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Extending the UI for Proprietary 802.1X Security Methods

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If the Native 802.11 IHV Extensions DLL supports proprietary 802.1X-based security extensions, the Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL can extend the Network Configuration user interface's (UI's) Security tab to allow user configuration of these extensions. For more information about extending the Native 802.11 802.1X module, see Interface to the Native 802.11 802.1X Module.

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_KEYEXTENSION to the method's ExtType parameter.

    Property extensions of type DOT11_EXT_UI_KEYEXTENSION do not provide security settings that are mutually exclusive to the standard Microsoft security settings. Instead, this type of security property extension provides IHV-defined 802.1X settings that are used together with the Microsoft 802.1X settings.

  2. Queries the friendly name of the 802.1X security extension by calling the extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty::GetDot11ExtUIPropertyFriendlyName method.

  3. Queries the extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyIsStandardSecurity method to determine whether the extension supports a security type extension. If the method sets the fIsStandardSecurity parameter to FALSE, the operating system will add the extension's friendly name to the Security type list on the Security tab.

  4. When the end user selects an item from the Security type list, the operating system responds by calling the IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyGetSelected method for each extension to match the selection of the end user. The first extension that returns a value of TRUE for the method's pfIsSelected parameter is determined to be the selected extension. After this is confirmed, the operating system highlights the selection made by the end user.

  5. Calls the selected property extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyHasConfigurationUI method to determine whether it has a custom UI property page that can be displayed. If the method returns a value of TRUE for the method's fHasConfigurationUI parameter, the operating system will display a Configure button next to the Security type list.

    If the end user clicks the Configure button, the operating system will call the selected property extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty::DisplayDot11ExtUIProperty method to display the custom configuration UI for the extension.

  6. Calls the selected property extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyGetDisplayInfo method. Through this method, the Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL can return other property extensions to the Security tab of the Native 802.11 Network Configuration UI.

    The IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyGetDisplayInfo method returns a list of the items that the selected property extension adds to the Security tab. Each entry in the list is formatted as a DOT11_EXT_UI_PROPERTY_DISPLAY_INFO structure.

    For Windows Vista, the Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL can only add items to the Encryption list on the Security tab. As a result, each item in the list of DOT11_EXT_UI_PROPERTY_DISPLAY_INFO structures must have a DOT11_EXT_UI_DISPLAY_INFO_TYPE of DOT11_EXT_UI_DISPLAY_INFO_CIPHER in order to be included in the Encryption list.

  7. When the end user selects from the Encryption list, the operating system will call the selected property extension's IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertySetDisplayInfo method to process the profile data that is associated with the end user's selection.