Filterize - My How-To Guide to Using Parameterization with Filters

[lisec 283]

I spent countless hours trying to figure out how to use this feature to no avail, until today, so I thought I should share my (successful) procedure.

You can see the original shared Evernote note here:  https://www.evernote.com/l/ANDzoZKcIWVIhrokhgQ4hqp6HlE_5ANjp54/. 

(is there no way to make pictures smaller on this forum? this looks awful!)

 

Step 1: create table in Evernote to be used

Example:  This table will be used for a filter that says:  Apply the tag in the left column to (new) notes that appear in the notebooks listed in the right column.  (New notes in notebook 3Next will get tagged as 3)   Do not use any kind of brackets in your table.

Step 2: get the shared link for the note that includes the table

Right-click on the Evernote note that includes your table and select  Share > Copy Shareable Link   Things get tricky here. It never works for me if I paste the Evernote generated shared link directly into the parameterization section of the filter. I have to first paste the link in a browser (I use Chrome), and go the page (by pressing Enter). When the web page opens in the browser the link changes and becomes substantially longer.  Now I copy *that* link into filterize and it works.

Step 3: Set the Action

Action > tag >  Add custom tag  > insert your table column header within curly brackets (you have to click on the empty space under "tag text" to enable it)   Example:

Step 4: Condition

Condition > General > In Text Notebook Insert your table header within curly brackets note: (you have to click on the empty space under "name" to enable it)   Example

If you preview your filter after creating it ( select "click here to open preview")  you will see something like this:

Step 5: You may have to wait a while

You may have to wait a good 10 minutes or more depending on how many actions Filterize is updating. To see, go to Activity Log on the left side of your my.filterize wepage and look at the top. You will see something like this:

Step 6 (optional) : verify that it works

Create a new note to which the filter applies, refresh in evernote a few times and see if it works. If it does, then you can add more rows to your original column.    Example: I added all the conditions in yellow, tested it and they all worked.

 

[CalS 5,280]

1 hour ago, lisec said:

(is there no way to make pictures smaller on this forum? this looks awful!)

Double click on the image after you have added it to the post, it looks like the image on the left below.  Change the size parameter.  You should be able to do it when editing your original post.

     

[lisec 283]

thanks Cal. That did the trick.

 

[CalS 5,280]

16 minutes ago, lisec said:

thanks Cal. That did the trick.

 

You are welcome.

[gazumped 11,652]

Nice 'how to'! Thanks for that - there was a bit of a recent exchange on Facebook in the Filterize Community where I replied to a post about 'para' with my version of the above.  (It was much shorter, with fewer pics!)  See https://www.facebook.com/groups/filterize/ if you want the full original post from Paul Chow.  Seems there's a bit of a hiccup when first setting up the filter,  hence the time delay when first creating it. 

I really like the feature though - quite apart from allowing me to be really  lazy (one of my main aims in life) it means I can add and change condition and action parameters really quickly if I add new variables to a filter

@Pascal Held from Filterize (hope that's the right link...) Added this to the posts a day or so ago...

 If you create a new parameterization note. This note will be index when the filter is loaded the first time during processing. We will fix this soon. Until then a workaround would be to create a new filter with the parameterization note but with no actions. The filter must be enabled. Then change and sync any note and the filter is loaded so the parameterization note gets indexed. Now you can setup the filter as you want.

* Just to add a little confusion,  like the picture,  'Gazumped' is not actually my RW identity - look for posts by some bloke called 'Stuart Cliffe' on Facebook...  🤓

[lisec 283]

Gazumped, I saw that on Facebook. I was going to post there but I had to join and my request was pending so I just posted here instead.

Also, there is a mistake in my HowTo:  I didn't know how to set 2 tags for a note that appears in the same folder, and my last screenshot shows that if something is in the Archive_work it should set tag work and tag archive (2 different rows).  Well it turns out that didn't work (even though I said I checked and they all worked) so I have to figure that one out.

[gazumped 11,652]

3 minutes ago, lisec said:

Well it turns out that didn't work

Something else that caught me out when Filterizing was the fact that only newly changed notes are checked on sync.  Pre-existing notes just stay dormant. 

Pascal says this is by design,  and I can understand that - if you process a note once by filter,  you don't want the same action carried out again and again - at the very least it's a waste of bandwidth,  and might annoy Evernote if their API gets tasked too many times in 24hrs.  (Both of those are my guesses rather than Filterize statements!!)

Filterize suggest that we can 'trick' the system by adding a tag to a notebook,  or to a set of notes.  The notes will be synced to add that tag to the server - and incidentally Filterize will run the same series of notes through their process.  Once that's been done you can search for your temporary tag and remove it from all notes.

 

[gazumped 11,652]

...and to answer your query - I think you have to set up two actions.  "Add custom tag 'work' AND Add custom tag 'archive' if note is in notebook..."

[lisec 283]

4 minutes ago, gazumped said:

...and to answer your query - I think you have to set up two actions.  "Add custom tag 'work' AND Add custom tag 'archive' if note is in notebook..."

I was about to fiddle with that. I would need an extra column then, do you think? Tag1 and Tag2 with the action to add both.. and I will assume that if one column is empty then just the non-empty tag column gets added.

[lisec 283]

11 minutes ago, gazumped said:

Something else that caught me out when Filterizing was the fact that only newly changed notes are checked on sync.  Pre-existing notes just stay dormant. 

Pascal says this is by design,  and I can understand that - if you process a note once by filter,  you don't want the same action carried out again and again - at the very least it's a waste of bandwidth,  and might annoy Evernote if their API gets tasked too many times in 24hrs.  (Both of those are my guesses rather than Filterize statements!!)

Filterize suggest that we can 'trick' the system by adding a tag to a notebook,  or to a set of notes.  The notes will be synced to add that tag to the server - and incidentally Filterize will run the same series of notes through their process.  Once that's been done you can search for your temporary tag and remove it from all notes.

 

Yeah, I use "deletetag".  Another way is to change the creation date to "now"

[gazumped 11,652]

4 minutes ago, lisec said:

I would need an extra column then, do you think?

Not sure what would happen to the notes that did not require two tags.  I use a separate filter for notes that need 'special' attention,  and yes,  that table has three columns for tag1,  tag2, and the condition.  I don't know what Filterize does if there's no variable to use...  They're pretty responsive to emails - you could try their support for a definitive comment.

[lisec 283]

I tested what would happen if I had a 3 col table with 2 tags listed and one notebook for use with a rule that says: if the new note is in the notebook then apply the tags in col 1 and 2.  My purpose was to see what would happen if one of the tag cells was left blank. Basically if it worked, it would have been a good way to combine even more filters together: if in this notebook add these 4 tags; if in the other notebook add these 2 tags, etc.  Alas, that's not the way it works.

I tested with 3 columns, leaving one cell blank.

Result? The blank cell gets replaced with the custom tag created to represent the header, so in this case {tag2}. In other words, the note I created in the OnDevice notebook got tagged correctly with have, but it also got tagged with  {tag2}

Also interesting to note:  In the table, the notebook names *must* match the case of the Evernote notebook. Tags on the other hand, do not have this requirement. In fitlerize there is no indication of match case when creating the actions and/or conditions, nor is there a way to enable/disable. So to stay on the safe side, users should probably always match the case of tags and notebooks.

My tests if anyone wants details:

My filterize filter: