Filters can be set for spots, announcements and WWV. You will find the directories for these under /spider/filter. You will -find some examples in the directories with the suffix .issue. There are two types of filter, one for incoming -information and one for outgoing information. Outgoing filters are in the form CALLSIGN.pl and incoming filters -are in the form in_CALLSIGN.pl. Filters can be set for both nodes and users. +
Spider allows the creation of local or remote databases. It supports +chained databases, allowing several different databases to be scanned +with one simple command. Importing of databases is limited at present +to the standard AK1A databases such as OBLAST and the DB0SDX QSL +database but will expand with time.
-
All filters work in basically the same way. There are several elements delimited by commas. -There can be many lines in the filter and they are read from the top by the program. -When writing a filter you need to think carefully about just what you want to achieve. You -are either going to write a filter to accept or to reject. -Think of a filter as having 2 main elements. For a reject filter, you would have a line -or multiple lines rejecting the things you do not wish to receive and then a default -line accepting everything else that is not included in the filter. Likewise, for an -accept filter, you would have a line or multiple lines accepting the things you wish -to receive and a default line rejecting everthing else. -
-
In the example below, a user requires a filter that would only return SSB spots -posted in Europe on the HF bands. This is achieved by first rejecting the CW section -of each HF band and rejecting all of VHF, UHF etc based on frequency. -Secondly, a filter rule is set based on CQ zones to only accept spots posted in -Europe. Lastly, a default filter rule is set to reject anything outside the filter. +
Creating a database could not be more simple. All the commands are +sent from the cluster prompt as the sysop user. +
To create a database you use the command dbcreate. It can +be used in 3 different ways like so ..
-$in = [
- [ 0, 0, 'r', # reject all CW spots
- [
- 1800.0, 1850.0,
- 3500.0, 3600.0,
- 7000.0, 7040.0,
- 14000.0, 14100.0,
- 18068.0, 18110.0,
- 21000.0, 21150.0,
- 24890.0, 24930.0,
- 28000.0, 28180.0,
- 30000.0, 49000000000.0,
- ] ,1 ],
- [ 1, 11, 'n', [ 14, 15, 16, 20, 33, ], 15 ], #accept EU
- [ 0, 0, 'd', 0, 1 ], # 1 = want, 'd' = everything else
-];
+dbcreate <name>
-
The actual elements of each filter are described more fully in the following sections. -
-
The elements of the Spot filter are .... +
To simply create a database locally, you just tell the command the +name of the database. This does not create the actual database, it +simply defines it to say that it exists.
-[action, field_no, sort, possible_values, hops]
+dbcreate <name> chain <name> [<name>...]
-
There are 3 elements here to look at. Firstly, the action element. This is very simple and only 2 possible states exist, -accept (1) or drop (0). -
-
The second element is the field_no. There are 13 possiblities to choose from here .... +
This creates a chained database entry. The first database will be +scanned, then the second, the third etc...
- 0 = frequency
- 1 = call
- 2 = date in unix format
- 3 = comment
- 4 = spotter
- 5 = spotted dxcc country
- 6 = spotter's dxcc country
- 7 = origin
- 8 = spotted itu
- 9 = spotted cq
- 10 = spotter's itu
- 11 = spotter's cq
- 12 = callsign of the channel on which the spot has appeared
+dbcreate <name> remote <name>
-
The third element tells us what to expect in the fourth element. There are 4 possibilities .... +
This creates a remote entry. the first name field is the database +name at the remote node, then the remote switch, then the actual +node_call of the remote node, for example...
- n - numeric list of numbers e.g. [ 1,2,3 ]
- r - ranges of pairs of numbers e.g. between 2 and 4 or 10 to 17 - [ 2,4, 10,17 ]
- a - an alphanumeric regex
- d - the default rule
+dbcreate buckmaster remote gb7dxc
Remote databases cannot be chained, however, the last database in a +chain can be a remote database.
-
The fifth element is simply the hops to set in this filter. This would only be used if the filter was for a node of -course and overrides the hop count in hop_table.pl. -
-
So, let's look at an example spot filter. It does not matter in the example who the filter is to be used for. -So, what do we need in the filter? We need to filter the spots the user/node requires and also set a default rule for -anything else outside the filter. Below is a simple filter that stops spots arriving from outside Europe. +
The only databases that Spider can currently import are the standard +AK1A databases such as OBLAST or the DB0SDX qsl and address database. +This will be added to with time. +
To import such a database, first put the file somewhere useful like /tmp +and then issue the following command ...
