Alternatively to the Auto-Filter system and the Filter-Assistant, you can create all Ignore/Watch filters manually.
Enter one filter expression per line. All filter definitions are case insensitive, they are converted to lowercase internally.
The button "New Ignore Filter" (or "New Watch Filter") opens a helper dialog where you can enter and validate a new filter expression. The button "Test selected line" lets you validate the filter expression in the active line. The "Test filter" button tests all filter definitions by comparing the filtered text content of the new page with the filtered text content of the old page.
Each line can contain one of the following elements:
| 1. | Static text phrase You can use that type if you want to ignore specific phrases in a page. |
| 2. | Text with a Wildcard A wildcard filter is typically used to ignore areas of a page with a specified start/end text. |
| 3. | Regular Expression With regular expressions you can define complex filter expressions which must be placed in special function names, for example "regex(....)". |
Wildcard filter
WebSite-Watcher supports three types of wildcard filters with the restriction that only one Wildcard is allowed per filter expression:
| • | *EndText |
This form filters everything from the page beginning to the first occurrence "EndText".
For example: *Daily News
| • | StartText*EndText |
This form filters all text areas which begin with "StartText" and end with "EndText".
For example: Downloads:*Publisher
| • | StartText* |
This form filters everything from the last occurrence of "StartText" to the end of the page.
For example: Users online*
Regular Expressions
WebSite-Watcher supports PERL5 compatible regular expressions which can be used to create complex filter definitions. Regular Expressions must be placed in one of the following functions:
| • | regex( ... ) |
Filters the defined regular expression
For example: regex(\d+ downloads)
| • | FirstRegex( ... ) |
Filters only the first occurrence of the defined regular expression
For example: FirstRegex(\d+ downloads)
| • | StartToRegex( ... ) |
Filters everything from the page beginning to the first occurrence of the defined regular expression
For example: StartToRegex(\d+ visitors)
| • | RegexToRegex( ... , ... ) |
Filters everything between two regular expressions
For example: RegexToRegex(Downloads\: \d+,License\:)
| • | RegexToEnd( ... ) |
Filters everything from the last occurrence of the defined regular expression to the end of the page
For example: RegexToEnd(\d+ users online)
The order of filters is important!
Filters are always executed from top to bottom, that means that the filter in the first line is executed before the filter in the second line, and so on.
The content that is filtered with the first filter will then no longer be available for filter definitions in the following lines.
Example:
You have defined the following two ignore filters:
Watcher
WebSite-Watcher
The first filter ignores (deletes) all words "Watcher". The second filter will never find a match since "Watcher" is no longer available. The correct order for these two filters would be:
WebSite-Watcher
Watcher
Here the first filter ignores (deletes) all words "WebSite-Watcher". The second filter can then ignore all remaining words "Watcher".
Outdated filters
Outdated ignore filters are automatically detected and deleted after some time when they no longer find any matches. There's no need to delete ignore filters manually.
Outdated watch filters are not deleted automatically, you have to maintain these kind of filters manually.
Don't forget to test your filter settings
The feature "Test filter" lets you always verify your filter definitions by comparing the filtered text content of the new page with the filtered text content of the old page.
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