User's Guide
Contents
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Version 1.1 User's Guide |
| PICS Plug-In Reference |
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The PICS Profile Manager window in the WebDoubler application is used to import and export PICS profiles.
When a filter is selected and the "OK" button is clicked, a standard Save File dialog box is displayed. Clicking "Cancel" returns to the PICS Profile Manager window.
Statistics
This section displays the number of passed URLs, the number of blocked URLs, and the percentage of each compared to the total number of requests processed by WebDoubler since it was installed.
Options
This section displays PICS global configuration settings.
PICS Filtering
The "master switch" which turns on or off PICS filtering. Select "Enabled" to turn on filtering or select "Disabled" to turn off filtering. A change to the selection will take effect immediately after the "Save Changes" button is clicked. If PICS filtering is turned off, all requests will be allowed.
No Access Page
This field contains the path to the HTML page used as the template for the "no access" page returned to WebDoubler clients when a page is blocked by a PICS filter.
The file path can be either a full path beginning with the name of a volume on the WebDoubler server, or it can be a partial path, beginning with a colon, relative to the WebDoubler folder. The default value for this field is ":PICS:NoAccess.html", which specifies the no access page installed with WebDoubler in the PICS folder.
The configured "no access" file is a standard HTML formatted text file, so you may customize it to suit your tastes, or create your own. The page may contain a special "<WX2-PICS-EXPLANATION>" tag. This tag will be replaced with the explanation text defined in the PICS filter which caused the requested page to be blocked.
If the specified HTML file cannot be found, an internal "no-access" page is returned to the user.
Log Blocked URLs
This popup menu controls whether or not WebDoubler will maintain a record of blocked URL requests. Select "Enabled" and click the "Save Changes" button to turn on blocked URL logging or select "Disabled" to turn off logging.
Log File Name
This field contains the path to the text file used to log blocked URLs. If blocked URL logging is enabled, the specified file will be updated with a tab-delimited text record describing each request for blocked URLs. Each record consists of:
Each time WebDoubler is launched while logging is enabled, a startup line is written to the file which records the date/time of launch and describes the format of each record.
If the specified log file does not exist, it is automatically created when necessary.
The file path can be either a full path beginning with the name of a volume on the WebDoubler server, or it can be a partial path, beginning with a colon, relative to the WebDoubler folder. The default value for this field is ":PICS:Block.log".
View Log File
Clicking this hyperlink will display the current contents of the configured log file.
Look for Embedded Labels
This option tells WebDoubler how hard to look for embedded labels in returned web pages. Embedded PICS labels are supposed to be contained within META tags within the HTML header of the page. However, many web pages either do not contain and tags at all, or they are improperly constructed.
The default setting for this option is for WebDoubler to look for embedded labels "in the response HEAD only (faster; less secure)". This means that it will only look for PICS labels in between properly-formatted HEAD tags in the web page. If not found, no labels are assumed to exist. This is faster because it doesn't require waiting for the entire web page to load before looking for labels. It is less secure because the page may contain labels elsewhere in the page, which would not be found.
You may instead select the option to look for embedded labels "in the entire response page (slower; more secure)". As noted, this option will slow down PICS processing slightly, since it must wait for the entire page to load before looking for labels. It is more secure since it will always find all embedded labels, whether properly formatted or not.
Save Changes
This button transmits the currently-selected options to WebDoubler when clicked. You must click this button to save changes to the "Options" section of the PICS Main Administration page.
Profile List
This section displays the list of profiles currently defined for the PICS plug-in.
Identity
This section contains fields that are used to uniquely identify the profile.
When changes are made to any of these fields, you must click "Save Changes" for the changes to be permanently saved.
Service List
This section displays the list of services currently in use by this profile.
Filter List
This section displays the list of filters currently defined within this profile.
Default Filter
This section defines what to do when none of this profile's filters are satisfied by the requested URL. Select the "accepted" radio button if you want the requested URL to be passed to the client. Select the "rejected" radio button if you want the requested URL to be blocked from the client. You must click the "Save Changes" button for your settings to take effect.
Delete Profile
This button is used to delete the current profile. Deleting a profile deletes all the profiles' service definitions and filters as well as the profile itself. Use this button carefully - a deleted profile is not recoverable and there is no undo available.
Options
This section is used to select a rating service.
The "Service" popup menu displays a list of all the services currently available for use in WebDoubler profiles. The menu includes the names of the services for which there are ".rat" files installed in the "Rating systems" folder within the "PICS" folder.
If you want to use a service that is not currently installed, you can select the "Other..." menu option, and supply the URL of the service's ".rat" file in the "Other .RAT File" field, below.
Other .RAT File - If you select "Other..." from the "Service" popup menu, enter the full URL of the new service's ".rat" file in this field. WebDoubler will fetch the URL via HTTP, parse it, and install it automatically, so that it can then be used in the current profile.
Embedded Ratings
This section is used to tell WebDoubler what to do with labels that are embedded in web pages and use this service's rating system.
Since embedded labels represent the web page author's self-rating of the page, it is possible for the author to rate the page inaccurately, thus circumventing PICS filters. You can choose whether or not WebDoubler should trust embedded labels for this service. Click the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page for the change to take effect.
Label Bureau
This section is used to configure WebDoubler to fetch PICS labels for this rating service from a label bureau.
Delete Service
Options
This section is used to identify the URL filter and specify the action taken when a URL matches any of this filter's patterns.
URL Pattern List
This section displays the list of URL patterns used by this URL filter.
URL Elements
This section is used to specify each part of a matching URL.
Note: In this release, WebDoubler only handles "http" URLs, so selecting "ftp" will never cause a match.
Note: In this release, WebDoubler only handles "http" URLs, so you should always enter an asterisk in this field.
