Translator

Translator is the tool that converts files written in the language Hapi (.hp) to YAML(.yaml) language.

It is an essential tool in our project, as it is thanks to this ability to convert policy files, from .hp for .yaml, that Hapi can be easily integrated into existing Access Policy systems. Bear in mind that many of them already have YAML as a standard.

The conversion is done through a code written in Kotlin that works as follows: The code receives a file written in Hapi and obtains a Datamap from it, containing all sets of Actions, Actors and Resources which are accepted/allowed by the policy. It then goes through that Datamap, rewriting the policy in a new .yaml file, based on these sets. This Datamap is obtained through a pre-existing function in Kotlin that we have incorporated in Hapi; which is the Visitor function. The source code of this translator can be seen in the file hapi\src\main\kotlin\tasks\YAML.kt.

The next subsections briefly present the operation of the tool in practice, with examples of use cases, and aim to teach the user how to make good use of this feature in their work.