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Improve the search function by looking for more that one word #337

Description

@antodc

Checklist

  • I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
  • I made sure that there are no existing discussions - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
  • I have read the FAQs inside the app (Menu -> About -> FAQs), in the README and my problem isn't listed.
  • I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the request may get dismissed otherwise.
  • This issue contains only one feature request.

Which apps should have this feature?

All Fossify Apps

Feature description

Currently, the search function allows you to find (part of) a word in relevant items (e.g., messages, contacts, appointments, pictures, and so on). Actually, more than one (part of) word can be used, but the match is made only with the exact phrase. So, if you type “play tennis” in the search field of the Messages app, for example, messages that say “Tomorrow we play tennis” are found, but not those saying “Tomorrow we play football or tennis.”

In my opinion, it would be nice if the search function could be made more flexible by introducing the ability to search for more than one (part of) word regardless of where they are in the various items.

For example, it should be possible to type “paul football” to search for contacts with both words anywhere in their cards, or among appointments, messages, pictures, and so on. Using wildcards, it should be equivalent to looking for ‘*paul*football*’ in all items, instead of ‘*paul football*’, as seems to be the case now.

It would be even better if the order in which the (parts of the) words are written was not important. So, continuing my previous example, all instances corresponding to either ‘*paul*football*’ or ‘*football*paul*’ should be found.

I must confess that it is not clear to me whether this ‘advanced search’ should be made optional. Perhaps there are cases, which I cannot see at the moment, in which the current behaviour is preferable. Also, it is not clear to me if the best way to introduce this feature would be to explicitly allow the use of wildcards by users or doing the job automatically by the app.

Why do you want this feature?

To make searches easier and more effective

Additional information

Above I wrote that all Fossify apps should have this feature, but of course I meant only those that have a search function. I did not check all of them, but I guess they are the majority.

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