Important changes were made in how YA-NewsWatcher uses filter files starting with versions 2.2.0b10 and 2.0.4. Please read the following carefully before running the new version of YA-NW. Failure to read this and the other user documents CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY will result in undue suffering on your part.
PART ONE: CHANGES MADE STARTING WITH VERSION 2.0.4
Your old NewsWatcher Filters file used by YA-NW and VA-NW will no longer work. You need to run the Filter Converter (version 1.0.2 or later) application to make new filter files. This application is found at all Info-Mac archive sites, in the same directory as YA-NewsWatcher.
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Change #1: Previously there was just one filter file that contained local, regional, and global filters that were applied to all user group windows. This has changed beginning with YA-NW 2.0.4. You can now define filters that will apply only to a specific user group window. You can also optionally keep a single filters file that will apply to user group windows that don't have their own filters file (including any Search groups windows).
All the filter files are kept in a new folder named:
YA-NewsWatcher Settings
which is located in the same folder as the active NewsWatcher Prefs file. The prefs file may be located in the Preferences folder in your System folder, or it may be elsewhere on your disk.
Step by step instructions on converting filters. 1) Decide what you want to do. You should choose to create a default filters file that can be used by any group window that doesn't have its own set of filters. These filters will be used by windows created by the Search command. Any filters created from a message window to filter your own posts and their replies will also be added to this collection of filters.
You can also create additional filter files that are specific to a user group window, and which will be used in place of any filters in the default set described in the above paragraph.
2) Find your existing NewsWatcher prefs file. Create a new folder in this directory. Name the directory:
YA-NewsWatcher Settings
DO NOT put your NewsWatcher prefs file in this folder.
DO NOT put any NewsWatcher user group files in this folder.
3) Find the old filter file(s) you want to convert. Drag them one by one onto the Filter Converter application. You will get a file dialog for saving the converted file. If you want to make a converted filters file for use with a particular user group file, use the exact same name as the user group file, and save the file to the YA-NewsWatcher Settings folder you just created. For example, if your user group file is called My Sub, then name the converted filter My Sub. Repeat this process for each user group file you want to have its own filters file. If you use a newsrc file, name the converted filter file:
newsrc
To create the default filters file, to be used by any group list window that doesn't have its own filters file, perform the conversion as described above and name the new file:
YA-NewsWatcher Filters
Again, this and all the other new filter files should be saved in the YA-NewsWatcher Settings folder.
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Change #2: In previous versions of YA-NW, you were free to choose any color you wished to assign to a filter, and any single character as a marker. Sorting by hilight color would then sort based on the hue of the hilight color. A given filter could also be specified as acting to kill, keep, or hilight any articles it matched.
Starting with YA-NW 2.0.4 all this changes. Now all filters act to apply a Finder-like label to matching articles. There are a total of 34 possible labels. The last two, (unlabeled) and (killed) are used respectively to specify that matching articles should be kept unlabeled or killed. The remaining 32 labels are used to tag articles of interest. The label color and text for all 32 such labels can be edited in the Filter Options portion of the Preferences dialog. They can also be dragged to reorder the labels. When sorting articles in subject windows by label, the topmost label in the list of 34 is given the highest ranking, with the lowest rank going to (unlabeled) and (killed) at the bottom of the list. Any of the 34 labels can be chosen as the default for newly created filters.
For more information on changes and features in this and older versions of YA-NW, please read the other documentation files that accompany YA-NewsWatcher.
PART TWO: CHANGES MADE STARTING WITH VERSION 2.2.0b10
Filter files other than the standard one named "YA-NewsWatcher Filters" located in the "YA-NewsWatcher Settings" folder are no longer used by the program. These additional filter files could be created to have different sets of filters for different user group lists. If you don't have any such filter files (all your filters are in "YA-NewsWatcher Filters"), you don't have to do anything. Your old filters will be read and used by YA-NewsWatcher 2.2.0b10 and later.
If you just use a single user group list (named, for example, "My Sub"), and you created filters just for it, you have a filter file named "My Sub" located in the "YA-NewsWatcher Settings" folder. In this case, the easiest thing to do is to remove any existing filter file named "YA-NewsWatcher Filters", and rename the "My Sub" filters file to "YA-NewsWatcher Filters". You will lose any filters that were in the old "YA-NewsWatcher Filters" file, but these filters were only used for filtering subject windows opened from the full group list or the Search command.
Most generally, you can merge the contents of any old filter files you had into a new, combined filter file you should name "YA-NewsWatcher Filters" (and place in the "YA-NewsWatcher Settings" folder). To do this, you need to use the two converter applications "YA-NW Filter to TEXT" and "YA-NW TEXT to Filter", both of which are available on Info-Mac ftp mirror sites worldwide, in the same directory as YA-NewsWatcher itself. The "YA-NW Filter to TEXT" application reads a YA-NewsWatcher filter file, and creates a plain text version that can be edited using a text editor. The "YA-NW TEXT to Filter" application performs the reverse conversion from a text file to a filter file.
Step 1: Remove all the filter files found in the folder "YA-NewsWatcher Settings".
Step 2: Run "YA-NW Filter to TEXT" on each of your existing filter files to create individual text versions of each.
Step 3: Using a text editor, merge the files together (and delete any duplicate entries). The global filter group from each individual filter file, named "." (a period) should be renamed to the name of the matching user group file preceded by a period. For example, for the filter file for the user group file "My Sub #1", rename the global filter group to ".My Sub #1."
Step 4: Run "YA-NW TEXT to Filter" to convert the merged file back to a filter file. This filter file is the new replacement version of "YA-NewsWatcher Filters". Save it in the "YA-NewsWatcher Settings" folder, and make sure it is named "YA-NewsWatcher Filters".
Step 5: If you're doing this filter conversion AFTER you've already created some newsgroup settings, you need to perform one more step. Copy this setting information to the newly created filter file. (The file "YA-NewsWatcher Filters" contains both your filters and the newsgroup settings. The filter data is stored in the file's data fork; the settings in the resource fork.) Use ResEdit to open your old "YA-NewsWatcher Filters" file. Select and copy all the resources found in the file. Next, open your newly created "YA-NewsWatcher Filters" file, and paste all the resources into it.
