C# Project: Personal Storage System

Question

1.00/5 (3 votes)

See more:

So I started a project where I type my username, password, and what account its apart of into a drop down list and have it out put to a check list box. I wanted to know if there is a way to save the data I input and change it when I need to.

Thank You

Posted 25-May-13 17:08pm

Onionknight

Add a Solution

Comments

Francisco T. Chavez 25-May-13 23:24pm

This sounds a lot like the beginning of a password manager. The username and account part won't be too difficult, but keeping the passwords safe from hacking is something that will take a lot of work. Are you sure want to do this?

Dave Kreskowiak 25-May-13 23:53pm

Uhhhh.....yeah. No, computers were never designed to store, retrieve and edit data entered by a user.

OF COURSE YOU CAN! The question is what are you doing with this and where are you thinking of storing this data??

[no name] 26-May-13 0:07am

To Chavez: I want to do this, it'll be good practice.

I was thinking outputting to a database, but I was wondering if there was something other then going through a database.

Francisco T. Chavez 26-May-13 1:04am

Truth be told, you can output this to just about anything the computer can output stuff to. XML, binary file, JSON, a database, the application settings file, ini, raw text, etc. As long as it's something that the computer can write to and read from, it can be done. To be honest, this part may be one of the easier parts.

There are a few additional things that you might want to consider:
* Do you only want to be able to store the values for one account or multiple accounts?
* Do you want to be able to see what secret questions you used for that account and what the answers were?
* How are you going to go about encrypting and decrypting the password in case someone makes a copy of what you're storing (this is the part that stopped me in my tracks)?
* These next questions can be ignored if you only have one account being stored.
* How are you going to go about access this information?
* How are you going to go about inserting new information?
* Do you want to be able to add tags to your accounts so that you can group things together by subject and stuff (for example: email, video gaming, forms, porn, etc.)?

Francisco T. Chavez 26-May-13 17:31pm

If my last comment scared you off, please don't let it do that. An account password storage and retrieval system will take some work, but it's a good project for starting out your summer.

Start with the most relevant questions first.
* When you create an account, what information do you need to give them?
* Out of that information, which items do you want to be able to look up? (password would be my guess)
* What items do you want to use to look up your information? (again I'm going to take a guess here and say: account service & account name)

The thing is, when it comes to storing and retrieving information, you need to set a format (schema) for that information. The closer you get to the correct schema early on, the less changes (and work) you'll have to do. I'm not saying it has to be perfect, but it's always nice to get it in the ballpark.

[no name] 26-May-13 17:49pm

Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it. Its given me a lot to think about. Right now my form is simple with just the account type, the affiliated username, and its password. The account type represents the system the account was created for. Example CodeAcademy. I'm making a schema diagram right now. I want the system to incorporate multiple accounts as I want to make it move to a mobile platform later on.

Francisco T. Chavez 26-May-13 21:56pm

As I mentioned before, the part I got stuck on was deciding how to protect the passwords that I was storing. I'm not sure how helpful this will be. But, I'd advise you to read this, to help you get started on the security aspect of the application.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e970bs09.aspx

This is the one part where I can't provide you with very much help, but it may also be the most important part. Placing it on a mobile platform will make it even more important.

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)