Filter Manager
In the Tools menu there is now a new item Filter Manager.
With the help of the Filter Manager you can define and manage URL-specific sets of preferences.
The filter manager includes the old image and javascript filters but also many other preferences.
A set of URL specific preferences can be bundled into a configuration.
A configuration can be imported and exported. This makes it easy to offer special preferences for certain
web pages which require special browser settings without affecting other pages. We will offer special
configurations for important web pages on our web page.
The Filter Manager has two modes. A simple mode and an extended mode.
Simple mode
By default iCab uses the simple mode. The simple mode doesn't allow changes to configurations. It is only
possible to import, export and delete predefined configurations. It is also possible to change the
order of the configurations (important ones should come first). To bottom part of the filter manager
window will show some informations about the configuration.

The toolbar contains several buttons:
- Import
- imports a configuration file with site-specific settings
- Export
- exports a configuration into a file
- Delete
- deletes a configuration
- Download
- opens a Web page where the user can download some predefined configuration files
The order of the configurations in the list will define their priority. Important ones should be moved to the top
of the list, configurations which affects multiple webpages (like advertising filters) should the last ones.
iCab will always use the first matching filter it can find. iCab will ignore all configurations which are unchecked,
so be sure to check all the configurations which should be used by iCab.
The Open button in the information area of the window will open a web page where you can
get updates of the configuration or further informations (if a web page is available).
Extended Mode
The extended mode allows to create new configurations or to modify existing ones. The window will show three
lists. The left one contains all configurations. Selecting a configuration will activate the list in the middle
which then contains a list of preference sets that can be configured. Selecting one of the preference set items will
activate the last list to the right which contains the URL filters for the selected configuration and preferences.
The bottom part of the window contains information about the configuration or the preferences itself.

The buttons of the toolbar or the contextual menu can be used to create, edit and delete configurations and URL filters.
Reorder the configurations and URL filters via Drag & Drop to change their priority. iCab will search for matching
filters starting with the first filter of the first configuration, so very important filters and configurations
which affect ony certain web pages should be moved to the top and general filters which affect many web pages
(like advertising filters) should be moved to the bottom. Configurations, preferences sets and URL filters can be
activated and deactivated by setting or removing the checkbox. iCab ignores all configuration, preferences sets and
URL filters which are not checked.
The buttons in the toolbar have the following meanings:
- Import
- imports a configuration file with site-specific settings
- Export
- exports a configuration into a file
- Delete
- deletes a configuration
- Download
- opens a Web page where the user can download some predefined configuration files
- Properties
- can be used to view and edit the general properties of the selected configuration or URL filter
- New Configuration
- creates a new configuration
- New URL
- creates a new URL filter for the selected configuration and preferences set
These features are also accessible through the contextual menu of the configuration list and the
URL filter list.
Create and modify configurations
Click the Properties button or select the properties item in the contextual menu of the configuration list
to view or edit the properties of the configuration. You can edit the title of the configuration, the name of
the author, the version number. The web site information should contain the URL where users can get updates
or more information about this configuration. You can enable the protection to prevent you from modifying a
configuration by accident. The priority is used when importing the configurations. It tells the browser if the
configuration has to be inserted at the top (configurations which affects only special sites), in the
middle or at the end (configurations which affect all sites) of the configuration list.

The contextual menu of the configuration list does include an item duplicate, which can be used to create a copy
af the selected configuration. This can be useful to split existing configurations into several special ones.
This option is not available in the simple mode.
Create and modify URL Filters
If a configuration and a preferences item (list in the middle) is selected, you can create new URL filters (or edit
existing ones). Click on New URL or select New URL in the contextual menu to create a new URL filter.
After selecting an URL filter you can click on Properties or select Properties in
the contextual menu to edit the URL filter.
If no URL filter is selected, the bottom part of the window will display the preferences of the selected preferences set
(disabled) to give you an idea which preferences can be configured now.

When entering an URL filter, you can use the following wildcards:
- ?
- represents a single character
- *
- represents any number of characters
- [abc]
- represents a single character from within the brackets.
Example: The filter http://www.icab.de/
will only match the URL http://www.icab.de/
.
If the wholeiCab site should be addressed by the filter, you must define the filter as http://www.icab.de/*
.
The "*" at the end is important here.
In the dialog box where you can enter/edit the URL filter, a popup will offer all existing URL filters of
the same configuration. So if you need a certain URL filter for several preference sets (for example for
the "Network" preferences and for the "InScript" preferences) you don't need to enter it multiple times.
To edit the preferences for a certain URL filter, just select the URL filter and the preferences will be
shown in the bottom part of the window. If the configuration is protected, all preferences are dimmed and
can't be modified. Only if the configuration is not protected, the preferences can be modified.
Below the preferences you'll find some buttons which will open the standard preferences dialog. The settings
of the preferences dialog will be used if none of the filters will match to the current web site.
In the contextual menu of the URL filter list there is an item Add copy to. This menu item will copy the
selected filter together with its preferences to another configuration. This is helpful if you want to combine
certain parts of multiple configurations into another configuration. Note that you can only add a copy
of a filter into configurations which are not protected.
Some additional remarks
A very general configuration which should affect many web pages (like an advertising filter) will probably contain
URL filters like http://*
which will match almost any page. These configurations should be defined with a low
priority because they should be listed at the bottom of the configuration list. iCab will search for matching filters
from top to down. So when such a general filter is located before other more specialized filters, it will
"hide" most of these specialized filters. If you plan to offer such a general configuration to the public, you should
also add some information to the comment field, which tell the user to move the configuration to the bottom of the
configuration list.
It is not only possible to filter out images, it is also possible to create a filter which makes sure that
a certain image will be shown.
All old filters (image filters, cookie filters and InScript filters) will be transfered into a special configuration,
so they won't be lost. But the new configuration will be deactivated by default to avoid conflicts with existing
configurations.
iCab will create a default configuration my Filters which will be used to add all filters which are created
by the accept Cookie dialog, the Filter image dialog and the InScript Filter dialog.