How to Use the Term Filter

◆ Basic Term Filter Functionality
The Term Filter feature enables you to filter out chat log messages that contain text which you have pre-designated.

• The Term Filter, a function for hiding chat log messages that contain user-designated terms, has been added.
  • The files used for the Term filter must be stored in the location used by the settings and screenshot folder section in the FINAL FANTASY XI Config Features tab.
    * The default location for this file is C:/Users/[User Name]/Documents/My Games/FINAL FANTASY XI/ffxiuser
    

    Attachment 13648

• Required Files
  • Create text files titled “prohibited.txt” and “allowed.txt”
    
    Attachment 13649
    
    • prohibited.txt
      Add the terms you would like to hide to this file. Any chat log messages containing these terms will be hidden from view in-game.
      
      
    • allowed.txt
      Add the terms you would like to whitelist to these file. If creating a text file named “prohibited.txt” or “allowed.txt” displays the following error when enabling the filter in-game, try changing the file name to “prohibited” or “allowed”.

    * An individual term must contain 30 characters or fewer, and up to 100 terms may be registered. Any characters over 30 and any number of terms over 100 will be ignored.
    * Registered text must be in UTF-8 format. The filter is not guaranteed to function properly if other formats are used.
    * The maximum file size for each file is 9200 bytes. The file will not load properly if the size exceeds this maximum.
    

    Attachment 13650

• Applying the Filter
  • From the in-game config menu, select Term Filter from the Misc. 4 category and choose between “On/Display Name Only/Off.”
    * The default setting is Off.
    * Selected settings will be applied only to new messages sent to the chat log. Existing messages will be unaffected.
    * The term filter applies to the Shout, Yell, Assist, and AssistE channels.
    
    Attachment 13651
    • On
      Hides chat messages containing terms found in prohibited.txt and allowed.txt.
      
      
    • Display Name Only
      Hides chat messages containing terms found in prohibited.txt and allowed.txt, but the name of the sender will continue to be displayed.
      
      
    • Off
      Disables the Term Filter.

    * If either of the two files are changed while the game is running, pressing any button will apply the latest settings.

• Notes
  • It is possible that your intended recipient may not see your chat message if it contains any terms located in their filter. If your intended recipient does not respond, you may wish to contact them via channels to which the term filter does not apply.

◆ Expanded Term Filter Functionality to Enable more Precise Designations of Text
Adding specific arguments at the start of each line in prohibited.txt and allowed.txt—the two files used by the Term Filter—will enable you to take advantage of these new features.

<table width="560" border="0"><tr><td style="border-style:none;" colspan="3" align="center">&lt;&lt;New Features&gt;&gt;</td></tr><tr style="text-align:center;"><th style="background:#a8d0d7;" width="25%">Argument</th><th style="background:#a8d0d7;" width="75%">Function</th></tr><tr style="text-align:left;"><td style="background:#c6e9ef;text-align:center;">(i)</td><td style="background:#eaf2f3;text-align:center;">Causes the term filter to ignore case sensitivity.<br><br>Ex.: If prohibited.txt contains the term “(i)Potion”, then terms such as “POTION,” “potion,” “Potion” and “PoTion”—as well as similar variants—will all be prohibited.
</td></tr><tr style="text-align:left;"><td style="background:#c6e9ef;text-align:center;">(s)</td><td style="background:#eaf2f3;text-align:center;">Causes the term filter to ignore spaces.<br><br>Ex.: If prohibited.txt contains the term “(s)Potion,” then terms such as “p otion,” “pot ion,” and “potio n” will all be prohibited.</td></tr><tr style="text-align:left;"><td style="background:#c6e9ef;text-align:center;">(n)</td><td style="background:#eaf2f3;text-align:center;">Causes the term filter to ignore the settings for the term if it appears in the name of a player character.<br><br>EX.: If prohibited.txt contains the term “(n)chocobo,” then messages sent from the character “Blackchocobo” will be displayed normally.</td></tr></table>

• Setting Multiple Arguments

  The three terms can be combined in any permutation by including one or more within the same set of parentheses.

  Ex.: If prohibited.txt contains the term “(is)chocobo,” then terms such as “ChocoBo” and ”CHO co bo” will all be prohibited.
  
  Ex.: If prohibited.txt contains the term “(isn)chocobo,” then terms such as “ChocoBo” and “CHO co bo” will be prohibited, but messages from the character “Blackchocobo” will continue to be displayed.

* The arguments do not count toward the 30 character limit for terms recognized by the Term Filter.
* The arguments will not function properly if any of the following are true.

• Double byte characters are used
• The parentheses are not closed
• Arguments other than i, s, or n are contained in the parentheses.

