Data filters are plugins that consume some data like text or images from other plugins. They may be the end point of processing or pass it further to other plugins.
Example
A screenshot tool may save or upload the screenshots itself, or it may just pass this duty to the image data filters. The filters could then upload the image to a dumb imagebin, or to a collection on Flickr, or perform arbitrary modifications to the image (like applying Instagram-like filters) and pass it along to other data filters.
A document reader can pass the selected text to text data filters for searching in Opensearch engines or uploading it to a pastebin. The following screenshot illustrates this:
The exact functionality of the data filters doesn’t matter to the plugin producing the data. Moreover, data filter plugins are “passive” — that is, data is fed to them by data producers. The producer plugins can choose between different data filters, with or without user interaction.
Data filter types
Image data filters
Text data filters
- Pogooglue
- SeekThru
Modules using data filters
Image filters
- Auscrie for handling screenshots.
- Monocle for handling selected parts of a document as images.
- Poshuku for handling full-length web page shots.