-$in = [
- [ 0, 4, 'a', '^(K|N|A|W|VE|VA|J)'], # 0 = drop, 'a' = alphanumeric
- [ 1, 0, 'd', 0, 1 ], # 1 = want, 'd' = everything else
- ];
+dbimport oblast /tmp/OBLAST.FUL
This will update the existing local oblast database or create it if +it does not exist.
-
So the filter is wrapped in between a pair of square brackets. This tells Spider to look in between these limits. -Then each line is contained within its own square brackets and ends with a comma. Lets look carefully at the first line. -The first element is 0 (drop). Therefore anything we put on this line will not be accepted. The next element is 4. -This means we are filtering by the spotter. The third element is the letter "a" which tells the program to expect an -alphanumeric expression in the fourth element. The fourth element is a list of letters separated by the pipe symbol. -
-
What this line does is tell the program to drop any spots posted by anyone in the USA, Canada or Japan. -
-
The second line is the default rule for anything else. The "d" tells us this and the line simply reads... accept anything else. -
-
You can add as many lines as you need to complete the filter but if there are several lines of the same type it is neater -to enclose them all as one line. An example of this is where specific bands are set. We could write this like this .... +
Once a database is created, you will want to check that it has been +added. To do this use the dbavail command. This will +output the available databases. For example ...
-[ 0,0,'r',[1800.0, 2000.0], 1],
-[ 0,0,'r',[10100.0, 10150.0], 1],
-[ 0,0,'r',[14000.0, 14350.0], 1],
-[ 0,0,'r',[18000.0, 18200.0], 1],
+dbavail
+DB Name Location Chain
+qsl Local
+buck GB7ADX
+hftest GB7DXM
+G0VGS de GB7MBC 3-Feb-2001 1925Z >
-
But the line below achieves the same thing and is more efficient .... +
To look for information in a defined database, simply use the dbshow +command, for example ...
- [ 0, 0, 'r',
- [
- 1800.0, 2000.0, # top band
- 10100.0, 10150.0, # WARC
- 14000.0, 14350.0, # 20m
- 18000.0, 18200.0, # WARC
- [ ,1 ],
+dbshow buckmaster G0YLM
-
-
will show the information for the callsign G0YLM from the buckmaster +database if it exists. To make things more standard for the users +you can add an entry in the Aliases file so that it looks like a standard +show command like this ...
-
-# This is an example announce or filter allowing only West EU announces
-#
-# The element list is:-
-# 0 - callsign of announcer
-# 1 - destination * = all, <callsign> = routed to the node
-# 2 - text
-# 3 - * - sysop, <some text> - special list eg 6MUK, ' ', normal announce
-# 4 - origin
-# 5 - 0 - announce, 1 - wx
-# 6 - channel callsign (the interface from which this spot came)
-
-$in = [
- [ 1, 0, 'a', '^(P[ABCDE]|DK0WCY|G|M|2|EI|F|ON)' ],
- [ 0, 0, 'd', 0 ]
-];
+'^sh\w*/buc', 'dbshow buckmaster', 'dbshow',
In this example, only the prefixes listed will be allowed. It is possible to be quite specific. The Dutch prefix "P" is -followed by several secondary identifiers which are allowed. So, in the example, "PA" or "PE" would be ok but not "PG". It -is even possible to allow information from a single callsign. In the example this is DK0WCY, to allow the posting of his -Aurora Beacon. +
Now you can simply use show/buckmaster or an abreviation.
-
To delete an existing database you use the dbremove command. +For example ...
-
-# This is an example WWV filter
-#
-# The element list is:-
-# 0 - nominal unix date of spot (ie the day + hour:13)
-# 1 - the hour
-# 2 - SFI
-# 3 - K
-# 4 - I
-# 5 - text
-# 6 - spotter
-# 7 - origin
-# 8 - incoming interface callsign
-
-# this one doesn't filter, it just sets the hop count to 6 and is
-# used mainly just to override any isolation from WWV coming from
-# the internet.
-
-$in = [
- [ 1, 0, 'd', 0, 6 ]
-];
+dbremove oblast
-
It should be noted that the filter will start to be used only once a user/node has logged out and back in again. -
I am not going to spend any more time on these filters now as they will become more "comprehensive" in the near future. +
would remove the oblast database and its associated datafile from the +system. There are no warnings or recovery possible from this command. +If you remove a database it ceases to exist and would have to be created +from scratch if you still required it.