"Protected" Macros to be used for passwords/credentials in deployment steps

[gribble]

in one of my deployment scripts i have some macros that contain the passwords to be used on COM+ components, and windows services (i have a application to set the user/password credentials on the service using WMI).

I have a custom action which shows a .NET c# GUI at the start of the script, to get details of the deployment to be performed, and to write all the macros back into VBPro. My GUI masks out the passwords in the text boxes, and when it dumps to the VBP log file a list of the macros it has set, it also masks out these macro values with asterisks (these COM+ and services are very secure and the passwords cant be revealed to anyone).

Now what i would like, is if a macro could somehow be "protected" - (maybe a new type in addition to System, Project, Temporary etc?) so that in VBPro on the macro screen, it's value is masked out when looking at it, but in the steps where it is used, the proper value is of course used, but any logging of this, or hovering over the step or using ctrl-M etc to expand this macro will NOT reveal the value! (this could be done by the expand macro routine replacing any incidence of the macros known value in the expanded text with asterisks, assuming it could be enhanced to know when it's expanding it for preview/logging purposes or when actually executing/running a step)

Does anyone else think this would be useful!

In my case, the deployment is run by a regular system personnel type role, but a high level manager or auditor needs to attend, to type the password/credentials to be used for the services. So i cant have the password being revealed to anyone - including the person running the deployment script!

Of course it can be done manually - but im sure we all realise the benefit of having an automated process, and collecting pertinent information for a deployment once at the start, then having it run through the whole thing.


Admin note: Implemented in v7