Hide a field that contains a password

[Wizard Systems]

I am looking for a way to store an email password in a datafile (for emailing of course) but after the password is entered (or while entering) I would like the characters to be replaced with asterisks (*). Upon saving the layout should never show the password in plain text.

TIA,

Jim

[stanley]

Jim:

You can use a bullet font for the purpose - just remember that if someone can copy the bullets, they can still pull the data out just by changing the font. There's a version called Bulletz out there somewhere, which is free. I can't find the link right now.

-Stanley

[Sxeptomaniac]

You could also just set the password field as no access in permissions, then use a script with full permissions showing a custom dialog (and you can have the data show up as asterisks in the options there) in order to enter the data.

You could then set a display field on the layout as a calc field to display asterisks if the password field isn't empty. That would prevent the cut and paste issue.

[QuinTech]

Hi, Jim. Another alternative is to use the hidden portal trick to make the password disappear when entered correctly:

1. Make a field named "IncorrectPassword" which is a calc number field that evaluates to 1 whenever the password is incorrect.

2. Make a field named "AlwaysOne" which is a calc number field that evaluates to 1 (always and forever). I include such a field in every database i create, because it has many uses.

3. Create a relationship from IncorrectPassword to AlwaysOne. Whenever the password is incorrect, this relationship will be valid.

4. Make a portal based on this relationship and place the password field inside of it. (You should not use the password field pulled through the relationship -- use the parent-level, that is, the native field.)

5. When the password is incorrect, the password field will display because the relationship from IncorrectPassword (=1) to AlwaysOne (=1) is valid. Once the correct password is entered, the password field will disappear because it will suddenly be located within an invalid portal.

HTH,

Jerry

[-Queue-]

If the table has a large number of records in it, then it's faster to use a calc that returns the serial, and make your relationship from this field to serial.

[QuinTech]

Good point, JT. I had limited my thinking to a global field, which was part of a project i was just working on. The example i gave would really only work well for one record.

You would need to double-key the relationship on the serial and the IncorrectPassword, no?

[-Queue-]

I don't think so. A calc of Case( test for incorrect password; serial ) related to serial should be sufficient.