Password Protection and Audio

[deeverd]

Hello everyone again,

Reading through the documentation and doing a search on the forum has given me all the basic information I need to password protect a stack so that the script is encrypted. My only concern, however, comes from reading that binary files get messed up by encryption.

Therefore, how does one put audioclips and images on a password protected stack?

Are they placed on a substack that is not encrypted with the password command? If so, how are they accessed by the program when it is running?

Also, does one need to put a password command in each substack or will putting it in only the mainstack also have the effect of encrypting all the substacks?

Thanks again for all the help. Cheers, deeverd

[malte]

Hi,

where did you read it would mess up binary data? What becomes impossible is to copy objects from the protected stacks, however you can still work with existing images and audioclips in the protected stack. As for substacks, you will need to set a password on every substack you want to use as a protected stack.


Hope this helps,

malte

[Mark]

Hi Deeverd,

Since only the scripts are password protected, any other objects including sounds are not affected by the encryption. However, as Malte explained, you can no longer copy objects from the stack. The reson for this aditional security measure is that you would get access to an object's script after copying it to another stack.

Best,

Mark

[deeverd]

Hello Malte and Mark,

Thank you so much. I am very glad to hear your news that audio and images are not affected by password encryption. I will do some research tomorrow to try to find out where I got the idea that binary data can get messed up when encrypted. Now long after I purchased my Revolution license, about a year ago, I began downloading every possible source of Revolution information I could get my hands on, so sometimes it takes a while to figure out where I got a particular misconception. In this case, I am very glad that I was mistaken, and certainly there's a good chance that I misinterpreted what I read. It definitely wouldn't be the first time.

Your insight, however, brings up an important question: Only today I read in the Revolution manual that images can be used as containers. That's probably common knowledge to most programmers, but it was news to me. In that case, would it be unwise to put script into an image, or does the password command know how to separate the script from the image that holds it?

Actually, it's not that the project I'm getting ready to release in a week is really all that top secret to the point that password protection is a must, it's just that it is a program that does a very interesting magic trick, and there's a code of ethics to keeping the trick behind such "magic" a secret.

This brings me to one other quick question: I know where and how stacks can be uploaded for others to enjoy, but what about standalone password protected programs? Where does a person upload them? I'd actually like to share my little creation with the Revolution community, especially since Christmas can be a time a magic, and so it seems quite appropriate to put my magic program out during the Christmas season for others to enjoy.

Thanks again for all the fantastic help and insights you guys keep giving. I know I've received a world of help from BVG, Richard Gaskin, Klaus, Malte, Mark, and others too. It definitely means a whole lot to me. Such help keeps me so inspired that I talked three fellow teachers into purchasing Revolution Studio just last week. Again, thank you very much for your help... and for your patience with us newbies, too.

All the best, deeverd

[deeverd]

Hello Everyone,

I finally tracked down the source of my confusion concerning encryption and audio files. It came from the BIG Revdocs pdf file (6 Megs) for Revolution version 2.1.2. under the heading:

Why is a custom property garbled in a protected stack?

Here’s what the documentation said:

Setting a stack’s password property encrypts all the text in the stack, including any data in custom properties. If a custom property contains binary data – such as a sound file that you have stored in the custom property instead of as a separate file – that binary data will become corrupted if you password-protect the stack it’s stored in.

To maintain the integrity of the binary data when you want to password-protect the stack it’s in, store the binary data in a separate stack. You can password-protect the stack that contains your scripts, while leaving the separate stack (containing the binary data) unprotected.

This caution does not apply to text data in custom properties, only to binary data.

Anyway, does anyone know if that is still an issue?
Cheers, deeverd

[Mark]

Hi Deeverd,

I have never had a problem with binary custom properties and passwords. I don't think that passwords affect custom properties. Have you tried it?

Best,

Mark

[deeverd]

Hi Mark,

I've only just password protected one program now, and I have plenty of audio, images and custom properties in it, but there doesn't seem to be a problem. Perhaps it was just a glitch in version 2.1.2.

Something I didn't know about password protecting, which I'm sure that you know very well but I'm only mentioning in case another newbie follows this thread, was that I went through a lot more work than is necessary to accomplish password protection.

What I did was to create a field in the first card of the mainstack and the first card of every substack, and then to include my secret password in that field. I then made a button on each of those cards, too, that when pressed, set the password to the password fields I had created, plus it then made the field hide, plus it made the button hide, and lastly it disabled that button.

After doing all that work, I found that all I really needed to do was to go to the standalone settings and simply place a checkmark next to every stack and substack that I wanted encrypted, plus type my password into the box it provided. It was unbelievably fast and easy. I had no idea that password/encryption and creating standalones could be so simple. There was also a place to have the standalone settings check to see what libraries I needed (if any) to have included into the standalone, so Revolution even did that work for me, too. Owning Studio has definitely turned out to be a great investment. Quite impressive.

Cheers, deeverd

[deeverd]

Hello Everyone,

Correction and Update Concerning My Previous Posting:

Just in case anyone else is also learning how to create, and upload standalones, I thought that since I just accomplished the task and put my first public stack on the "Share Stack" site (a pretty sophisticated stack that I'm quite proud of), I had better correct some of the information I placed in my previous posting.

1) I discovered that "no," one cannot upload a standalone onto the Rev site.

2) I found out that although it is a breeze to put encryption into a standalone through Rev Studio, I still needed to have a backup copy of the stack and then go through the labor of hand encrypting it (as described in the previous posting) so I could share the program as a protected stack, rather than a standalone (so all that wasted work I mentioned previously turned out to be not wasted effort at all.)

3) I found out that to upload a stack through the Rev "My Space" that is found inside the running program (near the Documentation section), whether it be Media or Studio, I first had to register my email address, which had to be checked out for authenticity, and then get an unlock code to access the Rev "My Space" for uploading. Fortunately, I received the unlock code within minutes.

4) Last but not least, I was surprised to discover that in order to upload a stack, it actually had to be running in the Revolution Media or Studio environment on my desktop, and then in order for it to be sent it had to be uploaded through the "File -> Share Stack" menu on the Media or Studio program itself.

Anyway, I hope this information helps someone who is new to uploading a program.

By the way, anyone who wants to see my upload can find it in the "General" category, under the title of "mathTrik.rev." This program is a fascinating and entertaining math magic trick that is accomplished by an artificial intelligence whose name is "The Great Compudini."

Cheers, deeverd