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Extending Wireless Security Properties

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This topic describes how a Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL extends the properties of the Security tab that is displayed through the Network Configuration user interface (UI). In this situation, the Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL adds properties to the Security tab for proprietary security settings that are mutually exclusive from the Native 802.11 802.1X module.

The Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL can also extend the security and encryption methods that are supported by the Native 802.11 802.1X module. For more information about how the DLL does this, see Extending Microsoft 802.1X Security Settings.

For more information about the Network Configuration UI and other Native 802.11 components, see Native 802.11 Software Architecture.

Before it displays the Security tab, the operating system does the following:

  1. Queries the Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL for its security property extensions through a call to the IDot11ExtUI::GetDot11ExtUIProperties method. The operating system passes a value of DOT11_EXT_UI_SECURITY to the method's ExtType parameter.

    If the Native 802.11 IHV UI Extension DLL supports one or more properties of type DOT11_EXT_UI_SECURITY, the DLL returns (through the method's ppDot11ExtUIProperty parameter) a list of IDot11ExtUIProperty COM interfaces for the security property extensions that are supported by the DLL. For more information about the COM interfaces used to extend security properties, see Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions COM Interfaces.

  2. Queries the friendly name of the security extension by calling the extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty::GetDot11ExtUIPropertyFriendlyName method. The operating system adds the friendly name to the list of proprietary security settings at the bottom of the Security tab.

  3. If the end user selects an item from this list, the operating system will call the IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyGetSelected method of each security extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty COM interfaces. The first extension that returns with a value of TRUE for the method's pfIsSelected parameter is determined to be the selected extension. The selected entry in the list will then be highlighted.

  4. Queries the selected setting's IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyHasConfigurationUI method to determine whether it has a custom UI property page that can be displayed. If the method returns with the fHasConfigurationUI parameter set to TRUE, the operating system will add a Configure button next to the list of proprietary security settings.

If the selected proprietary security setting supports a configuration UI and the end user clicks the Configure button, the operating system calls the setting's IDot11ExtUIProperty::DisplayDot11ExtUIProperty method to launch the custom UI. The operating system passes the current profile data for the setting through the method's bstrIHVProfile argument.

The profile data is formatted as an XML fragment bounded by the <IHV> </IHV> XML tags. The XML data within these tags is specific to the IHV's implementation and is opaque to the operating system. For more information about the format of the Native 802.11 profile data, refer to the documentation within the Microsoft Windows SDK.

If the profile data is changed through the custom UI, the setting's IDot11ExtUIProperty::DisplayDot11ExtUIProperty method must do the following before returning:

  • Allocate a string buffer for the modified profile data and return a pointer to the buffer through the method's bstrModifiedIHVProfile parameter. Note  The setting's IDot11ExtUIProperty::DisplayDot11ExtUIProperty method must not modify the data that is referenced by the bstrIHVProfile argument.

     

  • Set the pbIsModified argument to TRUE.