Hello All,
Hoping someone may be able to help me ...
I have developed an application that uses MS Excel as the base and I have written several thousand lines of VBA code to perform financial analysis for homeowner associations.
What I would like to do is find a solution that users can employ that will look up their user name, verify if they have valid password and then allow them to use the MS Excel workbook. The steps I would like are ...
The ideal online app would be managed by me. I would authorize users and generate a password. If the user is a commercial user, my thought is require an unique username/password for all users. If the user is a non-profit or say a homeowner association, the username / password would be a bit more generic. At the current time, I ask that commercial users purchase the application for each user, but I have no way of enforcing that. HOAs are authorized to distribute the software within their HOA among multiple users.
I have looked at applications such as DoneEx (Home) and have explored creating executables of the workbook (.EXE file). This solution seems fine with me and the DoneEx compiler seems to work well. But what I do not like about DoneEx is their implementation of the registration key which is a small key file that identifies the user's computer ID and stores that ID in the key file. If the user is not using that PC, then the workbook will not open. What I do not like about this solution is that the user needs to send me their computer's ID number and I then would generate the key file and send it back to them. They store the file in a directory on their PC. This limits the use of the workbook to a single PC and I prefer the approach that I enumerated above ... i.e., an online app that validates the user's credentials.
I have explored the option if password protecting the Excel workbook, but I shy away from that approach as workbook passwords are easily hacked. And, that would not prevent the unauthorized distribution of the workbook.
I believe that it might be possible to use a Cloud-Based User Authentication service such as AWS or Azure, but I am at a loss of how to set that up. According to an AI search I performed, I might be able to set up a cloud-based database that I would manage that the user then enters their username/password and if the credentials are valid, the service sends back a token to the Excel workbook allowing access. That sounds like what I need, but have no idea of how to go about setting that up. I expect that there is not a foolproof solution to this. But, I believe there is fairly widespread unauthorized distribution of my application, especially among commercial enterprises.
Hoping someone can give me some ideas ... perhaps,
Thanks and best regards,
Steve
Hoping someone may be able to help me ...
I have developed an application that uses MS Excel as the base and I have written several thousand lines of VBA code to perform financial analysis for homeowner associations.
What I would like to do is find a solution that users can employ that will look up their user name, verify if they have valid password and then allow them to use the MS Excel workbook. The steps I would like are ...
- The user opens the Excel workbook
- The user is connected to the internet and is prompted to enter their user name (preferably their email address) and password.
- If authorized, the online application then allows further access to the Excel workbook on the user's PC.
- If not authorized, the online application would then give the user a message and close the workbook on the PC.
The ideal online app would be managed by me. I would authorize users and generate a password. If the user is a commercial user, my thought is require an unique username/password for all users. If the user is a non-profit or say a homeowner association, the username / password would be a bit more generic. At the current time, I ask that commercial users purchase the application for each user, but I have no way of enforcing that. HOAs are authorized to distribute the software within their HOA among multiple users.
I have looked at applications such as DoneEx (Home) and have explored creating executables of the workbook (.EXE file). This solution seems fine with me and the DoneEx compiler seems to work well. But what I do not like about DoneEx is their implementation of the registration key which is a small key file that identifies the user's computer ID and stores that ID in the key file. If the user is not using that PC, then the workbook will not open. What I do not like about this solution is that the user needs to send me their computer's ID number and I then would generate the key file and send it back to them. They store the file in a directory on their PC. This limits the use of the workbook to a single PC and I prefer the approach that I enumerated above ... i.e., an online app that validates the user's credentials.
I have explored the option if password protecting the Excel workbook, but I shy away from that approach as workbook passwords are easily hacked. And, that would not prevent the unauthorized distribution of the workbook.
I believe that it might be possible to use a Cloud-Based User Authentication service such as AWS or Azure, but I am at a loss of how to set that up. According to an AI search I performed, I might be able to set up a cloud-based database that I would manage that the user then enters their username/password and if the credentials are valid, the service sends back a token to the Excel workbook allowing access. That sounds like what I need, but have no idea of how to go about setting that up. I expect that there is not a foolproof solution to this. But, I believe there is fairly widespread unauthorized distribution of my application, especially among commercial enterprises.
Hoping someone can give me some ideas ... perhaps,
Thanks and best regards,
Steve