◆ Expressions Usable with the Term Filter
These new expressions can be used by adding them to prohibited.txt and allowed.txt.

<table width="560" border="0"><tr><td style="border-style:none;" colspan="3" align="center">&lt;&lt;New Features&gt;&gt;</td></tr><tr style="text-align:center;"><th style="background:#a8d0d7;" width="25%">Metacharacter</th><th style="background:#a8d0d7;" width="75%">Function</th></tr><tr style="text-align:left;"><td style="background:#c6e9ef;text-align:center;">[]</td><td style="background:#eaf2f3;text-align:center;">Activates filter if any of the characters contained within are present.<br>* Japanese characters and alphanumeric characters are both available.<br><br>

• Ex.: If your designated term is “Potion +[12]”, then the filter will activate if “Potion +1” or “Potion +2” are present in the message.
• Ex.: If your designated term is “[Po]”, then the filter will activate if either “P” or “o” are present in the message.
• Ex.: If your designated term is “Potion [D],” then the filter will activate only if “Potion D” is present in the message.

</td></tr><tr style="text-align:left;"><td style="background:#c6e9ef;text-align:center;">^</td><td style="background:#eaf2f3;text-align:center;">Activates filter if any of characters other than those contained within are present. This expression must be combined with the above [] expression.<br><br>Ex.: Ex. If your designated term is “Potion +[^12]”, then the filter will not activate if the message contains “Potion +1” or “Potion +2,” but will activate for any other “Potion +x” permutation.</td></tr><tr style="text-align:left;"><td style="background:#c6e9ef;text-align:center;">-</td><td style="background:#eaf2f3;text-align:center;">Activates filter if any characters in a given range are present. This expression must be combined with the above [] expression. <br><br>Ex.: If your designated term is “Potion+ [1-3]”, then the filter will activate if the message contains “Potion +1”, “Potion +2”, or “Potion +3”.</td></tr><tr style="text-align:left;"><td style="background:#c6e9ef;text-align:center;">.</td><td style="background:#eaf2f3;text-align:center;">Activates filter if a number of characters equal to the number of wildcard characters is present. This expression must be combined with the above [] expression. <br><br>Ex.: If your designated term is “Potion [.][.]”, then the filter will activate if the message contains “Potion +1”, “Potion +2”, or “Potion +3”.
</td></tr></table>

* The maximum number of characters that can be used in these newly added expressions is 30.<br>* If any of the following is true, the expression will not function and the text will be registered as-is.

• The expression contains double-byte characters
• There is no closing bracket
• If “^” is used anywhere other than immediately following “[“
• If there are no characters after an “^”
• If the number of opening and closing brackets are not equal
• If there are no numbers predeeding or following a “-“
• If the characters surrounding a “-“ are not in numerical/alphabetical order
• If the brackets contain no characters inside
• If the expression [.] contains characters other than a single “.”

• Designation multiple expressions

  The above four expressions can be used with previous added expressions such as (i) and (s).

  Ex.: If your designated term is “(s)Potion+[12]”, then in the filter will activate if the message contains “Potion+1”, “Potion+2”, “Potion +1”, or “Potion +2”.
  

• Bracketed expressions can be nested.

  Nesting brackets enables you to set multiple conditions.

  Ex.: If your designated term is [1-3[a-c]], then the will activate if the messages contains 1, 2, or 3 followed by a, b, or c.

• Consecutive bracketed expressions

  If bracketed expressions following each other in sequence, they will be designated as a wildcard.

  Ex.: If your designated term is [a][b][c], then “abc” will be designated as a wildcard.
  

• Designating metacharacters

  Metacharacters such as “.” And “^” can be added to the term filter as ordinary characters if they are proceeded by a backslash.

  Ex.: If your designated term contains “playonline[\._com], then the filter will activate if the message contains “playonline.com” or “playonline_com”.
  

<table width="560" border="0"><tr><td style="border-style:none;" colspan="3" align="center">&lt;&lt;Metacharacter list&gt;&gt;</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#eaf2f3" align="center">[]</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#f5fafb" align="center">^</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#eaf2f3" align="center">-</td></tr><tr><td bgcolor="#f5fafb" align="center">.</td></tr></table>

◆ Copying Chat Log Lines to the Clipboard

• Using the log
  1. Open the chat log window.
  2. Select the line you wish to copy.
  3. Open the menu.
  4. Select “Copy to Clipboard” to copy the selected line.
  5. Lines copied to the clipboard may be copied to any file you wish.
  
  Attachment 13652
  
  
• Applicable channels
  Say / Shout / Yell / Tell / Party / Link shell / Link shell2 / Unity / Assist / AssistE
  * System messages cannot be copied.