Many organizations and institutions require a warning notice or splash screen to be displayed on their computer systems. It's possible to create a custom version of the BlackWatch password dialog that displays additional graphics or text to satisfy this requirement, without making any changes to the BlackWatch application itself.
Starting in version 1.5.2, BlackWatch looks for an optional user-provided file named "BlackWatch Custom Resources," located in the Preferences folder in the System Folder. If this file exists, any dialog resources it contains will override their counterparts in the application. This feature makes it easy to customize BlackWatch for your particular requirements, and you can distribute a custom resource file independently from the application.
About the Federal Systems examples
Sample custom resource files are provided for the convenience of BlackWatch users within specific branches of the United States Government, where a warning notice must be displayed on computer systems. To use one of these custom resource files, just copy it to your Preferences folder. You do not need to use these files unless you are a U.S. Government employee and your department requires the warning notice. The text may or may not apply to your particular organization, so check the wording carefully.
In both examples, the height of the password dialog (DLOG ID=129) has been increased, adding a warning notice (PICT ID=128) above the text field which is displayed whenever you are required to type your BlackWatch password. In addition, the password dialog's idle timeout in seconds (Idle ID=128) has been increased, giving you a chance to actually read the notice before the dialog is dismissed.
How can I add my own custom text or graphic to the Password dialog?
You'll need to be familiar with the use of a resource editing utility, such as ResEdit, to modify the "BlackWatch Custom Resources" file. You can get started by making changes to one of the included example files. It's safer to add or modify items in a dialog box, rather than removing existing items, as BlackWatch expects certain items (such as the buttons and text fields) to always be present.
An alternative approach to modifying dialog boxes is simply to add a PICT ID=1000 resource to the custom resource file, then display the "Mac OS" clock.
To create new PICT resources, you'll need a graphics application, preferably one that can create "drawings" (layered text and graphic objects that can be edited independently after you've created them), as opposed to "paintings" (bitmaps). An object-based PICT usually requires far less memory than an equivalent bitmap image. The warning notice PICT resources in the sample files were created using the Text tool in an AppleWorks "Drawing" document, then copied to the clipboard and pasted directly into ResEdit.
A word of warning: if the resources you provide are larger (in bytes) than the original versions, you will need to increase the size of BlackWatch's memory partition. This is particularly true with large PICT resources.
Disclaimer
Installing or modifying a "BlackWatch Custom Resources" file is always done at your own risk. I can't test BlackWatch with all possible customized resource files, or be responsible for any crashes that might occur if your custom resources have been incorrectly created. If a custom resource file works for you, that's great.
