Compute an action

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

  • list available labels
  • return a set of actions that the application should take, 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 is available on GitHub.

Compute an action for a new label

Compute the mip::Actions for a new label by using the ExecutionStateImpl defined in ExecutionState.

// Replace with valid label ID.
string newLabelId = "d7b93a40-4df3-47e4-b2fd-7862fc6b095c";
sample::upe::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 only 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 preceding example displays only the mip::MetadataAction output. For an example that displays other action types, see the sample bundles with the Policy SDK download.

Compute actions with an existing label

When you use the Policy SDK, the application reads metadata from content. The application provides this metadata to the API as part of mip::ExecutionState. ComputeActions() can handle more complex operations than applying a new label to an unlabeled document. The following example demonstrates downgrading a label from a more sensitive label to a less sensitive label. The sample simulates this process by reading a comma-separated string of metadata and providing it to the API through mip::ExecutionState.

Note

The sample uses a utility function called SplitString(). For an example, see the SplitString() utility function source.

// 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::upe::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 preceding example might result in several actions. These actions depend on the labels provided as input and the label configuration. At a minimum, the result is a single mip::MetadataAction that contains the data to remove through GetMetadataToRemove() and the data to add through 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

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