Generating a Secure Form
When you generate a secure form it is saved as an applet that is wrapped in an html page. The html page that calls the applet can be modified offline so you can add other text and graphics that make up the page. However, these items will not be securely submitted with the form, as only information within the applet is protected by the generation process.
To generate your secure form, double-click on the 'Generate Applet' property. This will display the following dialog box :
If you have purchased FormsAssurity you will have already been sent a username and password which you will need to enter in the Registered User Details section. Doing this will enable you to generate the applet, which will continue to function whilst the certificates you associated with the form continue to remain valid.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Please make sure you thoroughly test your secure web form using the Trial option before registering. Otherwise you could end up generating an applet that does not work as you expected it to and have used up a license in the process. FORM LICENSES ARE NOT RE-ISSUED ONCE USED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
If you just want to evaluate FormsAssurity before purchasing then you should press the
button. This generates your secure web form, but it has the following limitations :1) The applet is only valid for 15 days from the date of creation
2) Text is displayed within the applet informing any recipients that it is an unregistered version of the software
3) Any keys used to protect the web form are substituted with a default key pair. The private key (used to decrypt the secure form and any attachments) and its password is sent to you with the form applet. You will therefore need to import this key into the program that you are going to use to decrypt the secure form so that you can read the results.
IMPORTANT NOTE : Everyone that generates an applet in trial mode receives the same private key and password. Trial mode is therefore only any use for testing purposes because anyone can get hold of the private key and password used to decrypt the secure forms.
On pressing either the OK or Trial button (depending on whether you registered or not) FormsAssurity will generate the applet. On completion of this process you will be prompted to save a zip file to your local drive. This zip file contains a number of files :
Bcprov-jdk14-119.jar this is the encryption and signature engine Form.jar this file contains the form itself. 'Form' is replaced with the name you have called the form. For example if the form name is 'MySecureForm' then the jar file will be called 'MySecureForm.jar'. In the trial version the word 'Trial' is displayed in front of the form name so you can clearly distinguish your trial applets from production ones. For example, 'Trial_MySecureForm.jar'. Secure_form.html this is the html page that loads the applet. This html file can be edited (using your normal html editor) to include other text and graphics in order to make it consistent with your web site look and feel. The .html filename is not relevant to FormsAssurity and can be renamed to one of your choosing. Alternatively you can paste the code that calls the applet (html BODY code) into one of your existing html template files.NOTE : The page that loads the applet does not have to be html. It can be ASP, JSP, PHP, CGI, CFM or whatever the web site has been configured to use.
Trial_key.asc the private key used for test purposes. (You will only receive this key if you press the Trial button.) Trial_key_password.txt the password for the private key. (You will only receive this key if you press the Trial button.)The html file calls and loads the form (form.jar) which in turn calls and loads the encryption and signature engine (Bcprov-jdk14-119.jar). This engine carries out the encryption and digital signing of the form, and then sends the protected information back to the server. These files will have to be uploaded to your web server.