SIMS 7 - Making use of Windows users for 'Trusted Auto' Logins

SIMS 7 supports two types of users:

1. SQL logins which are variants of the user name set in SIMS 
   • These are variants of the user name in SIMS
   • Users are prefixed with the database name.
   • Passwords are obfuscations of the passwords provided by the user.
   • obfuscations are one way.
2. Windows users 
   • <Domain>\<User Name>
   • NB: Only the currently logged in user can be used.

Within the Connect.ini file typically in c:\Program Files (x86)\SIMS\SIMS .Net or redirected to <Drive>:\sims there will either be:

[SIMSConnection]
ServerName=SIMSServer\SIMS22
DatabaseName=SchoolDatabase

or

[SIMSConnection]
REDIRECT=C:\SIMS

But it may have an extra line

[SIMSConnection]
ServerName=SIMSServer\SIMS22
DatabaseName=SchoolDatabase
ConnectionType=TrustedAuto

ConnectionType could also contain 'Trusted' which is a 'halfway' house.  Within the Connected SIMS environment, all systems are set to 'TrustedAuto'.

If a TI wants their application to behave like SIMS then that's quite simple to achieve.  However some more sample code might be needed.

The main application behaves like normal

static void Main()
{
  Application.EnableVisualStyles();
  SIMSInterface.SIMSDllResolution.AddSIMSDllResolution();
  Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
  Application.Run(new Form1());
}

The main form needs then to add a few lines after the form is initialised.

public static bool LoggedIn = false;
public Form1()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    // Assume failure
    DoSIMSLogon();
    if (LoggedIn)
    {
       // Happy days we are in
    }
    else

    {
        // Show message for login failure
        Application.Exit;
    }
}

The login needs to do a bit of work to read connect.ini or redirects there of:

public static void DoSIMSLogon()
{
    bool useAuto = 
        SIMSInterface.Connectini.ConnectionType.ToLower() == "trustedauto";
    if (useAuto) 
    {
        if(SIMSInterface.LoginHelper.SIMSlogin(SIMSInterface.Connectini.Server,
            SIMSInterface.Connectini.Database
            ,"",""))
        {
            LoggedIn = true;
        }
    }
}

Where the connect.ini reading code looks like

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;

namespace SIMSInterface
{

    public class Connectini
    {
        //Constants
        private const string CONNECT = "CONNECT.INI";
        private const string SERVER = "ServerName";
        private const string DATABASE = "DatabaseName";
        private const string REDIRECT = "Redirect";
        private const string SECTION = "SIMSConnection";
        private const string CONNECTIONTYPE = "ConnectionType";
        private static bool _initalised = false;
        private static string _Server = "";
        private static string _Database = "";
        private static string _ConnectionType = "";
        private static int _recursionDepth = 0;
        private static string _redirect = "";
        private static string _errorMessage = "";
        /// <summary>
        /// Read the values from the ini file and be prepared to recurse!
        /// </summary>
        private static void Initialise()
        {
            _initalised = true;
            if (_redirect == "")
            {
                _recursionDepth++;
                if (_recursionDepth > 10)
                {
                    return;  // Give up
                }
                _redirect = Path.Combine(SIMSFolderLocations.SIMSDotNetFolder(), CONNECT);
            }
            string temp = iniFile.Read(_redirect, "SIMSConnection", "REDIRECT");
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(temp)) // Potenti
            {
                _redirect = Path.Combine(temp, CONNECT);
                Initialise();
            }
            else
            {
                _Server = iniFile.Read(_redirect, SECTION, SERVER);
                _Database = iniFile.Read(_redirect, SECTION, DATABASE);
                _ConnectionType = iniFile.Read(_redirect, SECTION, CONNECTIONTYPE);
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns the last error message
        /// </summary>
        public static string ErrorMessage { get { return _errorMessage; } }
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns the SIMS Server Name
        /// </summary>
        public static string Server
        {
            get
            {
                if (!_initalised)
                {
                    Initialise();
                }
                return _Server;
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns the SIMS Database Name
        /// </summary>
        public static string Database
        {
            get
            {
                if (!_initalised)
                {
                    Initialise();
                }
                return _Database;
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns the Connection Type
        /// </summary>
        public static string ConnectionType
        {
            get
            {
                if (!_initalised)
                {
                    Initialise();
                }
                return _ConnectionType;
            }
        }
    }
}