An asterisk character ('*') may be used as a "wild card" character at the beginning or end of a domain name. When matching URLs, the asterisk matches zero or more characters. Thus, to create a test of all of servers that end "maxum.com", you could simply create one URL pattern with a host name of "*.maxum.com". If Maxum also registered the "maxum" domain under other top-level domains, such as "org" or "net", you could filter all URLs whose host name contains "maxum" using a URL pattern with a host name of "*.maxum.*".
Instead of filtering a host by its domain name, you may use its IP address instead. Simply enter the IP address of the host in the "Host" field to create an URL pattern that matches any URL containing the server's IP address.
You can specify that the URL pattern matches a range of IP addresses by appending an exclamation point character ('!'), followed by a "bit mask" value, to the IP address. A "bit mask" tells WebDoubler how many bits (1 to 32) of the given IP address are significant. Each one of the four decimal numbers in an IP address represents eight bits in the 32-bit integer value. For example, if the block of addresses were in the range "128.227.58.0" through "128.227.58.255", you could enter "128.227.58.0!24" in the "Host" field.
Note that URL patterns that specify a host's domain name do not match URLs that refer to the same server by its IP address. Nor do URL patterns that specify a host's IP address (or range of IP addresses) match URLs that refer to a server by its domain name. This is necessary to avoid the performance penalty of executing a DNS lookup for every URL pattern, for each HTTP request.
http://www.maxum.com:2537/
You can create URL patterns that match only URLs containing a specific port number. To match a single port number, enter the port number in the "Port(s)" field. You can also create URL patterns that match a range of port numbers. To do this, enter the starting port number, a dash ('-') character, and the ending port number in the "Port(s)" field. For example, to match all URLs that include port numbers from 17 to 3200, enter "17-3200" in the "Port(s)" field.
If you want to match all port numbers below a given value, use an asterisk character ('*') as the starting port number of a range. For example, "*-3200" would match all port numbers less than or equal to 3200. Similarly, for matching port numbers greater than a given value, use the asterisk as the ending port number. For example, "17-*" would match any port number greater than or equal to 17.
To match any port number, you must enter a single asterisk in the "Port(s)" field. If you leave the "Port(s)" field empty, the URL pattern will only match URLs that do not specify a port number, so it is best to always enter something in this field.
You may use an asterisk character ('*') at the beginning or end of the file path text to match any string of zero or more characters. Thus, you can match URLs that begin with a certain string, that end with a certain string, or that contain a certain string.
To match a URL that begins with a certain string of characters, add the asterisk to the end of the match string. For instance, to match any URL whose file path begins with "/netcloak/", enter "/netcloak/*" in the "File Path" field.
To match a URL that ends with a certain string of characters, add the asterisk to the beginning of the match string. For instance, to match any URL whose file path ends with ".jpeg", enter "*.jpeg" in the "File Path" field. Use this method to filter out certain file types. In this example, we are matching JPEG image files.
To match a URL that contains a certain string of characters, add the asterisk to both the beginning and the end of the match string. To match any URL whose file path contains "/cgi-bin/", for instance, enter "*/cgi-bin/*" in the "File Path" field. Use this method to filter out requests for files within a given folder. In this example, we are matching any URL that specifies files within a "cgi-bin" folder.
Delete URL Pattern
Options
This section contains fields used to identify this filter, and to determine what to do when a requested URL's labels pass the filter's tests.
Choose "If" from the second popup menu to accept/reject the page if it passes the filter's tests. Choose "Unless" from the second popup menu to accept/reject the page if it does not pass the filter's tests. Note that URLs that have no label, or are not labeled with a test's selected rating system do not pass that test.
If a requested page must pass all of the filter's tests, select "All" from the third popup menu. If it must pass only one of the filter's tests, select "Any" from the third popup menu. Selecting "All" performs a logical "AND" with the results of the filter's tests. Selecting "Any" performs a logical "OR" with the results of the filter's tests.
There is a subtle but very important difference between a "Reject If" label filter and an "Accept Unless" label filter. The difference lies in the way they handle URLs for which no labels are available. If no labels using the selected service are available for the requested URL, a "Reject If" filter will pass the requested URL. If no labels using the selected service are available for the requested URL, an "Accept Unless" filter will block the requested URL. Thus, if you want to reject unlabeled URLs, use an "Accept Unless" filter. If you want to pass unlabeled URLs, use a "Reject If" filter. The same logic applies to the difference between "Accept If" and "Reject Unless" filters.
Test List
This section displays the list of tests performed by this label filter.
(serviceShortName.category operator value)
"ServiceShortName" is the short name of the selected service. This is the same name displayed in the service list in the "Edit Profile" page. "Category" is a code for the category currently selected. "Operator" specifies a logical comparison, such as: =, <, >, <= or >=. "Value" is the value used to evaluate the chosen category.
Delete Filter
Service Info
Test Criteria
Comparison Popup
Category/Value Table
To choose a rating category, click the radio button next to the category name. Categories are displayed in rows with a different background color from the rest of the table.
To select a value for the chosen category, click the radio button next to the value's icon (if present) or its name. Category values are indented within each category.
Delete Test
This page provides a quick, convenient way to automatically create URL filters that check for certain words.
If the selected profile already contains filters named "WebDoubler PICS Accept Word List" or "WebDoubler PICS Reject Word List", the words in the "Reject List" and "Accept List" are added to the existing filters instead of creating more filters.
This page displays the current contents of the configured log file for logging blocked URLs. If the configured file does not exist yet or cannot be opened for some reason, an error message is displayed instead of the contents of the file.
| Copyright © 1999 Maxum Development Corporation http://www.maxum.com/ |
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