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netfile_redacted

This repo allows someone to develop the code for pulling NetFile data. The code for pulling files are run on a schedule using a GitHub Action workflow and the workflow can be run manually.

Enabling NetFile Access

When the GitHub workflow runs under ChenglimEar or without credentials on a local machine, the NetFile pull will be simulated using files in netfile_samples. To enable the workflow to call the NetFile API, this repository has to be forked to a different organization/owner. It will require an authorized user to update the fork with appropriate credentials for accessing NetFile, which will have to be added as a secret in the forked repository. In other words, these two secret variables have to be set up in the forked repository:

  • NETFILE_API_KEY
  • NETFILE_API_SECRET

Enabling Google Drive Upload

The GitHub workflow has the ability to upload redacted files in netfile_redacted to Google Drive. To enable this, the following has to be done:

  1. A service account has to be created in a project with access to the Google Drive API. It's probably best to create a GCP project specifically just for access to the Google Drive API and create the service account in that project.

  2. A folder on Google Drive has to be shared with the service account. This is done by getting the e-mail of the service account and sharing with that e-mail instead of a real person's e-mail.

  3. The name of the shared folder on Google Drive has to be set in a clear text variable on GitHub named GDRIVE_FOLDER. This currently should be OpenDisclosure for the production repository and netfile_redacted (the default) for the development repository.

  4. A private key (in JSON) has to be created for the service account. The private key (contents of JSON file) should be placed in a secret variable, SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_JSON, on GitHub. There's no need to remove white spaces like newlines.

If SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_JSON is not set, the redacted files will not be copied to Google Drive.

When the GitHub workflow runs on caciviclab, it will run a test for downloading the redacted files to a download directory. The GitHub workflow on caciviclab should not be configured to use the same Google Drive folder that is used in the production repository, which pulls the real data from NetFile. This will avoid overwriting the production data.

The upload and download can be tested locally by naming the key file as .local/SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY_JSON.json. The .local directory is in the .gitignore file, so the file won't be checked in accidentally. The GDRIVE_FOLDER environment variable should be set to the Google Drive folder used for local testing.

Contributing Changes

Production Pull Required

This repository exists in two organizations. One is for production and one is for development. The production repository is set up to access the NetFile API and the development repository in caciviclab is set up to process sample files instead of calling the API.

When this repository is set up to access the NetFile API in production, write access will be limited to protect the credentials used for NetFile. To contribute changes, it will be necessary to use the repository in caciviclab. The production repository is a fork of the repository. Here is GitHub documentation about forks: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/fork-a-repo. Only those who have access to the production repository can pull the latest changes approved in the caciviclab repository.

In short, contributions go through a two step process:

  1. Submit pull requests to main branch of the development repository in caciviclab
  2. Ask owners of the production repository to merge changes from the development repository to the production repository.

Redaction Configuration

To add new redactions or modify an existing one, simply modify the config.yaml file, which contains a list of paths to all the fields to redact for each type of data.

For example, suppose we want to redact line1 in the address list for a simplified filer entry like this:

[
  {
    "filerNid": "123",
    "candidateName": "Smith, John",
    "addressList": [
      {
        "addressTypes": "Disclosure, Mailing",
        "line1": "210 Broadway",
        "line2": "",
        "city": "Oakland",
        "state": "CA",
        "zip": "90000"
      }
    ],
  }
]

The config.yaml file should have an entry like this:

redaction_fields:
  filers:
  - addressList.[].line1

Notice the use of [] to indicate that all elements of the address list should be redacted by replacing the value in line1 with ***. In other words, if we have more than one address listed, the line1 field of all the addresses will be redacted.

The redacted file will look like this:

[
  {
    "filerNid": "123",
    "candidateName": "Smith, John",
    "addressList": [
      {
        "addressTypes": "Disclosure, Mailing",
        "line1": "***",
        "line2": "",
        "city": "Oakland",
        "state": "CA",
        "zip": "90000"
      }
    ],
  }
]

TODO

  • Make sure code that calls NetFile API works when credentials are provided and puts files in the right place