IPEDManager - A Modern, Feature-Rich GUI for IPED

[Trita-a]

Hello IPED Team,

I have been working on a significant enhancement for the IPED ecosystem: IPEDManager.
This project aims to replace or augment the traditional user experience by providing a modern, user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) that simplifies configuration, profile management, and execution of IPED tasks, making the powerful forensic tool more accessible to investigators.

The project is fully Open Source and designed to work seamlessly with the existing IPED structure.

About Me & Motivation

I am a Computer Engineer and Forensic Analyst working for the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza). This project was born out of a daily operational need, as my team and I extensively use IPED for our investigations.
Currently, the available GUI tools only cover a fraction of IPED's capabilities and lack a modern, user-friendly interface. After noticing that existing solutions were graphically outdated and having attempted to propose collaborations without success, I decided to develop a comprehensive solution that meets the high professional standards required by our work.

Key Features Implemented:

• Modern User Interface: Built with FlatLaf for a professional Look & Feel, featuring responsive layouts, vector icons, and a streamlined "Left Sidebar" navigation for settings.
• Centralized Configuration Manager: A comprehensive dialog that parses and edits all IPED configuration files (IPEDConfig.txt, OCRConfig.txt, etc.) via UI controls (switches, spinners, dropdowns) instead of manual text editing.
  • Deep Search: A real-time search bar that filters settings across all configuration panels instantly.
  • Smart Validation: Prevents common configuration errors (e.g., enabling Export without selecting categories) and provides contextual help/tooltips for advanced parameters.
• Profile Manager: A robust system to create, save, and switch between different scanning profiles (e.g., "Triage", "Deep Forensic", "Fast Scan").
  • Dynamic Loading: Choosing a profile instantly previews the changed settings in the Main UI vs the Default configuration.
• Execution Monitor: A dedicated dialog to monitor the iped.exe process, capable of capturing stdout/stderr and handling clean shutdowns.
• Quality of Life Features:
  • "Restore Defaults" functionality.
  • Integrated help for JVM/IPED parameters.
  • Robust parsing of config files (handling comments/empty lines correctly).

Goal

I believe this tool could greatly benefit the IPED community. I would love to collaborate to either:

1. Verify if this can be integrated into the main project.
2. List this as a recommended community tool.

I have attached screenshots below demonstrating the Main Dashboard, the Configuration Editor, and the Profile Manager.

Looking forward to your feedback!
William Tritapepe
william.trita@gmail.com

[bhintel]

Congratulations on the initiative! Is the repository already public?

[sulissemina069-hue]

Soon it will be

[dursun0007]

That's a great piece of work. Congratulations!

[lfcnassif]

Thank you very much @Trita-a for your proposal, initiative, work and effort on this!

The UI seems very nice, very user friendly!

But see we have an old initiative with a lot of effort put here: #1341

We should compare the pros and cons of each approach and possibly complement the chosen one with important things from the other.

Is your implementation prepared for localization? What is the used coding language/technology?

Best regards,
Luis

PS: I'm traveling on vacation until December 28.

[Trita-a]

Hi Luis, thank you for your feedback!

Regarding your questions:

• Technology: The application is written in Java, which ensures a smooth and easy interface with the IPED core.
• Localization: The UI is already prepared for English, Spanish, and Portuguese, although the translations definitely need a professional review.

I have already published the source code here: https://github.com/Trita-a/IPEDManager

I will take a look at initiative #1341 as you suggested to understand the differences and see how my work can complement the existing efforts.

Enjoy your vacation, and let's catch up after December 28!