Relativity has created a Viewer experience to help you review and produce short message data similar to a conventional document. Among the many file types you're able to ingest into your Relativity environment is Relativity's short message format (RSMF). An RSMF file is an RFC 5322 (Internet Message Format) standards compliant file that encapsulates normalized short message data. The data can come from text messages like SMS or Apple iMessage or it can come from instant messenger services such as Skype, Bloomberg, Slack, etc.
To begin viewing short message data in Relativity, you must create a Relativity's short message format file (RSMF) from the database export of the chat platform you are collecting from. Relativity does not automatically convert raw exports of databases to RSMF.
Currently, Relativity provides developer tools to complete RSMF file creation. You may find partners on the Relativity App Hub that also offer RSMF creation services. To learn more, visit Creating an RSMF File.
Once you have created the RSMF files, you will need to stage them to be processed into Relativity. RelativityOne users must use the Staging Explorer, while Server users can point to a local directory.
Finally, you will need to either use Relativity Processing or import the attachments separately and overlay the relationship to ingest an RSMF file into Relativity in order for attachments to display in-line in our Short Message Viewer, and to ensure those attachments are associated with the correct messages. To learn more, visit Processing an RSMF file.
Watch the Relativity's short message format video for more information.
This page contains the following information:
- Requirements for RSMF Head and Body
- Requirements for rsmf.zip
- Example RSMF file
- rsmf_manifest.json file
See these related pages:
Requirements for RSMF Head and Body
Relativity's short message format is essentially the RSMF.zip, which is wrapped in a traditional EML file, which includes a body and a header. The header has one required field and the others are optional.
-
X-RSMF-Version (required)
Note: As of October 2020, the only version is '1.0.0'.
-
X-RSMF-BeginDate (optional)
-
X-RSMF-EndDate (optional)
-
X-RSMF-EventCount (optional)
The EML body can contain any text. This text will display in the Extracted Text Viewer. Any message text should be added here. Other events in the Extracted Text Viewer (that are not messages), such as conversations, names of attachments, etc. can be added here as well. The Extracted Text Viewer does not automatically populate with text or variables from the Native Viewer.
Requirements for rsmf.zip
The rsmf.zip attachment is where the detailed short message data resides. It must contain at least a single manifest file named rsmf_manifest.json at the root level, but it may also contain any number of additional files which may be referenced from within the manifest file. Additional files, such as attachments and avatars, are required to be at the root level as well.
Note: If a container file or files are included in the rsmf.zip file, you cannot open or interact with them in the Short Message Viewer. To see a list of container files, visit Supported file types for processing.
The rsmf.zip file must be a ZIP attachment that uses DEFLATE compression and must not leverage ZIP encryption.
Example RSMF file
The following code sample shows an RSMF file that includes all information required before it is ingested using Processing.
X-RSMF-Version: 1.0.0
X-RSMF-Generator: Relativity
X-RSMF-BeginDate: 2010-02-18T10:05:11.0000000Z
X-RSMF-EndDate: 2011-01-26T13:33:20.0000000Z
X-RSMF-EventCount: 4662
To: Keith Kaminski, Karl Knoernschild, Jim Witte
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="_RSMF_Boundary_Delimiter_"
MIME-Version: 1.0
--_RSMF_Boundary_Delimiter_
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
You there?
Yeah.
--_RSMF_Boundary_Delimiter_
Content-Type: application/zip; name="rsmf.zip"
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="rsmf.zip"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
BASE64 encoded RSMF.ZIP goes here
--_RSMF_Boundary_Delimiter_--
rsmf_manifest.json file
The rsmf_manifest.json file is a JSON file that describes short message activity. The root of a manifest file has a version, a list of participants, a list of conversations, and a list of events.
{
"version":"1.0.0",
"participants":"...",
"conversations":"...",
"events":"..."
}
| Name | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| version | Yes | string | The version of the RSMF specification that the file adheres to. |
| participants | Yes | array | An array of participants. A participant is someone who has participated in at least one of the conversations described in the manifest. See Participants for more details. |
| conversations | Yes | array | An array of conversations. A conversation is a time-bound set of short message events that occur on a specific platform, such as Slack, Bloomberg, or SMS. See Conversations for more details. |
| events | Yes | array | An array of events. An event is any discrete activity that can happen within the confines a conversation. See Events for more details. |
Participants
A participant is someone who has participated in at least one of the conversations described in the manifest file. At least one participant is required for an RSMF file to be valid.
