Search query builder

Phil Gons (Logos)

Please make it possible to build complex searches mainly by using a mouse.

Unknown

I think this is essential, but along with this I’d like to see a simplified search syntax and then have the query builder expose its syntax to the user so that users could reasonably easily learn to simply type the queries.

Phil Gons (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1331930#Comment_1331930

@reuben-register-51 https://feedback.logos.com/boards/logos-desktop-app/posts/187

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1331930#Comment_1331930

@reuben-register-51 Do you have any concrete suggestions as to how it could be simplified without loss of functionality? I ask because I've been mulling the question over for many years and have basically been able only to simply how it is presented to the user in templates.

Randy W. Sims

1:1 Search. At least as a base. Anything else is likely to be not enough. There's just no way to offer simplified helps for every possible need. That method locks you in to something you cannot complete.
- A 1:1 diagrammer solves 100% the problems of syntax-don't have to remember it, don't have to worry about getting it right.
- It also offers the possibility of putting direct helps right where it's needed, on each component.
- With a palette of search components, all of the search options are there for the user to see. Don't have to remember what search commands are available.
- Any search is possible, it's not limited by dumbing it down. And yet a dumbed down search assistant can be built on top of it, down the road.
- Each component should have property editor(s), which ensure, where appropriate, that every property entered is valid. Another class of errors completely eliminated.

In my mind this is more of an auto-diagrammer. You put components on the canvas and they (connect four-like) drop down, in to a staging area. Then when you connect two search components with a relationship line, they auto assemble. It's clean. Everything on a grid. If you share a search string on the forums, everyone will be looking at the same exact diagram.

A debugging aid would allow selecting any component or relation and executing the search on that branch, or possibly even a live view popup.

That's just what I see in my mind. The main point is that it is a 1:1 diagrammer with possible search assistant built on top. We need to be able to create any search in it that we can now with a search string. Otherwise it's too limited to be useful to the widest range of users. While not as simple as possible it eliminates whole classes of errors and makes it possible to offer more direct helps to the user.

Jim Dean

Sorely needed. Via hover and click, or dropdown, both the item type (left of colon) and the item category (right of colon) should be selectable. User types Boolean operators and parens as desired. When a colon is typed with a space before &/or after, provide the options.  Ideally, a simple expert-rule check would only present options on the left that would be feasible, given what comes before (there may be no such limitation - I’m not sure). However what goes on the right always should be a list dictated by the type on the left.