches du Canada ni les noms
+*  names of its contributors may        de ses  participants ne peuvent
+*  be used to endorse or promote        être utilisés pour approuver ou
+*  products derived from this           promouvoir les produits dérivés
+*  software without specific prior      de ce logiciel sans autorisation
+*  written permission.                  préalable et particulière
+*                                       par écrit.
+*
+*  This file is part of the             Ce fichier fait partie du projet
+*  OpenCADC project.                    OpenCADC.
+*
+*  OpenCADC is free software:           OpenCADC est un logiciel libre ;
+*  you can redistribute it and/or       vous pouvez le redistribuer ou le
+*  modify it under the terms of         modifier suivant les termes de
+*  the GNU Affero General Public        la “GNU Affero General Public
+*  License as published by the          License” telle que publiée
+*  Free Software Foundation,            par la Free Software Foundation
+*  either version 3 of the              : soit la version 3 de cette
+*  License, or (at your option)         licence, soit (à votre gré)
+*  any later version.                   toute version ultérieure.
+*
+*  OpenCADC is distributed in the       OpenCADC est distribué
+*  hope that it will be useful,         dans l’espoir qu’il vous
+*  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;            sera utile, mais SANS AUCUNE
+*  without even the implied             GARANTIE : sans même la garantie
+*  warranty of MERCHANTABILITY          implicite de COMMERCIALISABILITÉ
+*  or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR          ni d’ADÉQUATION À UN OBJECTIF
+*  PURPOSE.  See the GNU Affero         PARTICULIER. Consultez la Licence
+*  General Public License for           Générale Publique GNU Affero
+*  more details.                        pour plus de détails.
+*
+*  You should have received             Vous devriez avoir reçu une
+*  a copy of the GNU Affero             copie de la Licence Générale
+*  General Public License along         Publique GNU Affero avec
+*  with OpenCADC.  If not, see          OpenCADC ; si ce n’est
+*  <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.      pas le cas, consultez :
+*                                       <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+*
+*  $Revision: 5 $
+*
+************************************************************************
+*/
+
+package ca.nrc.cadc.ac.server;
+
+import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.Group;
+import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.Role;
+
+/**
+ *
+ * @author pdowler
+ */
+public interface GroupDetailSelector 
+{
+    /** 
+     * Check if group details should be filled in for the group when
+     * querying for role.
+     * @param g
+     * @param r
+     * @return true if group details should be filled
+     */
+    boolean isDetailedSearch(Group g, Role r);
+}
diff --git a/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAO.java b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAO.java
index 30724be6622cb59a29e8ee10b0135ca5ab2ae224..d4a448e5e32f9353a27c0c8e142ec15707a34420 100755
--- a/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAO.java
+++ b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAO.java
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.GroupNotFoundException;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.Role;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.User;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.UserNotFoundException;
+import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.server.GroupDetailSelector;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.net.TransientException;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.util.StringUtil;
 
@@ -106,7 +107,6 @@ import com.unboundid.ldap.sdk.SearchResult;
 import com.unboundid.ldap.sdk.SearchResultEntry;
 import com.unboundid.ldap.sdk.SearchScope;
 import com.unboundid.ldap.sdk.controls.ProxiedAuthorizationV2RequestControl;
-import javax.naming.ldap.Rdn;
 
 public class LdapGroupDAO<T extends Principal> extends LdapDAO
 {
@@ -773,9 +773,13 @@ public class LdapGroupDAO<T extends Principal> extends LdapDAO
                     }
                     try
                     {
-                        Group g = getGroup(groupDN, null, GROUP_ATTRS);
-                        logger.debug("found group: " + g.getID());
-                        ret.add(g);
+                        Group g = createGroupFromDN(groupDN);
+                        if (isDetailedSearch(g, role))
+                        {
+                            g = getGroup(groupDN, null, GROUP_ATTRS);
+                        }
+                            logger.debug("found group: " + g.getID());
+                            ret.add(g);
                     }
                     catch (GroupNotFoundException e)
                     {
@@ -796,6 +800,28 @@ public class LdapGroupDAO<T extends Principal> extends LdapDAO
         return ret;
     }
     
+    // some pretty horrible hacks to avoid querying LDAP for group details...
+    private Group createGroupFromDN(DN groupDN)
+    {
+        String cn = groupDN.getRDNString();
+        String[] parts = cn.split("=");
+        if (parts.length == 2 && parts[0].equals("cn"))
+        {
+            return new Group(parts[1]);
+        }
+        throw new RuntimeException("BUG: failed to extract group name from " + groupDN.toString());
+    }
+    // this gets filled by the LdapgroupPersistence
+    GroupDetailSelector searchDetailSelector;
+    
+    private boolean isDetailedSearch(Group g, Role r)
+    {
+        if (searchDetailSelector == null)
+            return true;
+        return searchDetailSelector.isDetailedSearch(g, r);
+    }
+    // end of horribleness
+    
     protected Collection<Group> getOwnerGroups(final User<T> user, 
                                             final DN userDN,
                                             final String groupID)
diff --git a/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupPersistence.java b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupPersistence.java
index f59bc1518d82c3522bf0cd104bc3ca8fecfc7ebf..685ba5a2c7887d149203bda8af54a3572868b68f 100755
--- a/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupPersistence.java
+++ b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupPersistence.java
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@ import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.GroupAlreadyExistsException;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.GroupNotFoundException;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.Role;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.UserNotFoundException;
+import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.server.GroupDetailSelector;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.ac.server.GroupPersistence;
 import ca.nrc.cadc.net.TransientException;
 
@@ -88,12 +89,19 @@ public class LdapGroupPersistence<T extends Principal>
     private static final Logger log = 
             Logger.getLogger(LdapGroupPersistence.class);
     private final LdapConfig config;
+    
+    private GroupDetailSelector detailSelector;
 
     public LdapGroupPersistence()
     {
         config = LdapConfig.getLdapConfig();
     }
     
+    protected void setDetailSelector(GroupDetailSelector gds)
+    {
+        this.detailSelector = gds;
+    }
+    
     public Collection<String> getGroupNames()
         throws TransientException, AccessControlException
     {
@@ -233,6 +241,7 @@ public class LdapGroupPersistence<T extends Principal>
         {
             userDAO = new LdapUserDAO<T>(config);
             groupDAO = new LdapGroupDAO<T>(config, userDAO);
+            groupDAO.searchDetailSelector = detailSelector;
             Collection<Group> ret = groupDAO.getGroups(userID, role, groupID);
             return ret;
         }
diff --git a/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/test/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAOTest.java b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/test/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAOTest.java
index a25a49395ad89db69af3af65d739aa890506e5de..751b13c1bd3d7bc16181ff885d9f3c7dfdd69201 100644
--- a/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/test/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAOTest.java
+++ b/projects/cadcAccessControl-Server/test/src/ca/nrc/cadc/ac/server/ldap/LdapGroupDAOTest.java
@@ -496,11 +496,11 @@ public class LdapGroupDAOTest extends AbstractLdapDAOTest
                     for (Group group : groups)
                     {
                         log.debug("admin group: " + group.getID());
-                        if (group.getID().equals(testGroup1ID))
+                        if (group.getID().equalsIgnoreCase(testGroup1ID))
                         {
                             found1 = true;
                         }
-                        if (group.getID().equals(testGroup2ID))
+                        if (group.getID().equalsIgnoreCase(testGroup2ID))
                         {
                             found2 = true;
                         }