[
{
"id":"P1",
"display":"Keith Kaminski",
"avatar":"kk.png",
"email":"keith.kaminski@relativity.com",
"custom":[
{
"name":"Employer",
"value":"Relativity"
},
{
"name":"Department",
"value":"Engineering"
}
]
}
]
| Name | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Yes | string | Uniquely identifies a participant within the manifest file. |
| display | Yes | string | Display value for the participant. |
| avatar | No | string | The name of a file within the rsmf.zip, including any extension that contains an image to display for the avatar for the participant. |
| No | string | The primary email address of the participant. | |
| custom | No | object | An array of optional name/value objects that can be used to store additional metadata about the participant. |
Conversations
A conversation is a time-bound set of short message events that occur on a specific platform, such as Slack, Bloomberg, or SMS. Conversations either have a fixed set of participants for their entire duration, such as with SMS messages, or can change over time, such as with a Slack channel or Bloomberg room. At least one conversation is required for an RSMF file to be valid.
[
{
"id":"C1",
"display":"Keith and Karl",
"platform":"SMS",
"type":"direct",
"participants":[
"P1",
"P2"
],
"custom":[
{
"name":"Source",
"value":"Keith's iPhone"
}
]
}
]
| Name | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Yes | string | Uniquely identifies a conversation within the manifest file. |
| display | Yes | string | Display value for the conversation. |
| platform | Yes | string | The name of the messaging platform from which the conversation originated. |
| type | Yes | string |
The type of the conversation. Valid values are:
"direct": Indicates the participants are fixed for the duration of the conversation. "channel": Indicates that participants may enter and leave the conversation at various points in time. |
| participants | Yes | array |
The participants included in the conversation. Each participant must map back to the id of a participant defined in the root of the manifest. The participant list has different meanings depending the type of the conversation:
|
| custom | No | object | An array of optional name/value objects that can be used to store additional metadata about the conversation. |
Events
An event is a discrete activity that can happen within the confines a conversation, such as a message or a join/leave notification. At least one event is required for an RSMF file to be valid.
[
{
"id":"m2",
"type":"message",
"parent":"m1",
"body":"Looks good!",
"participant":"P1",
"conversation":"C1",
"deleted":false,
"importance":"normal",
"timestamp":"2018-09-11T09:55:00",
"reactions":[
{
"value":"thumbs up",
"count":2,
"participants":[
"P1",
"P2"
]
}
],
"attachments":[
{
"id":"partyon.png",
"display":"partyon.png",
"size":4254
}
],
"edits":[
{
"participant":"P1",
"timestamp":"2018-09-12T12:53:00"
}
],
"custom":[
{
"name":"GPS",
"value":"41 24.2028, 2 10.4418"
}
]
}
]
| Name | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | No | string | Uniquely identifies an event within the conversation. An event only needs to have an identifier if it is part of a thread. |
| type | Yes | string |
Defines the type of event. Valid values are:
|
| parent | No | string | Identifies the parent event of the event. This needs to be set if the event is a message which is a part of a thread. Parent must map back to the id of another event. |
| body | No | string | Content associated with the event. Not all event types require a body. For a message type, this would be the text of the message. If not included, the default value is assumed to be an empty string. |
| participant | Yes | string | The participant that is the source of the event. This must map to the id of a participant defined in the root of the manifest. |
| timestamp | Yes | string | The timestamp (ISO8601) of when the event occurred. |
| conversation | Yes | string | Identifies the conversation in which the event occurred. This must map back to the id of a conversation. |
| deleted | No | bool | Identifies whether a message has been deleted. If not included, the default value is assumed to be false. |
| importance | No | string |
Sets an importance value for the message. Valid values are:
If not included, the default value is assumed to be "normal". |
| reactions | No | array | An array of reactions associated with the event. See the Reaction section for more information. |
| attachments | No | array | An array of attachments associated with the event. See the Attachment section for more information. |
| edits | No | array | An array of edits that have been made to the event. See the Edits section for more information. |
| custom | No | object | An array of optional name/value objects that can be used to store additional metadata about the event. |
Reaction
| Name | Required | Type | Descriptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| value | Yes | string | Identifies the reaction. The maximum length for a reaction is 30 characters. |
| count | Yes | whole number | The number of times this reaction was added to the event. |
| participants | Yes | array | Identifies the participants that used the reaction. Each participant must map back to the id of a participant defined in the root of the manifest. |
Attachment
| Name | Required | Type | Descriptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | Yes | string | Identifies the attachment. The value should correspond to the name of a file within the rsmf.zip, including any extension. |
| display | Yes | string | Display value for the attachment. Relativity renders attachments based on the extension of the display value of an attachment. |
| size | Yes | whole number |
The size of the file in bytes. |
Edits
| Name | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| participant | Yes | string | The participant that made the edit. This must map to the id of a participant defined in the root of the manifest. |
| timestamp | Yes | string | The timestamp (ISO8601) of when the edit occurred. |
