Pattern Matching - The "Contains" option in AutoResponder

AutoResponder has an option to detect messages and send replies if they contain certain words. It's called Pattern Matching and offers even more possibilities.

You can also reply automatically if the message starts or ends with certain words or contains several parts of sentences.

The Pattern Matching option is located in the Received Message section within a rule.

How to use Pattern Matching

Construct the received message within the rule according to the following criteria:

• Use * as a wildcard for anything.

• Use // as "or". You can separate words to trigger the rule if either of them matches.

As an alternative with much more and almost unlimited functionality you can use Expert Pattern Matching.

Examples

There are several different ways to use the * wildcard and // of Pattern Matching.

Use wildcard as "message contains"

Reply if message contains "example", as in "This is an example for Pattern Matching":

*example*

Use wildcard as "message starts with"

Reply if message starts with "example", as in "Examples are important":

example*

Use wildcard as "message ends with"

Reply if message ends with "example", as in "This is an example":

*example

Separating words with *

You can separate words with the * wildcard to check if several words appear in a certain order in the received message.

Reply if message starts with "that", has "example" in the middle and ends with "matching", as in "That's a good example for Pattern Matching":

that*example*matching

Separating words with //

You can separate multiple conditions with // to cover various different possibilities of received messages.

Reply if message contains "test" or "example", as in "This is a test" or "This example is cool":

*example*//*test*

Reply if message starts or ends with "example", as in "Examples are important" or "This is an example":

example*//*example

You can combine as many different words or conditions as you like.