emdiesse

I am making a database for a small company (my dads friends buisness) and I have 5 weeks to do all the programming and such.

I want to make it using VB.net. I would like it to use text files rather than another program because I would like to learn how plus they won't need any extra programs.

I just don't know where to start. So I thought I would make this thread so I can post my querys and such and hope that I will get some helpful replies .

Thanks.

Basically at the moment I have got the login form done and I don't know whether to start on the menus because I want it to go to certain menus depending on the user level (Admin, Staff, etc)

I would like to have a text file that holds user information such as passwords etc. So it will look up the username in the file then compare the password input the password in the text file and let them log on.

Is there a way to make the passwords illegable to humans in the text file? Not a major problem because it doesn't need major security though.

OpenLoop

A good practice when designing a System is to sit down and take your time to design the big picture (assuming you already gathered the requirements from the customer). When you obtain a general idea of how your system will be, you start looking into details. After that you start programming. So if you don't know how your menues will look like yet, then you haven't done enough design.

As for your question about password, you need to look into enryption. This might help for you case: http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.Asp?ID=4520

emdiesse

Oh I have designed, I know how I want it, I just don't know how to start the programming bits, don't know what to do first. I have got the login form done and the 3 different menus.

I now want to make it so that the login form will gather info from the user text file (password) compare it with the password fields entry then show the relevant menu

emdiesse

I have attached a text file of how I would like to design the text files and how I would like to use them

Please help thanks

ignore the fact that login.txt changes to user.txt in the txt file, It was a mistake user.txt should be login.txt

Attached Files

LOGINdotTXT_example.txt (2.2 KB, 49 views)

OpenLoop

What did you need help in specifically? (reading the file, writing to the file,...)
I'm not a VB.NET expert, but if you ask a defined question somebody will be able to help you.

BTW, since you already started on the login funtion, finish it and make it funtional before moving on to the menu system.

emdiesse

I would like to at this moment in time read from the text file, at a later date I will need to write to it and to others and read from others.

Yeah, I have not finished the menu, just made the forms with nothing on just so I have something to work with.

Thanks

ZenMasterJG

using text files as a database is usually a bad idea (trust me, i've done it before.)
take a look at hooking VB.NET up to a MySQL database or similar, its not hard, and it'll save a lot of brain-ache in the long run.

Rory

Or even use (gasp) XML. I'm lazy and would simply serialize a hashtable which is perfectly safe if the text file can be trusted or is encrypted (i.e. someone won't get you to deserialize malicious objects).

emdiesse

I origionally thought of XML but I don't know how they work, I'm guessing text files would be easier to use?

emdiesse

On the other hand XML seems to be more like I want because you can set stuff out in tags, Which I would like to use to find stuff using the database. Such as, If I wanted to search by Surname It would search for surname tags and print whats within it along weith the information associated with the surname.