Password Mask Character

Question

We have an old 32bit PowerBuilder application (3rd party) that was written for Windows XP and, although it runs under Windows 8, we have noticed that the password masking character is a different sized character (XP is a small black circle and Windows 8 is a larger black circle). This is a problem because the application was written to limit the space available in the password field (22 characters in XP but only 13 in Windows_8). Our password policies require 15-character minimum passwords, and obviously these wont fit when we run the application in Windows 8.

Because the character sizes change with the operating system (not application side), we suspect the problem is with a .dll file or a font that is being referenced by the PowerBuilder application. Are there any ideas where the password mask is being called?

Answer 1

As a workaround, maybe you could be able to type more characters if you increase the edit width?

You could give a try with either uuspy or WinCheat.

If it helps, you could then find a mean to script the send of a WM_SIZE to the control or inject a dll to do so...

Answer 2

I'm afraid you're looking for a complicated solution to a simple problem.

I'm guessing this is a DataWindow-independent (i.e. not inside a DataWindow object) SingleLineEdit. There are generally two reasons you can't type all the characters you want (regardless of the Password attribute) into one of these fields:

1. You have a non-zero value set in the Limit attribute. However, since your limitation is varying, this likely isn't your culprit.
2. You have the attribute AutoHScroll (automatic horizontal scroll) set to FALSE (or unchecked in the IDE painters). This means when the field fills up graphically, you can't enter more characters. (This also means, with a variable width font, which most are, you fit more i's into the field than W's; this isn't a good way to go when data length is important. In fact, it's seldom a good way to go at all.)

Your symptom sounds like AutoHScroll is turned off (the default is on when you drop and SLE on the window). Check that back to on, optionally set the Limit attribute to something that makes sense (if the original intention was to constrain the number of characters entered, and it was just implemented poorly), and my guess is that you'll be good to go.

Good luck,

Terry