Compute an Action

  • Article

As previously detailed, the primary functions of the Policy SDK are to:

  • list available labels
  • return a set of actions that should be taken, based on the current and desired state

The last step in the process is to provide a label identifier and, optionally, metadata about the existing label to the ComputeActions() function.

Sample code for this article can be found on GitHub.

Compute an Action for a New Label

Computing the mip::Actions for a new label, can be achieved by using the ExecutionStateImpl defined in ExecutionState.

// Replace with valid label ID.
string newLabelId = "d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c"; 
sample::policy::ExecutionStateOptions options;

// Resolve desired label id to mip::Label and set in ExecutionStateOptions.
options.newLabel = mEngine->GetLabelById(newLabelId);

// Initialize ExecutionStateImpl with options, create handler, call ComputeActions.
std::unique_ptr<ExecutionStateImpl> state(new ExecutionStateImpl(options));
auto handler = mEngine->CreatePolicyHandler(false); // Don't generate audit event.
auto actions = handler->ComputeActions(*state);

Writing just the mip::MetadataActions returned as part of actions displays:

Add: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Enabled : true
Add: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_SetDate : 2018-10-23T20:39:06-0800
Add: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Method : Standard
Add: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Name : Contoso FTEs (C)
Add: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_SiteId : 94f6984e-8d31-4794-bdeb-3ac89ad2b660
Add: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_ActionId : 2266fbe8-a0d9-44e8-bad8-00008f2a0915
Add: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_ContentBits : 3

The PolicyHandler computes the actions and returns a std::vector of mip::Action. It's up to the application developer to apply this metadata to the file or data.

Note

The example above displays only the mip::MetadataAction output. For an example of displaying additional action types, review the sample bundles with the Policy SDK download.

Compute Actions with an Existing Label

When using the Policy SDK, it's up to the application to read metadata from content. This metadata is provided to the API as part of the mip::ExecutionState. ComputeActions() can handle more complex operations than applying a new label to an unlabeled document. The example below demonstrates downgrading a label from a more sensitive label, to a less sensitive label. This process is simulated by reading a comma-separated string of metadata, and providing to the API via mip::ExecutionState.

Note

The sample uses a utility function called SplitString(). An example can be found here

// Replace with valid label ID.
string newLabelId = "d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c";

// Comma and Pipe Delimited Metadata.
string metadata = "MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Enabled|true,MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_SetDate|2018-10-23T21:53:31-0800,MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Method|Standard,MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Name|Contoso FTEs (C),MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_SiteId|94f6984e-8d31-4794-bdeb-3ac89ad2b660,MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_ActionId|b56491d9-155f-40ff-866f-0000acd85c31,MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_ContentBits|7";

// Create ExecutionStateOptions and resolve newLabelId to mip::Label
sample::policy::ExecutionStateOptions options;
options.newLabel = mEngine->GetLabelById(newLabelId);

// Split metadata string by commas, store in vector.
vector<string> metadataPairs = sample::utils::SplitString(metadata, ','); 

// Iterate through each string, splitting by the pipe.
// Add each key/value pair to ExecutionStateOptions metadata.
for (const string& metadataPair : metadataPairs) {
    vector<string> keyValue = sample::utils::SplitString(metadataPair, '|');
    options.metadata[keyValue[0]] = keyValue[1];
}

// Initialize ExecutionStateImpl with options, create handler, call ComputeActions
std::unique_ptr<ExecutionStateImpl> state(new ExecutionStateImpl(options));
auto handler = mEngine->CreatePolicyHandler(false); // Don't generate audit event.
auto actions = handler->ComputeActions(*state);

The example above may result in several actions. These actions depend upon the labels provided as input and the label configuration. At a minimum, the result will be a single mip::MetadataAction that contains the data to remove, via GetMetadataToRemove() and the data to add via GetMetadataToAdd().

Add: MSIP_Label_d48d0e60-c766-40d6-96d3-53b2857fe775_Enabled : true
Add: MSIP_Label_d48d0e60-c766-40d6-96d3-53b2857fe775_SetDate : 2018-10-23T23:59:41-0800
Add: MSIP_Label_d48d0e60-c766-40d6-96d3-53b2857fe775_Method : Standard
Add: MSIP_Label_d48d0e60-c766-40d6-96d3-53b2857fe775_Name : General
Add: MSIP_Label_d48d0e60-c766-40d6-96d3-53b2857fe775_SiteId : 94f6984e-8d31-4794-bdeb-3ac89ad2b660
Add: MSIP_Label_d48d0e60-c766-40d6-96d3-53b2857fe775_ActionId : 447a996b-28ea-482c-b0b5-000075bd4bb3
Add: MSIP_Label_d48d0e60-c766-40d6-96d3-53b2857fe775_ContentBits : 7
Remove: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Name
Remove: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Enabled
Remove: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_SiteId
Remove: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_SetDate
Remove: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_Method
Remove: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_ContentBits
Remove: MSIP_Label_d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c_ActionId

Next Steps