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Filter Node (Shapes > Filter)

Janne Brönner
  • Updated

What it does

This node filters shape trees based on Unicode text, position, item name, or index. Items that do not match the filter criteria are passed to a separate output.

Use it for

  • Filtering specific shape trees that cannot be selected using the Select Shapes or Select Shapes by Reference nodes due to lack of distinctive formatting.
  • Filtering shape trees containing specific text. Supports regular expressions.
  • Filtering shape trees by index or item name.
  • Filtering shape trees by position on the page (pageBBoxes) or in the document (docBBox).

How to use it

  1. Drag and drop the node from the Node Library into your template:
    Node Library > Folder Shapes > Folder Filter
  2. Connect the node with other nodes in the Data Flow of your template.
  3. Specify the settings in the Node Properties task pane.

Node Input

Connect a node that provides the shape trees to be filtered to the Items input port.

Node Output

  • Filtered Items: Shape trees that match the filter expression.
  • Unfiltered Items: Shape trees that do not match the filter expression.

Node Properties

Node Name

You can assign a custom name to the node to help identify its purpose within your template.

Filter Expression

Define the condition used to filter shape trees. 

Available variables:

  • item: the current item being processed from the input list. item has the same properties as a shape tree object.
  • index: the zero-based index of the item in the input list
  • first: the first item in the input list
  • last: the last item in the input list
  • count: the total number of items in the input list

Expected return type: boolean

Important: Using regular expressions may significantly impact performance. Use them only when necessary.

Example 1: Filtering by text

item.text = "This is an example."

Filters shape trees containing the Unicode text "This is an example.". This also works when the text is split across multiple shapes, such as "This is " and "an example.".

Example 2: Filtering by text with regular expressions

item.text match "test" or 
item.text match "^Ex"

Filters all shape trees that contain "test", or start with "Ex".

Example 3: Filtering by item name

item.name = "P"

Filters all shape trees with the item name "P".

Example 4: Filtering by index

index = 0 and 
index in [2 .. 5] and
index = count -2

Filters the first item (index = 0), items with indices 2 through 5 and the second-to-last item.

Example 5: Filtering first or last item

first and 
last

Filters the first and last items in the input list.

Example 6: Filtering by position

item.pageBBoxes[0].top < 500 and 
item.pageBBoxes[0].bottom > 400

Filters items whose first page bounding box lies within a vertical range: the top edge is below 500 points and the bottom edge is above 400 points.