How to integrate Visual Guard in WPF application

• Add the assemblies of Visual Guard as references of your project.
• Integrate Visual Guard in the code of your application.
• Create a Visual Guard repository and declare your application by using the Visual Guard console. This repository will contain all security items (users, roles, permissions ...) of your application.
• Generate the Visual Guard configuration files by using the Visual Guard console. These configuration files will be needed to connect your application to the repository.
• Grant read/write permissions to the repository.

This demo shows how to integrate Visual Guard in WPF application: Play Demo

In order to use Visual Guard, you must add references to Visual Guard assemblies:

• Open the solution of your project in Visual Studio.
• In the solution explorer, expand the project node.
• Right-click the Project node for the project and select Add Reference from the shortcut menu.
• In .Net tab, select the 4 assemblies
  1. Novalys.VisualGuard.Security
  2. Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.WinForm
  3. Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.<RepositoryType> (Files, SQLServer or Oracle)
  4. Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.<ApplicationFrameworkType> (Depending on type of application's framework, whether .NetFramework or .NetCore)
  And, then click the Select button, and then click the OK button

Note
In the list of assemblies, Visual Studio can display different versions of the Visual Guard assemblies. You must select the assembly corresponding to the version of the framework and target (x64, x32, or Any CPU) used in your project.

If the assemblies does not appear in this list you can use the Browse tab and select them in the directory <Visual Guard installation directory> Visual Guard Console

Note
Once the Visual Guard assemblies are referenced into project, you need to mark "Copy Local" property to "true" for each assembly.

Note
You must add either Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.NetFramework or Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.Core (Depending on type of application's framework)

Description of Visual Guard assemblies:

• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security contains the main Visual Guard classes.
• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.Files contains the classes needed to access to a file based repository.
• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.SQLServer contains the classes needed to access to a repository stored in a Microsoft SQLServer database (SQLServer 2005 or higher). Available only in Visual Guard Enterprise Edition
• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.Oracle contains the classes needed to access to a repository stored in an Oracle database (8i or higher). Available only in Visual Guard Enterprise Edition
• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.WPF contains all classes based on WPF control. This assembly is needed only if you use the forms provided by Visual Guard to authenticate, change a password or select a role. If you want to use your own form you do not need to add a reference to this assembly.
• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.NetFramework contains all classes required to support .Net Framework applications. This assembly is needed only if you want to integrate Visual Guard in .net framework applications.
• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.Core contains all classes required to support .Net Core applications. This assembly is needed only if you want to integrate Visual Guard in .net core applications.

There are 1 main classes in Visual Guard:

• Novalys.VisualGuard.SecurityVGSecurityManager: This class provides the main access point for interacting with Visual Guard. It provides authentication and authorization features, it allows to set the security of the object of your application.

• Novalys.VisualGuard.Security.WPFVGLoginForm : This class is the default authentication form provided by Visual Guard. This class is very easy to use and is fully integrated with Visual Guard. You can use your own form, to authenticate a user. In this case you must call the Authenticate method provided by the VGSecurityManager class.

You must load the security before all other code. In this case you will be sure to set the security of all the objects of your application. Visual Guard will not automatically set the security of this windows. In this case, you must set the security of this window after loading the permissions of the user (see the method SetSecurity).

In the xaml of the App.xaml file you have to change the startup. You have to the event "Application_Startup".

<Application x:Class="HowToWPF.App"
 xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
 xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
 Startup="Application_Startup">

In the code behind, in the event Application_startup you have to call the login page⁽¹⁾.

using Novalys.VisualGuard.Security;
...
private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
{
      Application.Current.ShutdownMode = ShutdownMode.OnExplicitShutdown;

      //Call the login Page
      VGLoginForm uLogin = new VGLoginForm();
      bool? result = uLogin.ShowDialog();
      Application.Current.MainWindow = null;
      Application.Current.ShutdownMode = ShutdownMode.OnMainWindowClose;
      if (result.Value == true)
      {
          Window1 win = new Window1();
          win.Show();
      }
      else
      {
          MessageBox.Show("Authentication Error");
          Application.Current.Shutdown(1);
      }
}

The following example demonstrates how to authenticate a user. This code can be inserted in the click event of the OK button in a login form ⁽¹⁾:

using Novalys.VisualGuard.Security;

VGAuthenticationState state = VGSecurityManager.Authenticate(txtUserName.Text, txtPassword.Password);
if (state.IsFailed)
{
    DialogResult = false;
    if (state.IsCanceled) return;
    if (state.IsCredentialInvalid)
    {
        if (state.IsLastBadLogin)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Invalid user or password. The next bad login will lock your account.");
        }
        else
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Invalid user or password");
        } 
    }
    else if (state.IsUserNotAuthorized)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("user not authorized to log on the application");
    }
    else if (state.IsUserAccountExpired)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("your account is no more valid. Contact your administrator");
    }
    else if (state.IsUserAccountNotYetAvailable)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("your account is not yet available.");
    }
    else if (state.IsUserAccountLockedOut)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("your account is locked. Contact your administrator.");
    }
    else if (state.MustChangePasswordAtNextLogon)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Your password is not secure enough. You must change it.");
    }
}
else
{
    DialogResult = true;
    if (!state.IsPasswordSecure)
    {
         MessageBox.Show("Your password is not secure enough. You must change it.");
    }
}

The following example demonstrates how to authenticate a user with Windows account. This code have to be inserted in the Application_startup event ⁽¹⁾ :

using Novalys.VisualGuard.Security;
...
VGAuthorizationState state = VGSecurityManager.LoadSecurity(System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent());
if (state.IsFailed)
{
    if (state.IsUserNotFound)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Your are not declared in the security repository");
    }
    else if (state.IsUserNotAuthorized)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Your are not authorized to log on to this application");
    }
}
else
{
    Window1 win = new Window1();
    win.Show();
}

To secure Window class in your application, you must do the following:

• Add the Novalys.VisualGuard.SecurityVGISecurable interface to your class.

• Add the call to the SetSecurity method at the end of the constructor.

using Novalys.VisualGuard.Security;
...

public partial class Window1 : Window, VGISecurable
{
    public Window1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        VGSecurityManager.SetSecurity(this);
    }
}

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