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To stop Urlwatch alerting on timestamps or rotating page sections, configure a filter for the job so it removes or normalizes the changing content before comparison. Use CSS or XPath to select stable content or exclude a changing element; use re.sub for a timestamp embedded in text; and sort matching items only when their order does not matter. Preview the filtered result with urlwatch --test-filter before relying on it.
How Urlwatch filters suppress noisy changes
Urlwatch applies a job’s filter pipeline to retrieved content before comparing it with the previous result. Filters can be chained, so you can first select or convert the relevant content, then remove noise or normalize it. The official urlwatch 2.29 filter reference and urlwatch 2.29 handbook describe these configuration options.
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Edit the YAML job list—commonly with urlwatch --edit—and put the filter under the job whose alerts you want to refine. The right filter depends on where the changing material appears: as a separate HTML element, inside useful text, or as a change in the order of otherwise identical items.
Choose the right filter for the kind of change
| Approach | Use it when | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| CSS or XPath selection and exclusion | The changing content is a separable HTML or XML element, or you can select only the stable region. | It depends on stable markup and a selector that matches the intended content. |
re.sub normalization |
A timestamp or other volatile string is embedded in text you still want to monitor. | An overly broad pattern can remove meaningful changes along with the noise. |
| Sorting | The same items appear in a different order, and order is not meaningful. | Order changes will no longer trigger an alert. |
Select stable page content or exclude a changing region
When timestamps, banners, or other rotating content occupy their own elements, prefer selecting the stable content or excluding only the volatile elements. CSS and XPath filters are set up for HTML by default; the documentation also describes XML mode. This avoids brittle text matching when the page’s structure already separates the useful and noisy parts.
For example, this illustrative job selects a stable area, excludes two changing elements inside it, converts the result to text, and strips surrounding whitespace:
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url: https://example.org/status
filter:
- css:
selector: "main .stable-content"
exclude: ".last-updated, .rotating-banner"
- html2text
- stripReplace the example URL and selectors with the target page’s real markup. The selector must continue to identify the content you intend to monitor. The filter reference also supports limiting selector results with skip and maxitems; use maxitems only if choosing among duplicate matches is correct, because limiting results can hide later meaningful matches.
Remove or standardize a timestamp embedded in text
If the timestamp is part of otherwise useful text rather than a separable element, use the re.sub filter after selecting or converting the relevant content. The pattern below is only an example for a particular date-like format and surrounding label; adapt it to the actual page rather than applying it blindly.
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filter:
- html2text
- re.sub:
pattern: "Last updated: \d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}.*"
repl: ""
- stripYou can also replace a volatile value with a stable token instead of removing it. That is useful when the surrounding text matters but the changing value does not. Keep the expression as specific as possible: a broad match can hide a real content change. For HTML or XML structure, use CSS or XPath where possible rather than trying to parse markup with a regular expression.
Ignore reordering when item membership is what matters
If the page contains the same list items in a different order and order itself is irrelevant, set sort: true within a CSS or XPath filter. This example sorts the selected list items before converting them to text:
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filter:
- css:
selector: "ul.items > li"
sort: true
- html2textFor plain text, the sort filter sorts lines by default and accepts a custom separator when items use another boundary. Do not sort ranking tables, queues, schedules, or any list where position carries meaning; sorting would suppress precisely the change you may want to notice.
Test the filtered output and account for saved history
- Edit the job’s filter in the YAML job list, commonly by running
urlwatch --edit. - Run
urlwatch --test-filterwith the job index or URL and inspect the resulting plaintext. Confirm that the volatile material is gone and the content you care about remains. The official urlwatch 2.20 filter reference documents this testing command; check the documentation for your installed version if the exact behavior matters. - Once the output is right, let the job run and review the next comparison. A changed filter processes newly retrieved content, while the stored old content reflects the earlier filter treatment. The first comparison after a filter change can therefore compare differently processed versions and produce an alert. The history behavior is described in the urlwatch 2.20 filter reference.
Troubleshooting noisy or missing alerts
- Alerts continue for the changing region: Check whether the CSS or XPath selector actually matches the element on the page and whether the changing element is inside the selected region. Preview the result with
urlwatch --test-filter. - Meaningful text disappears: Narrow the
re.subpattern or use structural selection and exclusion instead. A pattern that matches beyond the timestamp may erase useful content. - List changes still trigger alerts: Confirm that
sort: trueis set on the CSS or XPath filter that selects the items, or use the plain-textsortfilter when the content is line-based. Choose a separator that matches the actual item boundaries if lines are not the items. - A change in order is no longer reported: That is the intended effect of sorting. Remove sorting if position is meaningful and should trigger a notification.
- An alert appears immediately after changing the filter: The previously stored result was processed under the old filter, while new retrievals use the updated chain. Review the next comparison with that difference in mind.
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If you need a clean screenshot rather than a text-change monitor, ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server. Its one-call API can return an image or PDF; it is not a replacement for Urlwatch’s filtered change comparisons.
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