How to Filter the AutoAO3 App

The AutoAO3 App was made by a fandom coder who wanted a more visually pleasing way to look at requests during exchanges. It has a few benefits over the traditional google sheets used by lots of exchanges, including the ability to bookmark prompts you're interested in, and the ability to filter prompts, even if you don't own the sheet. The tips below show you how to use this powerful tool.

Prepping To Filter Search

The app works by scraping the data already available on AO3. That's a fancy way of saying that it uses code to pull the exchange's info from AO3, get what it wants, and spit back out again in a visually pleasing format. There are a couple of things you can and should do to make your filtering more pleasant.

1. Start by re-scraping the data. (Optional.) The mods are pretty diligent about re-scraping sign-ups (getting the new info) a couple of times a day, but if you want to re-scrape to ensure you have the most up to date versions, you are more than welcome to do so. It won't hurt anything!

   The app displays the last time the info was scraped in your local time to the right of the exchange info. To re-scrape, simply hit the red Re-scrape button on the far right side of the window and wait for 5-15 minutes for it to get all the new data. Then, refresh your page.

Re-scrape Button: click to enlarge

2. Load all the data.

   The app only loads 50 requests initially. Please note this is NOT 50 users, but 50 individual requests - so if 5 people have 10 requests each that's all 50 request spots it will load.

   To get everything, drag your scrollbar to the bottom of the window until you can't drag it anymore. That's it! You're now ready to filter everything.

First 50 Requests Only: click to enlarge

All Requests: click to enlarge

tip

You can use the (^) symbol on the bottom right of the screen to jump to the top if there are a lot of requests!

Which Filters To Use

The most useful tab for finding specific requests (and Treatless!) is the All tab, but there are several filters available which simply won't work for our exchange.

Which Filters to Use: click to enlarge

• since we use Dragon Age - All Media Types to sign-up filtering by Fandom won't help.
• Characters only works if the Sign-Up sheet itself uses the Characters field; since our sign-up sheet uses the Relationships field this will not work for us.
• we do not allow Optional Tags during sign-up.
• we do not use Archive Warnings during sign-up.

Filtering Relationships

If you're looking to create for a specific character or ship or want to see what's been requested for a specific character or ship this is the place to start. Using the Relationships field you can search for an entire tag (i.e. Solas & Mythal), or for just an individual character (i.e. Bull).

Relationship Filter: click to enlarge

It's important to note that by default the filter does NOT look for exact matches. In fact it uses an "and" to search. This means that entering Bull Hawke would pull up any tags where both The Iron Bull AND Hawke (Female Hawke, Male Hawke, Carver Hawke, Bethany Hawke, Leandra Hawke, etc) show up. To pull up an exact match for a character who shares first or last names with another character you need to enclose it in quotes (i.e. "Male Hawke").

Exact Relationship Filter: click to enlarge

Other search short cuts include:

• Using | (vertical line) for "or". Tabris | Mahariel would provide a list of requests where either Tabris or Mahariel (of any gender) shows up in the ship.
• Using ! (exclamation) for "not". Aeducan !Female would provide a list of requests with Male or Nonbinary Aeducans.
• Combining multiple options. Alistair Morrigan Amell | Cousland !Female would look for requests with Alistair and Morrigan and either an Amell or Cousland not containing the word Female (so Male or Nonbinary).

Filtering Prompts

The Prompts field is useful as a filter if you're looking to write or draw a specific trope, kink, etc. For example, if you're really in the mood to give someone a BDSM treat you can filter on BDSM. This field is more limited than the Relationships field as the "or" and "not" designations do not work. However, using quotes for an exact match on a phrase does work. This means you can filter for "coffee shop au" and find only that phrase rather than searching coffee shop au and getting results which have coffee and shop and au as separate searches.

Exact Search Results: click to enlarge

Search without Quotes: click to enlarge

Notice the filter without quotations returns more results than the filter with quotations.

warning

Please be sure to read the prompts that are returned thoroughly. This filter can't tell if the person has listed your search as a want or a DNW, it can only detect that the words are present in the request.

Filtering By Type (And Treatless)

In order to help with matching, our sign-ups use the Freeform field to designate whether fanart or fanfic are being requested. For your assigned recipient, you should look for the Fanfic or Fanart tags on their prompt which designates their desire for their main gift.

If you're looking to complete treats of a specific type, you can search for participants who want those treats using the below tags:

• Treats - Fanart for Fanart treats.
• Treats - Fanfic for Fanfic treats.
• Treats - Other for alternative fanwork treats.

tip

This field is not case sensitive, but it is limited to searching for only one tag at a time.

caution

Be sure to use the full tags listed above for searching for treats to give. Entering just Treats will return every tag that has the word "treats" in it including No Treats Please, and searching for just "fanfic" or "fanart" could return requests which are only looking for those as a Main gift and not a treat.

Searching For Treats Types: click to enlarge

In addition, you can tell if someone has received a treat, because the Mods will be adding a Treat Received tag on their prompts. That means you can find Treatless participants by searching for !"Treat Received" in this field.

Treatless Filtering: click to enlarge

You can read more about treats in the Treats & Treatless FAQ.

Searching For AO3 Users

On the far right of the screen there is a User Search tab which allows you to find a specific user's prompt. You can use this to find an easier to read version of your assigned recipients's requests or look for friends' sign-ups. The search requires the exact username with punctuation, capital letters, etc, in order to work.

Simply enter the username in the search and hit go.

User Search: click to enlarge

This will pull every request from the user and display them below.

User Results: click to enlarge

Filtering The Tag set

AutoAo3 also loads the entire tag set for viewing into the app. You can see the entire list or filter by character on the Tag set tab to the right of the All tab. To view the tags included in our tag set, click on All Fandoms in All Categories → Dragon Age - All Media Types. This brings up the entire nominated tag list. You can then use the Filter Characters field to look for ships which have a specific character or scroll through to view the whole list.

Tag set Filter: click to enlarge

note

The Nominations Spreadsheet does remain up throughout the exchange, so you can always check it for tags as well.

Bookmarking Requests

You can use the app to bookmark fandoms (not very useful for this exchange) or specific requests you're interested in fulfilling. The bookmarks are stored

per browser. There are instructions for how to move your bookmarks across browsers if you need/want to under Show Backup Instructions. To bookmark something, simply click the heart next to the name.

Click the Heart to Bookmark: click to enlarge

Anything you bookmark is moved to the Bookmarks tab for you. To remove, simply click the heart again.

Bookmarks Tab: click to enlarge