Recording and reviewing redaction requests

Required global permission: Use the Request Explorer

When you use the redact method to redact a plain text string, you can also choose to record the request.

The recorded requests are encrypted.

When you make the request, you specify the number of hours to keep the recorded request. After that amount of time elapses, the request is completely purged. Recorded requests are never kept more than 720 hours, regardless of the configured retention time.

From the Request Explorer, you can review your recorded requests to check the results and assess the quality of the redaction. You can also test changes to the redaction configuration.

You cannot view requests from other users.

Recording a redaction request

To record a redaction request, you include the record_options argument:

record_options = RecordApiRequestOptions(record=<boolean>, retention_time_in_hours=<number of hours>, tags=["tag name"])

The record_options argument includes the following parameters:

• record - Whether to record the request. The default is False. To record the request, set record to True.

• retention_time_in_hours - The number of hours to preserve the recorded request. The default is 1. After the retention time elapses, the request is purged completely.

• tags - A list of tags to assign to the request. The tags are mostly intended to make it easier to search for requests on the Request Explorer page.

Viewing the list of recorded requests

The Request Explorer page in Textual contains the list requests that you recorded and that are not yet purged. You cannot view requests from other users.

To display the Request Explorer page, in the Textual navigation menu, click the request explorer icon.

For each request, the list includes:

• A 255-character preview of the text that was sent for redaction.

• The tags assigned to the request.

• The date when the request will be purged.

Filtering the requests

You can search for a request based on text that is contained in the redacted text, and by the tags that you assigned to the request.

To search by text from the string, in the search field, begin to type the text.

To search by an assigned tag, in the search field, type tags: followed by the tag to search for.

Previewing the request results

From the request list, to view the results of a request, click the request row.

By default, the preview uses Identification view. For each detected entity, Identification view displays the value and the entity type.

Identification view of the redaction preview

To instead display only the replacement value, which by default is the entity type, click Replacement.

Replacement view of the redaction preview

Testing changes to the redaction configuration

From the preview, you can test how the results change when you:

• Change the handling option for entity types.

• Add and exclude values for entity types.

Displaying the Edit Request panel

To display the edit panel, from the request preview page, click Edit.

The Edit Request panel displays the full list of the available entity types.

Edit Request panel with the list of entity types

Changing entity type handling options

You can change how Textual handles detected entity values for each entity type.

Note that the handling option changes are not saved when you close the preview and return to the requests list.

Available handling options

The handling options are:

• Off - Indicates to ignore values for this entity type.

• Redact - This is the default option. Indicates to replace each value with a token that represents the entity type.

• Synthesize - Indicates to replace each value with a realistic replacement value.

Changing the handling option for a single entity type

To change the handling option for a single entity type, either:

• Click the handling option value for the entity type, then select the handling option.

Handling option dropdown for an entity type on the Request Explorer preview

• Click the entity type, then under Generator, click the handling option.

Generator panel to select the entity type handling option

Selecting the same handling option for all entity types

To select the same handling option for all of the entity types:

1. Click Bulk Edit.

2. From the Bulk Edit dropdown list, select the handling option.

Bulk Edit dropdown to set the handling option for all entity types

Configuring added and excluded values for an entity type

To configure added and excluded values for an entity type, click the entity type.

The Edit Request panel expands to display the Add to detection and Exclude from detection lists.

• You use the Add to detection list to configure regular expressions to identify additional values to detect as the selected entity type.

• You use the Exclude from detection list to configure regular expressions to identify values to not detect as the selected entity type.

Note that the added and excluded values are not saved when you close the preview and return to the requests list.

Edit Request panel with the Add to detection and Exclude from detection lists

Creating a regular expression for an added or excluded value

To create a regular expression for added or excluded values:

1. Click the Add regex option for that list.

2. In the field, provide a regular expression to identify values to add or exclude.

Field to create an added or excluded value regular expression

1. Press Enter.

Saved regular expression for a value

Editing a regular expression for added or excluded values

To edit a regular expression:

1. Click the edit icon for the expression.

2. In the field, edit the expression.

Edit field for a regular expression

1. Click the save icon.

Deleting a regular expression for added or excluded values

To delete a regular expression, click the delete icon for that expression.

Viewing whether an entity type has added or excluded values

When an entity type has added values, the added values icon displays for that entity type.

Added values icon for an entity type in the Request Explorer

When an entity type has excluded values, the excluded values icon displays for that entity type.

Excluded values icon for an entity type in the Request Explorer

Replaying the request

To replay the request based on the current configuration, click Replay.

Replay button for a previewed request

When you replay the request, in addition to the Identification and Replacement options, you use the Diff toggle to indicate whether to compare the original and new results.

For our example, we made the following changes to the configuration:

• For Given Name and Family Name, changed the handling option to Synthesize.

• For Credit Card, indicated to ignore the value 41111111111.

Replayed results views with the Diff toggle off

When the Diff toggle is in the off position, Identification view only reflects changes to the added and excluded values.

In our example, we configured 41111111111 to not be detected as a credit card number. In the replayed request, it is instead detected as a numeric value.

Identification view of a replayed request with Diff off

Replacement view reflects both the added and excluded values and the changes to the handling option.

For our example, in addition to the entity type change for the credit card number 41111111111, the given and family names are now realistic replacement values instead of the entity types.

Replacement view of a replayed request with Diff off

Replayed results views with the Diff toggle on

When you set the Diff toggle to the on position, the preview displays the original content to the left, and the modified content to the right.

In Identification view, you can see the changes to the entity detection based on the added and excluded values.

Identification view of a replayed request with Diff on

In Replacement view, you can also see the changes to the selected handling options for the entity types.

Replacement view of a replayed request with Diff on

Clearing all of the configuration changes

To clear all of the regular expressions for all of the entity types, click Remove Changes.

Remove Changes button for a previewed request