Change Character to *

[Alan Lucas]

Form A
1. Character field.
2. When inputting data, say ABCD, would like **** to be displayed instead of the characters.

Form B
Same field but the field displays ABCD

Looked around the Forum and the help files but I cannot nail it down.

Regards

Alan

[rmcgaffic]

Re: Change Character to *

Allan,

If you are looking for a way to disguise the letters, you might set the font to TrueType Euro Sign. When this font is used, the text is displayed in little rectangles. I found that this font with font color of Gray-25 works quite nicely on the password field on my custom login form.

Last year, I too was looking for a way to do this with astericks, but couldn't find a way. With Visual Studio, it's easy to do so, but remember this is Alpha Five.

Bob McGaffic
Pittsburgh, PA

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Change Character to *

Form A
1. Character field.
2. When inputting data, say ABCD, would like **** to be displayed instead of the characters.

Form B
Same field but the field displays ABCD

Looked around the Forum and the help files but I cannot nail it down.

Regards

Alan

Why not use the Prompt for a Password action script element or ui_get_password() that have the masking capability built in to get the string into a variable. Then store that variable in your field.

[aschone]

Re: Change Character to *

When a font displays as boxes that typically means the font is not installed on the computer. If someone does install that particular font, I would hazard to guess that the characters will display on the form for them.

I do not use version 9 but in version 8 I use a xdialog with a Text Box and the "P" directive

http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...t_Box_P___.htm

[Alan Lucas]

Re: Change Character to *

Bob/Stan/Andrew,

Thank you for you suggestions. I Changed the Font to Wingdings on Form A and Arial on Form B. Works exactly as I needed, plus Wingdings is on nearly all computers. Simple approach but effective.

Thanks

Alan

[aschone]

Re: Change Character to *

What is the purpose of using a different font on form A?

Are you attempting to mask the value or are you trying to protect the value from being known?

Based on the request for converting to the '*' character I assumed you want to protect the value. But by using Wingdings as a font all you are doing is masking the value.

Wingdings is a 1 to 1 translatation. I.e the char 'A' is always converted to the same symbol. Hence once I learn the symbol conversion I can just as easily read the symbols as I would regular text.

[G Gabriel]

Re: Change Character to *

Bob/Stan/Andrew,

Thank you for you suggestions. I Changed the Font to Wingdings on Form A and Arial on Form B. Works exactly as I needed, plus Wingdings is on nearly all computers. Simple approach but effective.

Thanks

Alan

1-Windings will not give you * on all characters
2-If your objective is to mask the characters, Winding won't do it. Any one could copy the characters and view them in any other font.

xdlg offers password control, forms don't. I am pretty certain, not exactly certain but I think I am definitely maybe certain, that this question was asked before and an example was attached showing how to do it in a form.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Change Character to *

Good point, if you then copy the contents of the field and paste into word, wordpad, whatever the translation happens for you.

[Alan Lucas]

Re: Change Character to *

Thanks for the heads-up on Wingdings.

Form A is an input form which can be seen by a number of people. One input field is sensitive data and I want to disguise it in case the person inputting leaves the terminal or looks away, then the data cannot be read. Form B is a managers form with secure access where the data needs to be readable.

Thanks

ALan

[G Gabriel]

Re: Change Character to *

Thanks for the heads-up on Wingdings.

Form A is an input form which can be seen by a number of people. One input field is sensitive data and I want to disguise it in case the person inputting leaves the terminal or looks away, then the data cannot be read. Form B is a managers form with secure access where the data needs to be readable.

Thanks

ALan

The best way to disguise it is to make it invisible: i.e. font matches the background.

[Alan Lucas]

Re: Change Character to *

Hi Gabe,

How will you know if you've inputted data and how much?

Alan

[aschone]

Re: Change Character to *

Making font the same color as background is akin to "security thru obscurity". Highlight area with mouse and you will see the text, copy and paste to another location, for easy data grab.

If the field needs to be protected from viewing by normal user, best way is to simply not put the field on the form.

If the user needs to know if the field is populated you can use a calculated variable that evaulates to .t. or .f. based on if the field is blank or not.

[G Gabriel]

Re: Change Character to *

Hi Gabe,

How will you know if you've inputted data and how much?

Alan

Change the color of the text with the OnSave event. Come to think of it, why don't you hide the whole darn thing, or better off if no activity for a certain period of time, disable the object or the whole form or the whole application until the user returns back and sign on with a password.

[CALocklin]

Re: Change Character to *

Another issue with these methods is that the user who types in the initial info can't tell what's being typed. So, the wrong data could be entered without knowing it.

The following assumes it's acceptable to display the value as it's being typed - which may or may not be true in your case.

The way I got around this with some credit card entries was to allow the user to type the number without changing the font. As soon as the cursor leaves the field, the CanWrite field rule event encrypts the data. I do the same for the expiration date. Now the data is protected even if someone steals a copy of the table. Those who have permission can push a button to see the decrypted numbers and they can also print reports that decrypt the number during the print process. In addition, the input form displays the last 4 digits (decrypted, of course) and the expiration date - but the data remains encrypted.

FWIW:
(A) The encryption routine I used also checks to see if the value has already been encrypted - just to make sure it doesn't get double, triple, etc. encrypted.
(B) For those of you who are saving credit card info in a table, be aware that the "standard" set by the credit companies (i.e., I don't think it's a law but you might have a problem if you don't do it) is that all saved credit card numbers and expiration dates should always be encrypted and the CVV (authorization number on the back of the card) should never be saved.

[MikeC]

Re: Change Character to *

Although Cal's method is the way I would most likely incorporate, the original request of

Form A
1. Character field.
2. When inputting data, say ABCD, would like **** to be displayed instead of the characters.

Form B
Same field but the field displays ABCD

seems doable using the form's OnKey event in conjunction with a conditional object with two fields or even just another field that is hidden and disabled....

My short testing seems to accomplish it.....but unless a way is used to handle most of the keys in a small script the scripting would be rather long to do for each and every key there is.