Hello,
Hennie Pieterse wrote:
> After a long and tedious struggle I have finally figured out that
> the Maicrosoft Smarcard Base Components that is part of the Platorm
> SDK is perfect for VB and C++. So if anyone wants to write a
> SmartCard App in Vb or C++, these tools will make it a lot easier.
Well, thanks for the advice of ... using PC/SC in fact, but there are
a few points that are omitted here:
1. this solution only works on Windows platforms (that might be
the case for VB too so that's not a big problem maybe). Some
people might plan ahead the time where their application will be
ported on Macintosh or Linux (although there is an implementation
of PC/SC for this platform and other Unixes).
More importantly:
2. Using OCF, You will get not only drivers for readers (CardTerminal
components) but also software modules that help you interact
with a SmartCard above the APDU/T=0/T=1 transport protocol level.
These modules (CardServices components) offer an API at a service
level; they can use each other; you can inherit one module
functionality and add your own etc. In PC/SC, as far as I know,
the only defined service API is CAPI (Crypto API) for cards
such as the GPK, Cryptoflex, MFC, etc. In OCF, the equivalent
is present in 'security' and 'signature' packages, but OCF goes
far beyond that: in the new 1.2 version, it offers APIs (and also
sometimes readily-usable code) for Database services (in the
'database' package, based on the ISO7816-7 standard), for file
management (based on ISO7816-4), and also for cards that can
support multiple applications such as EMV, JavaCard, or MULTOS.
And it is just a start: OCF has a process of evolution (see the
http://www.opencard.org/work/ page) and more APIs/reusable code
can be added.
Last point:
3. I think that it "should be" possible to use a C++ application
that talks to an OCF card-access server. In Java2, interactions
between Java applications and applications written in other
languages is possible using CORBA and I think it works well
with C++. Has anyone tested this with OCF already? (I haven't
tested it but I see no reason what it shouldn't work). Also, on
the Windows platform, I heard a long time ago of a bridge allowing
to use Java Beans as ActiveX components (similary to what happend
with PC/SC when used by a VB application). Has anyone tested that?
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that because of these points,
you shouldn't use PC/SC! If it fits your needs, use it. I just wanted
to highlight that it might not be suitable for all needs..
Cheers,
Christophe.
= Utopia would be free speech, free software, AND free beer. --Davo. =
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> Visit the OpenCard web site at http://www.opencard.org/ for more
> information on OpenCard---binaries, source code, documents.
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