Scenes give you more control over how your students are using their Chromebooks. You can use Scenes to filter websites during your classroom sessions. This article will specifically cover the filtering component of Scenes. 

You can also send websites to students and limit the number of open tabs at a given time. For more information about what Scenes has to offer, please read Components of a Scene. 

Scene Type

You can either create an Allowed Websites List (to block everything except what you've allowed) or a Blocked Websites List (to allow everything except what you've blocked).

Allowed Websites List

Allowed Websites Lists are made to be very restrictive since only the websites and Wildcards that you add to them can be accessed by a student.

Blocked Websites List

Blocked Websites Lists are made to be very open and unrestrictive since all websites can be accessed by your students except what you've added to them.

Adding general URLs, such as domains (like facebook.com), will allow or block the entirety of the site, depending on which type of list you're creating. More specific folder or page URLs (such as https://www.facebook.com/funnyordie) will allow content in only those sections.

An Allowed Websites List Scene must have at least one site allowance added before any content will be blocked.  

Exclusions and URL types

There are a few types of URLs that you can add to your Allowed Websites/Blocked Websites List. Adding the website URL will exclude it from the selected filtering mode. Below are a few examples of how the filtering rules are applied.

In case you aren't familiar with URLs, you can find the parts of a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) broken down in the image below.

Base URL

Adding a Base URL will allow or block the entirety of a website. 

Example: google.com

When added to an Allowed Websites List, this would block all websites, but allow all Google-related services at google.com including Gmail (mail.google.com), Docs (docs.google.com), Drive (drive.google.com), and Google Search (google.com/search). That is because these services all stem from the google.com main domain.

When added to a Blocked Websites List, this would block all Google-related services at google.com including Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Google Search. This is because each of these services is a part of the main domain of google.com.

Subdomain URL

Adding a subdomain URL will allow or block a subsection of a website. 

Example:  docs.google.com 

When added to an Allowed Websites List, this would block all websites, but allow only docs.google.com and any pages starting with docs.google.com/.

When added to a Blocked Websites List, this would block any pages starting with docs.google.com/.

Folder URL

Adding a folder URL would allow or block content within a specific section of a site. 

Example:  docs.google.com/a/goguardian.com/

When added to an Allowed Websites List, this would block all websites, but allow only Google Docs that are in the goguardian.com domain.  

When added to a Blocked Websites List, this would block any pages starting with docs.google.com/a/goguardian.com/.

Page URL

Adding a specific URL would allow or block only that page. 

Example: docs.google.com/a/goguardian.com/document/d/123456edit?usp=sharing

When added to an Allowed Websites List, this would block all websites, but allow only this specific Google Document.  

When added to a Blocked Websites List, this would block this specific Google Document.

Block or Allow sites with *Wildcards*

Depending on which Scene mode is selected, websites can be blocked or allowed using *wildcards*, another term for * (asterisks). 

Depending on which Scene mode is selected, websites can be blocked or allowed using *wildcards, another term for * (asterisks). To block by keyword, add a word with an * immediately before or after the word to your exceptions list. This feature is more useful for blocking sites that contain the keyword in its domain.

Example: *games or games*   

When added to an Allowed Websites List, this would block all websites, but allow all URLs that contain the word games in its domain or subdomain. 

When added to a Blocked Websites List, this would block all URLs that contain the word games in its domain or subdomain. 

When adding a URL, asterisks can be added on both sides for sites with subdomains to avoid blocking theoretical subdomains. Or just at the end if there are no subdomains expected.

Example: *edgenuity.com* allows subdomain.edgenuity.com/homepage

Wildcards are supported in any part of a filter site.

Example: In the site https://www.w3schools.com/ you can target a specific part of the site, such as:

w3schools.com/*css*

Targeting this specific URL path can either block everything except the CSS pages (if your Scene is in Block Mode) or allow everything except the CSS pages (if your Scene is in Allow Mode). See the example below.