Author Topic: Default Account  (Read 15586 times)

Offline quixin

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« Reply #15 on: August 03, 2005, 02:12:31 PM »
I agree with Charles.  To me, username under default settings just means the username that you usually use.  In some cases where that user name is not available I would have to obviously create an account with that specific username.   What part of that field did you guys find confusing?  Wouldn't it be more confusing for the Default account settings entries to no match that of the account specific entries?



Offline Eric H. Jung

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« Reply #16 on: August 03, 2005, 03:25:04 PM »
Sounds good. Let's leave it. Romeo, I think tanstaafl and quixin did a good job of documenting the fields:

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username under default settings just means the username that you usually us

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I (almost) always use the same username for all of my online accounts

By the way, taanstafl, you wrote:
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With a username specified in 'Defaults', I don't have to set up an actual 'account' in PM to take advantage of the auto-populate functionality
But that's not true. You can use auto-populate password fields without having specified a username. Username is optional and just scrambles the generated password more.

Offline tanstaafl

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« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2005, 03:30:32 PM »
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By the way, taanstafl, you wrote:
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With a username specified in 'Defaults', I don't have to set up an actual 'account' in PM to take advantage of the auto-populate functionality

But that's not true. You can use auto-populate password fields without having specified a username. Username is optional and just scrambles the generated password more.

Correct, I just wasn't specific enough...

1. I *want* to have my username added to the mix when generating the password, and

2. Once you get the auto-populate working for the username (and maybe other optional fields?), it will auto-populate it (them) too, as a bonus.

Without this field in the Defaults - unless I'm missing something really obvious - the username could never get auto-populated, unless a specific Account was pre-defined in PM.

Offline Eric H. Jung

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« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2005, 03:58:46 PM »
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Without this field in the Defaults - unless I'm missing something really obvious - the username could never get auto-populated, unless a specific Account was pre-defined in PM.
You have very high expectations of auto-populate!   :D

I feel like i'm breaking bad news to you. There is no way for PasswordMaker to know which field in a webform is the username field without being "trained" (i.e., told in advance). I could write heuristics to try to determine it (e.g., search the <form> for a field with the word "user" or "name" and auto-populate that field), but ultimately the heuristics won't work 100% of the time.

The only way to reliably populate the username field -- or any field for that matter besides a password field -- is to tell PasswordMaker the name of the field you want to populate. The reason password fields are different is because they are marked in HTML with the password attribute. There is no equivalent attribute to mark username fields or other "special" fields.

If you'd like me to build the heuristics I describe above, I can do that for 0.8.1... it wouldn't be too difficult. But you should set your expectations that occasionally the wrong field would get populated with your username. I suppose for these sites you could setup specific accounts if you visit them often.

Offline tanstaafl

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« Reply #19 on: August 03, 2005, 04:22:43 PM »
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Without this field in the Defaults - unless I'm missing something really obvious - the username could never get auto-populated, unless a specific Account was pre-defined in PM.

You have very high expectations of auto-populate! biggrin.gif

I feel like i'm breaking bad news to you. There is no way for PasswordMaker to know which field in a webform is the username field without being "trained" (i.e., told in advance). I could write heuristics to try to determine it (e.g., search the <form> for a field with the word "user" or "name" and auto-populate that field), but ultimately the heuristics won't work 100% of the time.

<snip>

If you'd like me to build the heuristics I describe above, I can do that for 0.8.1... it wouldn't be too difficult. But you should set your expectations that occasionally the wrong field would get populated with your username. I suppose for these sites you could setup specific accounts if you visit them often.

Thanks for the explanation - and yes, I guess I was 'assuming' that there was some standard way of designating a username field.

I like your suggestion of heuristics, and if it isn't difficult, would love to see it added at some point in the future. Maybe you could even have the heuristics 'learn' when the User corrects a wrong guess by PM? For example, if PM makes a mistake, the User could hit a special key combo, and PM prompts for the correct field, then after the User clicks the correct field, PM fills it in then updates its heuristics? Understand, I know less than nothing about this subject, which I'm sure is pretty obvious - maybe I'm getting a little crazy here... ;)

That said, how hard would it be to allow an option to middle-click (or something) in the username field and have PM auto-pop the Default username in whatever field you click in?

Anyway, I'd still like the Username in the Defaults if for no other reason than it would be inherited by new accounts when creating them.

Offline Y.E.

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« Reply #20 on: August 03, 2005, 05:03:08 PM »
Eric,

I don't know what your "licensed, doctorate-level psychologist" wife would say, but I think the problem with you is you are trying to make everyone happy. But you can't. I'm not happy for example. I want PasswordMaker to get my breakfast ready in the mornings. You could rename it to PBM, PasswordandBreakfastMaker. Can you make it into 0.8?

Offline Romeo

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« Reply #21 on: August 03, 2005, 05:07:23 PM »
Boy, I should've just left that can of worms alone, eh ?  But I think that I now have a pretty good way of splaining that there username field, after reading with much interest all this back and forth.

Eric, to make a long story short, just leave the username fields where it is.  But. what about the counter field ?

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It is impossible to create a fool-proof system, because fools are ingenious.

Offline Eric H. Jung

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« Reply #22 on: August 03, 2005, 07:20:20 PM »
The counter field will be moved next to the eggs/pancakes/croissant/waffles drop-down.

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« Reply #22 on: August 03, 2005, 07:20:20 PM »