blank out characters

[Thomas Holt]

Hello All,

Is it possible to have a field on a form show nothing, as characters are being typed into it?. Ideally I would like to put some sort of mask in that would relpace the character values as there being typed by inserting * (stars) or something similar. Although I believe the ideal is pretty much beyond me at the moment.
This would hopefully work on the user logon form so that users can not see anothers password as it is being typed.
Hope this makes sense, as always any help greatly appreciated.


Cheers
Tom

[CALocklin]

RE: blank out characters

Tom,
Try the ui_get_password() function:

ui_get_password()

Syntax:

Result String = ui_get_password( Title, Caption Text [, Default String [, Password Character ]] )

Description:

Creates and displays a dialog box to prompt for a password. The characters that the user types in are displayed using Password Character.

You specify the dialog box's title through the Title parameter. The description next to the text box is defined through the Caption Text parameter.

The optional Default String will be in the text box when the dialog box first appears.

The Result String will be empty ("") if the Cancel button is selected.

Example:

'Prompts the user for a password and beeps if the password
'is incorrect.
'---------------------------------------------------------------
password = "Alpha5"

user = ui_get_password("Password","Enter the password","","&")
IF user = "" THEN
     END
END IF
IF user == password THEN
     ui_msg_box( "Password", "Accepted." )
ELSE 
   ui_beep()
   ui_msg_box( "Password", "Password invalid." )
   END
END IF

[csda1]

RE: blank out characters

Tom,

Cal has responded to you, but I just wanted to mention the #1 way to find out answers to your questions. RTM (or Read The Manual)!

The trouble is, reading the manual may not find the answer for you easily. The answer is STM (Search the manual)! Just bring up the Adobe Acrobat or Word versions of the manuals (XBasic manual in this case) and use their search functions to find a key word you are looking for. In your case it would have been "password". I leave a shortcut up for both the Xbasic and User's manual on the desktop. When I need them, I double click on the shortcut, do a find or search, and wah-la!, I have my answers 85% of the time (or 85% of the answer all of the time!).

Hope this helps you and others.

Regards,

Ira J. Perlow
Computer Systems Design & Associates
[email protected]

[vasant panjabi]

RE: blank out characters

i don`t know if this applies to your question but why not make the
font color of the field same as the background color - as "white on white"

no one then can see what is being typed or already typed in the field. we do this in several cases where unit prices are concerned to hide them from prying
eyes and anytime we want to see the price, we do it with a push button on the form to preview a report for that record.

though the password function works fine but it eliminates the need to type a password

just a layman`s sugestion !!

rgds,
v.p.

[Thomas Holt]

RE: blank out characters

Hello all,

Thanks for the responses, the ui_get_password is just what I was looking for. I now have a half decent logon form.
Thanks again.


cheers
Tom

[John Walsh]

RE: blank out characters

Tom,

If you are still interested in using a form without the password function, attatched is a font called asterick. Just copy the file to any folder you want (I suggest the A5 folder). Then go to control panel and select file, install a font. Go to the folder where you saved the file and select it. After the installation, note the name of the font. Open A5 and select the field that will hold the password and change the font to the newly installed one. You will note that any letter/number typed in the field appears as an asterick.

[John Walsh]

RE: blank out characters

Try #2 at uploading the font file