[dsdp-tm-dev] Proposal to remove Passwords pref page and extension point

[Kushal Munir <kmunir@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

After further discussion within IBM regarding the Passwords preference
page, we have decided that we can do without this preference page. The
reason for having the preference page there was mainly to allow users to
remove saved passwords. Initially, the right click "Clear password" action
cleared a saved password from memory and not from disk. Users had to use
the preference page to clear passwords from disk. The implementation was
subsequently changed to clear the password from disk as well. Also,
allowing users to add passwords through the pref page is not very useful
either, because there is no way for users to pick a saved userID/password
combination when connecting (the user is always prompted the first time).
Essentially, the pref page is not very useful.

Given the above, I'd like to propose that we drop the preference page and
the extension point, as Martin has already suggested. The password
persistance mechanism will be changed to ensure that a userID/password
combination does not just apply to a systemType, but to a combination of
the systemType and IConnectorService. Note that when the password
persistence code was initially written, we did not have the concept of an
IConnectorService. The current design for password management is outdated.
It will not handle the case where two different connector services for a
given host has the same userID with different passwords.

Please comment on this proposal and vote on it.

Cheers,

Kushal Munir
Websphere Development Studio Client for iSeries
IBM Toronto Lab, 8200 Warden Ave., Markham, ON
Phone: (905) 413-3118        Tie-Line: 969-3118
Email: kmunir@xxxxxxxxxx