General Information - Retrieval of Archived Nlets Data (RAND) (NLQ/NLR, NFQ/NFR)
Retrieval of Archived Nlets Data (RAND) (NLQ/NLR, NFQ/NFR)
Nlets manages a log of message traffic that travels through it. The RAND functionality provides authorized users with access to this traffic log. This section describes the queries (NLQ/NFQ) and the corresponding responses (NLR/NFR).
RAND Query/Response Transactions
Messages are entered in the log as they leave the Nlets switch. Messages intended for Nlets itself such as ORION messages, are recorded on arrival and any generated response messages are also recorded. Receipt and routing of criminal history messages such as rap sheets or fingerprint sets are logged but no message content is saved in RAND. Additionally, some queries of the RAND log data itself may not be available in a RAND response. For special circumstances requiring that information, please contact the Nlets Service Center.
Overview
There are two RAND query transactions: NLQ and NFQ. NLQ is used to search the RAND database and produces a hit list in an NLR message format. Information from the NLR message is used to format an NFQ message to retrieve the full text of a message.
Messages can be retrieved by message type, time range, originator, member and by character string within a message. Nlets maintains 1 rolling Year of historical message data that can be retrieved based on the date of the request.
Note: The messages are recorded in Mountain Standard Time (UTC/GMT -7 hours).
If no messages match the specified search criteria, the response may be "NOT ON FILE".
NLQ Rules
NLQ messages follow these rules:
The type (TYP), beginning (BEG) and end (END) fields are mandatory.
At least one "free text information needed" (FND) or name (NAM) field must be entered.
"Free text information needed" (FND) and name (NAM) fields cannot both be present.
If a type field (TYP) is specified for which the requester is not authorized, then the response message will
include a warning that the user is not authorized to retrieve that message type.
The request may contain at least one authorized message type.
Fields need not be padded to any particular size. They will all be trimmed of leading or trailing spaces before use.
Search Options
When the search string is intended to match the proper names of people rather than general text, the name field (NAM) may be used. The service will automatically configure the search name to produce the most detailed response possible. Order of name components is not important. For example, the table shows that searching for SMITH, FRED J will return results for several combinations of the name terms.
Search String
Search Result
SMITH, FRED J
FRED SMITH
FRED J SMITH
SMITH, FRED
When the search string is intended to match other message data, the FND field should be used. The search will be conducted on the string as it was provided. The search string may contain a conjunction "AND" or "OR". They may not be used together and they may not be used by themselves (for example, searching for "AND" or "OR" will produce an error).
Examples:
Search String
Search Results
Blue Ford Truck
All messages containing the exact phrase "Blue Ford Truck"
Blue AND Ford AND Truck
All messages containing all of the words "Blue", "Ford", and "Truck" from anywhere in the messages
Blue OR Ford OR Truck
All messages containing one or more of the words "Blue", "Ford", or "Truck" from anywhere in the messages. This example will generally yield a very high record count.
Blue AND Ford OR Truck
This will produce an error response. The search string may not contain both AND and OR.
AND
This will produce an error response. The search string may not be only the word AND (same for OR).
NLQ Query Field Requirements
The standard Nlets message header and the fields below are required for NLQ queries.
XML Tag:
Legacy
Prefix:
Field
Size:
Data Requirements:
Translation:
TYP/
100
2 or 3 character
message type
Message types
of interest.
SRC/
2 or 9
Two character
member code or a
full 9 character ORI
Source member or ORI.
DST/
2 or 9
Two character
member code or a
full 9 character ORI
Destination
member or ORI.
<n2:MessageSendDateTimeMinimumText>
ccyy-mm-dd or
ccyy-mm-dd@hhmm
Beginning date
and optional time*
for the query.
<n2:MessageSendDateTimeMaximumText>
ccyy-mm-dd or
ccyy-mm-dd@hhmm
Ending date and
optional time** for
the query.
<n2:InquiryDescriptionText>
Most characters in
this field represent
themselves. The
field can, however,
contain several
characters with
special meanings:
A character
string containing
text to search for.
<nc:PersonName>
<nc:PersonFullName>
</nc:PersonName>
The format of this
string is the same
as that for the FND
field except that the
field can contain
only alphanumeric
characters or the "*"
wildcard character.
A character
string containing
a name string to
search for.
* If BEG is submitted without a time, the service will automatically make the time @0000.
** If END is submitted without a time, the service will automatically make the time @2359.
Responses
Response requirements are described below:
- Output begins with stating the search string as received in the NLQ, followed by the search string the RAND service interpreted and processed.
- The next line will be either the number of results found (up to 100) or a message stating none were found, followed by an instruction for how to receive the original version of a message.
- A series of lines follow, each starting with a date/time and continuing with the sequence number of the message (used to retrieve the message via NFQ), the originator ORI, the message type, the destination ORI, the control field, and up to 80 characters of message data transformed from its original format to Legacy text format for easier human readability.
- There is a limit of 100 hits for a given NLR. If more than 100 hits are necessary, the time and date of the last hit can be used as the beginning date field of a subsequent NLQ query where all other fields are as they were in the original NLQ.
- It is important to remember that RAND contains outgoing messages only (with the exception of transactions processed by Nlets itself).
- If there are no messages in RAND that match the specified search criteria, a response to this effect is returned.
NFQ Query Field Requirements
The standard Nlets message header and the MSG field is required to retrieve a message. The DAT and MEM fields are optional.
The sequence number (SEQ) provided in the NLR will be valid for 10 days. Any attempt to used a sequence number after that will be returned as "NOT ON FILE", and the original NLQ will need to be sent again.
XML Tag:
Legacy
Prefix:
Field
Size:
Data
Requirements:
Translation:
<n2:MessageSendDateTimeMinimumText>
ccyy-mm-dd
Date of message
or messages to
retrieve.
MEM/
2
LOC from NLR.
First two
characters of ORI
from NLQ/NLR.
MSG/
51
Alphanumeric
Message sequence
number as shown
in the NLR message.
Authorized users may query criminal history messages, although only header information will be returned.
NFQ Response (NFR)
NFR messages will contain a human readable version of the search result by default. This will be true for whether the results were originally in legacy text or XML. To retrieve the original format of the message, either legacy text or XML, add an "X" to the end of the sequence number when submitting the NFQ, e.g., 12345-001X.
Search results related to the sequence number of a previously run NLQ are available for 10 days following the original NLQ.
RAND Error Messages
Error messages (ER) are returned in response to NLQ or NFQ messages in the following circumstances:
- Missing or invalid search fields
- Invalid search criteria (Invalid date, or date ranges, etc.)
- Permission or authorization issues