Tuesday, September 20, 2016

How to edit or reuse system provided condition code in EnCase v8

It is a bit strange combination since v8 EnCase returned back condition/enscript pane from v6, but with unexpected twist. Why to be simple if it can force you to hack your way.
Probably because in v6 users were able to modify system provided conditions and render it useless now it is impossible for user to see edit/open code of condition and use it as template for further development. You can only execute code and hope it is what you think it is since you can see what it is doing :)

Fortunately conditions and rest are still plain txt files somewhere on your disk and you can basically copy it from system provided path into your own user path and edit it. Plainly it is manipulation trough file system. Remember it is in internal format not easily readable by plain humans.

Conditions pane now contains two folders:

  1. Default
  2. User

Default folder contains all system provide conditions, while User is for your development, to edit anything you have to be in User sub folders, since User is also system folder and no-editable for users.

So how to simply hack this this to see code and reuse it ?

1) open condition pane and in "User" sub folder add new sub folder, this is only place where you are allowed to make folder as user or add new condition. It is on right-click action on your mouse

2)find in the Default folder condition you like to edit/analyze and right-click "Browse" on it. This will open widows explorer in folder containing your chosen condition.
Select your chosen condition and copy it by CRTL-C  or right-click copy option, than
close explorer window

3) In condition pane go to "User" folder, select you folder you created there in step (1) and right-clik browse on it. This will open windows explorer window where you can paste your chosen condition.
Close explorer window

4) Condition pane, on "User" folder right-click "refresh" that will show your condition in your sub folder,

5) choose your condition and right-clink "Edit" on it, you can edit and see how it works!!!!!

All this will be unneeded if copy function is still there in condition pane ...

Ages ago I've mentioned that it will be very good to force practice of standardized help or man page for each enscript or condition or filter but it will be never done.

PS: I'm quite sure this works for filters too

25.10.2016

To do things in more efficient way you can copy/paste whole condition tree from default folder to user folder, obviously conditions will be available only for user who does copy/paste.

The default condition are in installation folder in condition subfolder "C:\Program Files\EnCase8.01\Condition", so you just copy it content into your user condition folder:  "C:\Users\\Documents\EnCase\Condition". 
If Encase is running you'll have to restart Encase  to see the change

Looks like in v8.02 or later we will have copy ability in condition interface in encase, so we will not have to do dumb things like this workaround



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