RegEx for censoring multi-line texts

[Miroslav (Code for Croatia, ImamoPravoZnati.org)]

Hello,

Do somebody have experience with Alaveteli requests censoring regex via Admin GUI?

I'm trying to censor multi-line text but it's not applying as expected.

For example, text that should be redacted:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur

vulputate sed lorem quis volutpat. Cras sit amet blandit quam, eget

lobortis enim. Vivamus sed condimentum quam, tincidunt feugiat mi.

Quisque ut pulvinar lectus. Suspendisse feugiat elit sollicitudin nunc

mattis feugiat. Ut vitae arcu ligula. Donec nec rhoncus nisi.

I tried this regex, but but with no luck:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur\nvulputate sed lorem quis volutpat. Cras sit amet blandit quam, eget\nlobortis enim. Vivamus sed condimentum quam, tincidunt feugiat mi.\nQuisque ut pulvinar lectus. Suspendisse feugiat elit sollicitudin nunc\nmattis feugiat. Ut vitae arcu ligula. Donec nec rhoncus nisi.

Tried to validate my regex via https://rubular.com/:

it should work based on this - https://rubular.com/r/vvDEEPFVaHCj87

Any ideas or examples how did you successfully managed to apply regex censor rules for multi-line texts?

Thanks,

Miroslav

[Miroslav (Code for Croatia, ImamoPravoZnati.org)]

Hello,

Actually I found correct syntax for new line is (\s+|\n) which works perfect!

Corrected example (that also works on Alaveteli censor rules):

https://rubular.com/r/tJfDDLJoPEcCFc

Cheers,

Miroslav

[Gareth Rees]

Hey Miroslav,

Glad you figured this out.

We do set the multiline option [1], which makes "." also match newlines [2], so you could make this a little shorter regexp [3].

Best,

Gareth

[1] https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/blob/0.39.1.3/app/models/censor_rule.rb#L120

[2] https://ruby-doc.org/core-2.7.2/Regexp.html#class-Regexp-label-Character+Classes

[3] https://rubular.com/r/zMKiOISwqf5S1n