Creating Output Plugins for Opsbox

Output plugins in Opsbox are designed to process and handle the data collected from provider plugins and formatted by Rego checks. They play a crucial role in the final stage of the pipeline, ensuring that the processed results are delivered to their intended destinations, such as databases, files, or issue tracking systems.

Before You Start

If you haven't read the Plugin Basics document, please take a moment to do so! It provides essential information for successfully gathering data, including:

• Setting up a proper hookimpl marker to register hook implementations
• Defining expected user configuration values through a Pydantic model
• Initializing plugin classes through the activate() hook implementation

Defining Hook Implementations

Output plugins implement the hooks from OutputSpec. The key method to implement is process_results(self, results: list["Result"]) -> None.

Hook Specification

Here is the definition from the OutputSpec class:

class OutputSpec:
    """Base contract for outputs.
    Outputs are plugins that process the data from the providers."""

    @hookspec
    def process_results(self, results: list["FormattedResult"]) -> None:
        """Output the data from the plugin."""

Example Implementation

Below is an example implementation of an output plugin that writes results to a text file:

from pluggy import HookimplMarker
from opsbox import Result
import os

hookimpl = HookimplMarker("opsbox")

class TextFileOutput:

    @hookimpl
    def process_results(self, results: list[Result]) -> None:
        """
        Write the formatted results to a text file.

        Args:
            results (list[FormattedResult]): A list of formatted results to be written to a file.
        """
        output_directory = "output_files"
        os.makedirs(output_directory, exist_ok=True)

        for result in results:
            file_path = os.path.join(output_directory, f"{result['check_name']}.txt")
            with open(file_path, "w") as file:
                file.write(result["formatted"])

Explanation

1. Hook Implementation: The process_results method processes a list of Result items.
2. Writing to File: For each formatted result, it creates a text file and writes the check name, description, result, details, and formatted output to the file.
3. Output Directory: Ensures that the output directory exists and writes each result to a separate file.

By following these guidelines, you can create efficient output plugins for Opsbox, ensuring your formatted results are processed and delivered to their intended destinations. Happy coding! 🚀