NmDatafile

NmDatafile is a library that defines a file format that makes adding files and strings to an easy, selfencrypting file that can use either asymetric or symetric cryptography.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'nm_datafile'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install nm_datafile

Code Example

nmd = NmDatafile.new(:shippable_file)

nmd.sales = [1,2,3,4]
nmd.ready_for_shipment_batch = 1

nmd.save(path_to_file)

nmd_loaded = NmDatafile::Load(path_to_file)

nmd_loaded.sales #=> [1,2,3,4]

Usage

First define a file Schema. For instance, if you wanted a file type called 'shippable_file' and you wanted it to have many records of 'sales', 'line_items', etc, and you wanted your file to have a string of data named 'ready_for_shipment_batch', then you would define it like so. 

$nm_datafile_schemas = { 
  schemas: {
    :shippable_file => {
      data_collections: [:sales, :line_items, :discounts, :addresses, :ubws, :encryption_pairs], # name the data that is input into the NMDatafile as an array
      data_objects: [:ready_for_shipment_batch]
    }
  }
}

First define a schema for your NmDatafile. For instance, if you wanted a file called 'data_file' and you just wanted a "strings" attribute where you can store an array of encrypted strings, then you could set the below schema. 

NmDatafile::SCHEMA = {
  schemas: {
    :data_file => {
      data_collections: [:strings], # name the data that is input into the NMDatafile as an array
      data_objects: [:file_owners_name]
    }
  }
}

That's actually the default schema, so you don't need to set it, it's located in lib/nm_datafile/schema.rb, fyi :)

Now that you've got a schema set up, you can start using your data and easily serialize data into an encrypted file format. 

nmd = NmDatafile.new(:data_file)
nmd.strings #=> []
nmd.strings << "hi"
nmd.file_owners_name = "dsj"
nmd.save_to_string # This is a binary string for programmers, you can write it to a file
nmd.save_to_file('/tmp/file.zip') # this saves your strings to a file

Ok, you've done all that, but your data is visible as that it's a zip file. So to turn sneaky mode on, you'll want to 

NmDatafile.Load('/tmp/secret_file')

Testing Note

Some cyphers are hardcoded in the tests... so if you make changes to the crypto algo, your tests will fail until you fix this...

TODO

  • Finish algo so it uses front door keys... encryption needs to be encrypted with the front door key
  • Make it so the rails app sets up the schema file the proper way
  • Specify encryption type in file schema? (symmetric vs asymmetric)
  • Allow exporting data as a stenographic cat.jpg file.
  • Better API for adding a new schema, and better default
  • Bring in tests
  • Allow PGP to be used to encrypt the file

Contributing

  1. Fork it ( https://github.com/[my-github-username]/nm_datafile/fork )
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create a new Pull Request