Password input in Pick Basic

[Philip Klunk]

I'm looking for a routine that would take user input for a new password, but display only asterisks (or some other symbol) as the user types.  I have been using the ECHO OFF command, but that confuses users, since they don't see any results from their typing.  The IN function could work, but it doesn't seem to be very handy with the enter key.  Any suggestions?

Phil Klunk

mvBase

[Steve Douglas]

You should be able to just have the user input 1 byte at a time while in ECHO OFF and display one * on each input.  Then collect those bytes into another variable until ENTER is pressed. But I may be missing something.

 

Please no flames from the group on any perceived poor programming practice but...

Something like...

PROMPT ''
TOTAL.INPUT = ''; RESP = 'X'
ECHO OFF
LOOP UNTIL RESP = ''
INPUT RESP,1
CRT '*':
GOSUB 900
REPEAT
CRT
CRT 'YOUR PASSWORD IS ':TOTAL.INPUT
ECHO ON
STOP
900 * INPUT LOOP *
TOTAL.INPUT := RESP
RETURN

 

Should display something like

*****
YOUR PASSWORD IS 1234

[Martin Phillips]

Hi all,

 

Not much help to the original poster who is on mvBase but maybe useful for others, QM supports

   INPUT var, 20 HIDDEN

to show asterisks in place of the input data.

 

 

Martin Phillips
Ladybridge Systems Ltd
17b Coldstream Lane, Hardingstone, Northampton NN4 6DB, England
+44 (0)1604-709200

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to
the "Pick and MultiValue Databases" group.
To post, email to: mvd...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe, email to: mvdbms+un...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit http://groups.google.com/group/mvdbms

[George Gallen]

The real fun begins when you want the backspace to function!
 
George
 

---

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 06:09:36 -0800
From: sdou...@mbms.net

To: mvd...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [mvdbms] Re: Password input in Pick Basic

[donr...@yahoo.com]

Philip,

Here's something I whipped up, it similar to Steve's with a couple of additions such as where to position the input field and maximum number of characters to accept, etc.

No guarantee to be bug free.

****************************************************

     GET.PASSWORD

0001 SUBROUTINE GET.PASSWORD(COLUMN, ROW, DLENGTH, PASSWORD)

0002 *

0003 * 11/25/2014, Don Robinson, donr...@yahoo.com

0004 *

0005 * This routine will accept input and display * in place of the

0006 * input characters.

0007 *

0008 PROMPT ''

0009 ECHO OFF

0010 PASSWORD = ''

0011 CRT @(COLUMN, ROW): STR(' ', DLENGTH): @(COLUMN, ROW)

0012 FOR X = 1 TO DLENGTH

0013    INPUT CHAR,1:

0014    IF CHAR = '' THEN EXIT

0015    PASSWORD := CHAR

0016    CRT @(COLUMN+LEN(PASSWORD), ROW): '*':

0017 NEXT X

0018 ECHO ON

0019 RETURN

************************************************************

Good luck,  

 

Don

[donr...@yahoo.com]

Philip,

Add a ":" to line 11.

 

Don Robinson

[MarioB]

Changing the input statement to:

     INPUT RESP,0

will allow certain control characters (backspace) to be detected and handled appropriately.

[Tony Gravagno]

For D3 users, not mvBase:  The D3 Input command unfortunately does not have support for a password like QM. However, it does have a "fill expression" which handles the issue with backspaces. The idea is that if you have a prompt with 8 characters you might want to display 8 underscores, so as you enter data the underscores are overwritten, and if you backspace they are automatically replaced. I just tried using an asterisk within that fill.exp value. It does not achieve the goal desired for a password input, but I think this would be useful in other apps.

Another way to approach this - (untested, might be completely wrong) : If the end-user is using Accuterm, launch a window with SUI to do special kinds of input.

For the OP : many applications have a common input routine for the entire application. The code is called or Included. Eventually all Input statements are replaced with this routine which is enhanced over time to support special cases. I encourage this sort of development (perhaps using the code provided in this thread as a base), especially since it's a step toward abstracting an application from a character-based UI, separation of logic from UI, and on toward GUI.

T

[Philip Klunk]

Thanks to Steve Douglas and Don Robinson for getting my engine started.  Here's my final code, which accommodates the backspace:

      SUBROUTINE GET.PASSWORD(COLUMN, ROW, DLENGTH, PASSWORD)

      *
      * 11/25/2014, Don Robinson, donr_work_at_yahoo.com
      * 11/26/2014, modified by Phil Klunk, phil.klunk_at_cenveo.com
      *

      * This routine will accept input and display * in place of the

      * input characters.
      *
      CR = CHAR(13)
      BS = CHAR(8)
      PROMPT ''
      ECHO OFF
      PASSWORD = ''
      CRT @(COLUMN, ROW): STR(' ', DLENGTH): @(COLUMN, ROW):

      FOR X = 1 TO DLENGTH

         INPUT CH,0:
         IF CH = CR THEN GOTO EXIT
         IF CH = BS THEN
            PASSWORD = PASSWORD[1,LEN(PASSWORD)-1]
         END ELSE
            PASSWORD := CH
         END
         CRT @(COLUMN,ROW):STR('*',LEN(PASSWORD)):STR(' ',DLENGTH-LEN(PASSWORD)):@(COLUMN+LEN(PASSWORD)):
      NEXT X
EXIT: *
      ECHO ON
      RETURN
      ************************************************************

[keith....@datacom.co.nz]

Look up FINP program in PickWiki - it has a password entry section, although it does a lot more.

 

Regards, Keith

[keith....@datacom.co.nz]

Sorry, It's titled FINP in the code, but it is under FieldInput in the BASIC source code section

[Philip Klunk]

Thank you for the suggestion.

Phil Klunk

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to
the "Pick and MultiValue Databases" group.
To post, email to: mvd...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe, email to: mvdbms+un...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit http://groups.google.com/group/mvdbms

--

Phil Klunk
pkl...@gmail.com

[Philip Klunk]

Found it.  Lotta code!

On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 10:17 PM, <keith....@datacom.co.nz> wrote:

Sorry, It's titled FINP in the code, but it is under FieldInput in the BASIC source code section

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to
the "Pick and MultiValue Databases" group.
To post, email to: mvd...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe, email to: mvdbms+un...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit http://groups.google.com/group/mvdbms

--

Phil Klunk
pkl...@gmail.com