Filter Configuration

The filter configuration panels are split into three groups; Details, People and Times. When the conditions on all three groups are satisfied, the filter is activated. We first deal with the Details panel.

Under Basic Configuration the filter name can be altered; which changes how the filter is called in the Plan Configuration panel; and also on your Credit Usage main screen (discussed in the User Interface topic).

You can also change which direction is going to be filtered. If this is a voice filter, then this means outgoing calls, incoming call or both.

You can also specify if you want this filter's usage to be shown on the Credit Usage main screen. The options are Automatic (show the filter usage if this filter does not have an infinite quantity), Always, and Never.

Each filter has a field which specifies the maximum amount of communication to which the filter can be applied. This can be specified in the natural unit of the communication (such as minutes, for calls; or sms/mms number for sms/mms); or in a certain monetary value (relative to the basic rates specified in the "Base Rates" configuration panel describe in the Basic Configuration topic). The filter will cease to filter calls once this quota has been exceeded in any given month. The quota is specified in the Quantity field; and the quantity tye is configured in the Quantity Type field.

In some cases, certain communications are simply charged at a different rate than in the basic rates; and so in the next section you can configure custom rates to be applied to these calls. By default, this charge will come out of your cap/included credit. If you need this to be charged as an excess charge that does not come from your cap, simply check the Billed as excess charge option.

We now move onto the People panel. In this panel, you configure the numbers/contacts for which this filter will apply. There are three ways to add numbers, each of which has its own section; and will be described briefly below. All methods are applied at the same time, and all can be used at once.

The first method is to add the numbers/contacts directly from your contact list. To do this, simply click on the Add entry; which will cause a dialog to appear with a list of all your contacts. You can then click on any of these contacts to add them to the list of contacts to which the filter will be applied. Clicking on a contact does not dismiss this list so that you can add multiple contacts easily. To dismiss the dialog, just click the back button on your handset. To remove a contact, just tap on their name.

The next way to add numbers/contacts is to add a contact group. Groups are most easily configured online (at google.com/contacts), or in Android applications designed to edit these contact groups. To activate the filter for a particular group, just check the checkbox next to that group. Examples for where this might be useful include such plan features as free calls to people on the same network as you. Since there is no way for Credit Usage to know this, you can just add all of your contacts which are on the same provider to a contact group, and activate the filter for them.

The last way is to add a prefix. To do so, simply click on the Add entry. Then, long press the new empty prefix which came up. A dialog will be shown that allows you to enter a prefix, as detailed in the next section.

After clicking the Add entry, a dialog similar to the one shown to the left will pop up; with a text field that allows you to add a prefix.

Any text you put here will then be matched to the beginning of the number corresponding to your communication; exactly as it is in your contacts. An empty string will match everything, and so be careful with this.

There is also the option to use regex matching, which uses the standard Java regex matching algorithms and patterns. If you are unfamiliar with regex matching, please check out: Wikipedia: Regular Expressions. To activate regex mode, simply activate the checkbox.

The last panel is the Times panel. In this panel, filters can be activated only for particular times. There is not a whole lot to point out here, except with regards to the behaviour of the Filtered Hours field.

If the start time is before the end time in the Filtered Hours field; then on the days checked below, the filter will be active between the given times. If however, the start time is after the end time, then the start time is considered to be on the days ticked below; and the end time will wrap around to the next day.

For example, if I enter in the configuration such that only Friday is selected; and specify the filtered hours as having a start time of 22:00 and an end time of 03:00; then the filter will be active from Friday at 22:00 until Saturday at 03:00.