Protecting ShapeSheets from access; Copyright / Password protection

[Mazen]

Hello,

I have developed a pretty elaborate class of shapes that draws coverage contours for things like radars, surveillance cameras, etc. Basically you enter a dozen or so data elements through the Shape Data pull down menus specifying the parameters of each object, and the contour shapes change size, color, etc on the fly to match your input. This saves a huge percentage of design time for those working in the field and it has the potential to becoming a powerful engineering tool. The problem is, there does not seem to be a way that I know of to protect the shapes once created, and any Visio user can basically crack the shape open and play with the virtually hundreds of calculation lines there, thus endangering the integrity of the shape itself, as well as copying the work without any kind of copyright protection.

Is there a way to protect the shape sheets with a password or something, similar to how you can protect cells or sheets in Excel, for instance. I need to show a Copyright to this class of shapes, so that I can offer them as a product to those that might want to use them.

Basically, I would like to give the users the ability to use the shapes, but not to break them apart or see the formulas if that's possible.

If anyone can provide some guidelines on how to do this, or point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

[Yacine]

Hi Mazen,
to my knowledge there is no such function in Visio, BUT if you write your own editor (eg in Visual Basic), using the Visio Viewer OCX(?) you could hide the editing functions from the users and limit the functionality to the necessary minimum.
Thats of course the hard path, but also the safest.
If on the other hand you just want to hide the calculations, then put them in a VBA macro and restrict the viewing on it.

[Mazen]

Thanks, Yacine. It's too bad that we can't lock shapes.

[vojo]

lock shapes is different that password protect....If you want to lock the format or position or size of a shape, go to behaviors.   If you want to make sure casual user cannot disable protect...go into shape sheet and use guard(1) on the various protections you want.

[Mazen]

Thanks, Vojo.

I will be experimenting with the GUARD function a little more. I have not really explored it too well before.

Thank for the help.

[Visio Guy]

If you are deploying a solution and not just shapes, you can alter the Visio UI -- the menus and toolbars.

You could remove all the Show ShapeSheet menu items, and perhaps even get rid of the keyboard shortcuts. (It seems to me this had some problems in the past, so I'm not 100% sure about shortcuts, accelerators and the context menu)

[Mazen]

Actually, I do need any protection to be inherit within the shapes themselves, because I intend to offer those shapes for purchase. The amount of calculation they do can save serious engineering and drafting time. It's just too bad that we can't lock up shapes by a password. We can do it in Excel, but not in Visio.

Thanks for your reply,

[Visio Guy]

Hi Mazen,

Where do you anticipate needing the protection? I have thought about this a lot, and have some thoughts on the idea.

1. ShapeSheet logic is pretty hard to look at and understand, so I don't know how many people would get much out of looking into your ShapeSheet. One would need to write some automation tools to break a ShapeSheet down and make sense of it.
2. Shapes being "stolen" is something that can happen regardless of whether the ShapeSheet is locked or not. This is a separate issue, really.
3. Trial versions of shapes are difficult, because once a user has them, they pretty much work, unless you go to extreme measures.
4. People who go to BitTorrent or wherever to get pirated/free stuff probably aren't your best customers. Unless they are just casual users that want to try and might buy if they like what they see.

For these reasons, my (unproven) philosophy is that a good video demo is the way to go. By clearly showing what your shapes look like, what they can do, and how to use them, you can protect your content, while giving customers confidence that the no-return-policy software they are about to buy is worth the money.

I'd love to hear other's opinions on this too!

[Mazen]

Hi VisioGuy (Sorry, I don't know your real name)

The data of the shapes include things like camera sensor size, resolution, lens focal length, zoom level, etc. Now, I could custom-make a shape for say, Sony cameras and offer them to Sony, but if another manufacturere gets hold of the shape, they can go in and simply change the data that make that shape a specific Sony camera. They can replace it to represent any other camera out there. That would hijack the shape to perform all the work for a totally different camera that it was not intended for.

The calculations are pretty cumbersome, yes, and I still have to put considerable effort into perfecting them, but any potential hijacker would not have to mess with them at all. They can just go in to the ShapeData section and change the lens data to have a totally different lens. Thus, making use of the shape for a totally different product.

I hope this explains it. I can send you a copy of the shape if you give me your email.

Thanks again for your valuable input.

[wapperdude]

I guess it comes down to your target audience. 

If it's another business, you can have NDA's in place.  Won't necessarily prevent the pirating, but, does give you a legal basis for action. 

Unless your audience needs a Visio document, send them a PDF or some other format which totally hides the innards of the shape.

If you're marketing your shapes as part of design tool, then it's pretty much an integrity issue with whomever buys the product.  You might be able to use "bogus" formulas, such that the "visible" values don't make sense.  It's extra work, but, it will provide protection from the average snoop. 

Just some thoughts.

Wapperdude

[Mazen]

Yes,

I've thought about using bogus values, and bogus fields, but it's just not cool to do that. It would have been much cleaner if all they could see was a specific set of shape data and that's it. Well, too bad. I think I'll have to rely on the type of customers being sold to.

Thank for the reply.

[meks]

We do have the same problem!!!!

Have you thought of a solution yet??

Please do inform me thanks.

[Mazen]

Hi,

Not really. It depends if you're trying to protect the shape from damage (in which case you can use the GUARD() function). Or if you're trying to protect the shape from reverse engineering. Fo the latter, I don't know any easy fix.

Too bad.