This chapter is a quick introduction to the programming concepts of DidiSoft OpenPGP Library for .NET.

Before you begin

The library provides two development scenarios:

• The first option is to store your public and private OpenPGP keys in files on the disk. This is the fast and simple way of development.

• The second choice is to keep your keys in a KeyStore object.

Each function of the library that operates with OpenPGP data has overloaded versions that support the above two options.

Main classes

Below is a diagram that shows the main classes contained in the library:

The main namespace is DidiSoft.Pgp and it contains the most widely used classes:
PGPLib provides the basic OpenPGP cryptographic functions.
RevocationLib provides OpenPGP key revocation functionality.
KeyStore provides composite storage of OpenPGP keys.

Exceptions

The basic exception thrown in case of an OpenPGP error is DidiSoft.Pgp.PGPException. In most cases you have to implement a catch clause that handles it.

The namespace  DidiSoft.Pgp.Exceptions contains subclasses that represent a specific situation, for example WrongPasswordException indicates that the supplied password for a private key is incorrect. Please check the documentation for each function in order to see which subclasses of DidiSoft.Pgp.PGPException are thrown.

Summary and what’s next

This chapter describes in few words the main classes provided by DidiSoft OpenPGP Library for .NET.

If you have already installed the library you can continue with the online examples.

You can also check the demo projects that ship with the library available in C# and VB.NET. They are located in the Examples folder in the evaluation version and production copy.

Demo projects

PGPLibExampleCS (C#) and PGPLibExampleVB (VB.NET) are command line projects and demonstrate both working with keys in files and with keys in a KeyStore.

KeyToolCS and KeyToolVB are a WinForms applications that demonstrate operations with the KeyStore class.

FileToolCS and FileToolVB are a WinForms applications that show how to perfom OpenPGP encryption, decryption and signing with keys located in files.