An application definition is essentially a list of instructions that SecureLogin follows in order to perform various tasks on various windows. For example, for a Windows application (*.exe), an application definition is written for each executable file that you want SecureLogin to act upon. In that application definition, you are able to assign different instructions to each dialog box or screen that the executable file or application might produce. By doing this, you have the choice of acting upon only the login panel, only selected windows, or every window that is produced by the executable file, such as account locked, invalid username, invalid password, back-end database is down, password expiry, and so on.
SecureLogin follows the application definition from left to right, top to bottom. However, with the use of flow control commands, such as Call, it is possible to skip, repeat, or jump to certain parts of the application definition.
With the use of Dialog Specifier commands, it is possible to assign individual sections of an application definition to the different windows an executable file might produce. This allows the login dialog box, for example, to be treated differently from the Error Message box and so on.
Currently, there are 65 different commands in the Novell SecureLogin application definition language. Many of the SecureLogin commands such as Repeat and Dialog, have one or two commands that are used to close them.
Application definition commands have the capability to read from and write to variables. These variables enable SecureLogin to use corporate application definitions, while each individual user's secrets are securely stored in the directory. It is also possible to read attributes, such as the user's full name and phone number, from attributes in the directory.
SecureLogin is not only able to write information to the screen, but is also able to read from it with the use of commands such as ReadText. This can be used to extract usernames, domains in use, error messages, and other useful information. Variable Manipulator commands can then be used to perform calculations, break apart information, and join it back together again.
All these features come together to form an extremely powerful language that is able to accomplish almost any task that is required.
Using interpretable characters in Novell SecureLogin application definitions has implications for definitions that are created in, or copied from, and pasted from a Microsoft Word.
For example, when you are writing an application definition that requires a “-” (dash) in the command syntax, make sure you use a short "–" or en dash (Unicode glyph U+2013 (Hex) or 8211(Decimal) and cannot be an extended "—" or em dash as generated in Microsoft Word.
In Microsoft Word, when you type a space and one or two hyphens between text, Microsoft Word automatically inserts an ASCII dash or en dash ( – ). If you type two hyphens and do not include a space before the hyphens, an em dash ( — ) is created.
Similarly, when you are writing an application definition that requires quotation mark in the command syntax, make sure you use a straight quotation mark (Unicode glyph U+0022 (Hex) or 0034 (Decimal) or the ASCII printable character 34). For quotation mark syntax example, see Section 4.2.9, Quotation Marks.
In Microsoft Word, when you type a question mark, Word automatically changes straight quotation marks to curly (or smart) quotes, as you type unless the Word , features are disabled.