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Extending the UI for Standard 802.1X Security Methods

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If the Native 802.11 IHV Extensions DLL supports proprietary encryption extensions that can be used with the operating system's 802.1X security methods, 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 TRUE, the operating system will not add the extension's friendly name to the Security type list on the Security tab.

    In this situation, the extension adds functionality to the security settings that are supported by the operating system. The method specifies the type of security setting it extends through the dot11ExtUISecurityType parameter.

  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. When the end user selects an item for a standard security setting from the Security type list, the operating system calls the IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyGetDisplayInfo method of the property extension that extends the security method. Through the IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyGetDisplayInfo method, the Native 802.11 IHV UI Extensions DLL can return other items to be added to the Security tab of the Native 802.11 Network Configuration UI.

    The IDot11ExtUIProperty::Dot11ExtUIPropertyGetDisplayInfo method returns a list of the extended display properties that are supported by the property extension. Each item 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 entry within 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.

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