Hi -

I am in the design stage of a project and would like to hear how others would set this up. Here is the scenario:

My in-house VFP app includes a security module. When the user first uses the program, it generates a random Registration Number and they call me to receive their Auth Key which is valid for a given number of days. It is generated using a mathematical formula based on the Reg #. We want to automate this process by letting the user get their own Auth Key from the company intranet.

Basically the steps are as follows:
1. User logs on to the intranet. This process determines that the user is 'valid' by matching their name in a table that is stored in Access. (This part of the process is already in place and I have no control of it)
2. User would request an Auth Key. At first I was thinking that the user would just type in their Reg #, but since it's just a field in a VFP table, I was wondering if I could somehow 'pass' the Reg # transparently to the "Auth Key Generator". In order to generate this Auth Key, I also need to pull information from the Access table that is on the server, as well as the user's VFP table.
3. The Auth Key is generated. I am thinking this would be done with a VFP COM Server (.dll).
4. Auth key is given to the user, OR better yet passed transparently and stored in the user's VFP table.
5. Information (date, version etc) is stored in the Access table (or an additional table could be created (in VFP) on the Web Server).


There is also a secondary consideration. There are some people that don't have intranet access. They would be required to call the Help Desk to receive their Auth Key. So somehow I have to have a method in which the help desk personnel can request a key FOR a user (and the proper info will still get stored back to the Access table).

My question is specifically how would you go about creating this process? Would there be 3 classes (Steps 2/3, 4 and 5) and then a separate process for the Help Desk? Would each of these processes be COM objects that sit on the Web Server? Is it even possible to 'see' and 'write to' a VFP table that's sitting on the user's machine from a COM object on the Web Server?

I have another post in the Intranet section (thread #189035), where I have been asking a lot of COM/DCOM questions. Now that I am starting to understand that end of it, I am trying to figure out (design-wise) exactly what it is that I SHOULD be trying to build.

Thanks for your input
~ellen