nuixconnectorscript

Nuix Ruby module that executes scripts and reads to/from stdin/out. The listen method in this module is used to hook into Nuix, execute commands or scripts, and stream data back.

Usage

To run:

& 'C:\Program Files\Nuix\Nuix 9.0\nuix_console.exe' -licencesourcetype dongle C:\Scripts\nuixconnectorscript\lib\nuixconnectorscript.rb

Stdin/out is used to write to/from nuix. A new line is used to delimit both input and output messages, so all new lines must be escaped.

Input

The default input, is a command JSON which can be used to define new functions or execute existing ones:

{
  "cmd": "log_msg",
  "ishelper": false,
  "isstream": true,
  "def": "def log_msg(args={})\n  m = [args['m1'], args['m2']]\n  log m.join(' ')\nend",
  "args": { "m1": "hello", "m2": "there!" },
  "casepath": "C:\\Nuix\\Case"
}

Parameter	Required	Description
cmd	✅	The name of the function. Used to execute an existing function if no function definition is provided.
ishelper	⬜	See helper functions
isstream	⬜	See streaming data
def	⬜	Function definition. Create new / replace existing function.
args	⬜	The arguments to be passed to the function.
casepath	⬜	If set, opens the Nuix case in this path. If another case is opened, closes that case first.

The only reserved cmd keyword is END_CMD which is done by default. It's used to stop the nuix process: {"cmd":"done"}.

Nuix case - current, open and close

There are two helper functions that can be used to open and close Nuix cases:

Function	Description
`open_case(path)`	Opens a case at the given path. If a case is already open, closes that case first.
`close_case`	Closes `$current_case`. Does nothing if no case is opened.

The currently opened case is tracked in the $current_case global variable. This variable is set to a Case object returned by $utilities.case_factory.open or nil if no case is currently opened.

If the casepath argument is specified in the command JSON, then the script checks if that case is already opened and, if not, opens that case.

Helper Functions

When ishelper is set to true the function definition is evaluated but not run. This makes the function available to any other function.

For example, sending the following two commands:

{"cmd":"helper","def":"def helper\n  log \'hello\'\nend", "ishelper": true}
{"cmd":"run_helper","def":"def run_helper(args={})\n  helper\nend"}

Results in the following output:

{"log":{"severity":"info","message":"hello","time":"...","stackTrace":""}}
{"result":{"data":null}}

Streaming data

When isstream is set to true any subsequent messages are not processed as a command JSON, but are appended to a Queue object called datastream in args.

The first message received is saved as the end-of-stream token. It must be used again to tell the process when the data stream is finished.

All other messages in a datastream will be added to the queue as-is, without any processing.

See Data stream in Examples.

Responses

All output is written to stdout. There are four types of messages: log, result, error, and entity.

Error messages are written to stderr and the same message is logged to stdout using a log severity of error.

Response helpers

Function	Output
`log(message, severity: :info, timestamp: Time.now, stack: '')`	`{"log":{"severity":"info","message":"Starting","time":"2021-01-13 11:04:47 +0000","stackTrace":""}}`
`return_result(result)`	`{"result":{"data":"whatever is returned from a function"}}`
`write_error(message, timestamp: Time.now, location: '', stack: '', terminating: false)`	`{"error":{"message":"Could not parse JSON: abc","time":"2021-01-13 11:06:27 +0000","location":"","stackTrace":""}}`
`return_entity(props)`	`{"entity":{"prop1":"value","prop2":1}}`

Log severities

  LogSeverity = {
    :fatal => 0,
    :error => 1,
    :warn  => 2,
    :info  => 3,
    :debug => 4,
    :trace => 5
  }

Function result

Functions always return a result object when they are finished. If nothing was returned from the function, the result data will be null:

{ "result": { "data": null } }

Nuix Ruby version support

Currently, minimum NUIX version support is 7.4.0 - this is when Nuix upgraded to Ruby version 2.3.3 (see release notes)

Nuix-Ruby version table

Nuix	Ruby
6.2	1.9.3
7.0	2.2.3
7.4	2.3.3
8.2	2.5.3
8.8	2.5.7

Support for Nuix 7.0 - 7.4

Is possible (untested), but the Queue class is missing some functionality that is currently used for data streaming and would need to be implemented.

If not using streaming, the rest should work.

Tests pass if stream context is filtered out: bundle exec rspec -f d -t ~stream

Examples

Test if a Nuix case exists

Nuix function:

def does_case_exist(args={})
  begin
    the_case = $utilities.case_factory.open(args['path'])
    the_case.close()
    return true
  rescue => e
    log("Case does not exist: #{e}")
  end
  return false
end

JSON to store the function and execute it (needs to be sent on one line):

{
  "cmd": "does_case_exist",
  "def": "def does_case_exist(args={})\n  begin\n    the_case = $utilities.case_factory.open(args['path'])\n    the_case.close()\n    return true\n  rescue => e\n    log(\"Case does not exist: #{e}\")\n  end\n  return false\nend",
  "args": {
    "path": "C:\\Nuix\\TestCase"
  }
}

JSON to run does_case_exist again:

{ "cmd": "does_case_exist", "args": { "path": "C:\\Nuix\\AnotherTestCase" } }

Input and output:

OUT: {"log":{"severity":"info","message":"Starting","time":"2021-01-13 11:20:17 +0000","stackTrace":""}}
IN : {"cmd": "does_case_exist","def":"def does_case_exist(args={})\n  begin\n    the_case = $utilities.case_factory.open(args['path'])\n    the_case.close()\n    return true\n  rescue => e\n    log(\"Case does not exist: #{e}\")\n  end\n  return false\nend","args":{"path":"C:\\Nuix\\TestCase"}}
OUT: {"log":{"severity":"info","message":"Case does not exist: Location does not contain a case: C:\\Nuix\\TestCase","time":"2021-01-13 11:20:38 +0000","stackTrace":""}}
OUT: {"result":{"data":false}}
IN : {"cmd":"does_case_exist","args":{"path":"C:\\Nuix\\AnotherTestCase"}}
OUT: {"result":{"data":true}}
IN : {"cmd":"done"}
OUT: {"log":{"severity":"info","message":"Finished","time":"2021-01-13 11:23:10 +0000","stackTrace":""}}

Data stream

Just a test. No Nuix required to run this example.

Function:

def process_stream(args={})
  ds = args['datastream']
  while ds and (!ds.closed? or !ds.empty?)
    data = ds.pop
    break if ds.closed? and data.nil?
    log("Received: #{data}")
  end
end