At 05:54 PM 14/12/2004 +1100, you wrote:

> > In Fb 1.5 a user application doesn't need to know the path to the
> > security
> > database, or any database. Whether you invoke a command-line
> > utility from
> > a remote client, or use the Services API, you can use an alias.
><snip>
> >
> > ./heLen
> >
>
>getting users to install aliases (i.e. get them to type into a file) is far
>more prone to error then just asking the server where the file is. It's too
>simple to use the API and there's no errors.

Oh, don't get the users to do it. According to your installation plan
(which seems horribly complicated and unfriendly to me) you're already
asking the user to elect where the database file will go. So you already
have the string. Why can't your script simply pick up that string and
install the db alias itself?

Similarly, one way or t'other, installation of the server will make the
path to security.fdb available. Don't even suggest that the end user
meddles with aliases.conf...you have more than enough on hand to write this
stuff into your installer. If your app needs to connect to security.fdb,
alias it at install time and connect the app to an alias called secur, or
whatever.

I see no need at all be passing paths around.

I'm sure you test rigorously, so you'll already know that connecting to the
database directly in order to add and change users doesn't work, since the
password string then gets stored in clear. There used to be a UDF around,
I think in FreeUDFLib, which would encrypt the string for you..

./heLen