[added 2.1.1] Search by part of first name, last name

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baulrich
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:13 pm

[added 2.1.1] Search by part of first name, last name

Post by baulrich »

I am using the FREE version until I can find a way to do the following: (I am moving from a BB and miss this feature like crazy...)

Search for contacts by typing the first few letters of the first name, followed by a space, followed by the first few letters of the last name.

It seems like such a simple feature, but its such a powerful search feature of the blackberry OS that lets me quickly filter my contacts.

thanks in advance,

baulrich
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: Search by part of first name, space, part of last name

Post by camel »

baulrich wrote:I am using the FREE version until I can find a way to do the following: (I am moving from a BB and miss this feature like crazy...)

Search for contacts by typing the first few letters of the first name, followed by a space, followed by the first few letters of the last name.

It seems like such a simple feature, but its such a powerful search feature of the blackberry OS that lets me quickly filter my contacts.

thanks in advance,

baulrich
it is implemented in 2.1.0, that on search tab, there will be now: (next few days)
"+" -> like AND
"-" -> like: NOT
"|" -> like OR
to search for some string from firstname + searching some strings from lastname ??? ... this would cost 2 requests, and then it must be a also cross checking, because it can be firstname or lastname and cross... this would cost ~2-4 of time.
if anyone need some special case, then it can be done on tab "search" via the +,-,|

like: bau + lich -> will find all name, where is: "bau" AND "lich"
like: bau - lich -> will find all name, where is: "bau" AND NOT "lich"
like: bau | lich -> will find all name, where is: "bau" OR "lich"

cu camel
baulrich
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 5:13 pm

Re: Search by part of first name, space, part of last name

Post by baulrich »

thanks for the response. Those additions look like they will make the search feature more powerful. However, I'd like to elaborate a little more on my request and the thinking behind it.

First, let me say that DWP seems like a great app and that's why I chose to post to this forum. My frustration with searching/filtering contacts is not just with this app, but with searches from the native Android OS and any other app I've tested with. It really surprises me that this simple yet powerful feature is present in BB devices (and iPhone (recently tested)) but seems to be lacking in Android. Maybe the APIs they use to expose the search capabilities from the OS to 3rd party apps doesn't make it easy to search this way??? Because the built-in searches on Android don't work this way either.

To be clear... it is NOT JUST the ability to search for 2 (or more) different strings but the fact that it can be done so quickly that makes this feature so powerful. Let me explain a little more about how the search/filter feature works on a blackberry that makes it so useful.

- It will support any number of independent strings of text, separated by spaces, as search criteria, but requires that those independent strings match the BEGINNING of any individual word contained in "First Name", "Last Name", or "Company". Note that any of those fields can (often do) contain more than one word. For users with large contact lists that have "Company" info populated for most contacts, typing a few letters of the contact's last name may yield far too many results to sift through because the search also includes first names and Company names (any individual word within the company name).

A system that searches so many fields can provide result-overload, and that's why it supports adding a space followed by another string to narrow it down further. If you type in a few letters of a contact's last name and get 50 results, that is too many to scroll thru. Instead, you can add a space and type the first 2 chars of the contacts first name (note that it does not matter if you type first name or last name first). If the resulting list is still too long, just add another space and two letters of contact's company name. Even with a HUGE address book fully populated with Company names for all contacts, it possible to type 3 letters of last name, space, 2 letters of first name, space, 2 letters of company name and have your real-time filtered result list down to the exact contact you want to dial/txt/email.

Not to discredit the work you did to add "+" , "-", and "|" symbols to increase search power, but in my opinion the space is the only character that will work(for proper filtering) and the "AND" operator should be its default search type. This is because it is important to be able to add search criteria quickly as you type. Hunting to find a special character (instead of space bar) would not work. I do like the idea of the - and | operators as options for more advanced searches.

I also think that for real-time, filtering searches it is better to have the search match only the beginning of each field (actually each word of each field). I think the + operator would be useful for instances where you wanted to match criteria ANYWHERE in the fields, not just the beginning.

thanks for the consideration.
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: Search by part of first name, space, part of last name

Post by camel »

well, it is not so easy ....
for now we added to have the "+" for AND, because why should it only search from start ?

typically i want to find it in this way:

we are having a contact:
johannes microdoofsoft company
(johannes = first name)
(microdoofsoft = lastname)
(company = organization)

now we are trying to find him:
so, often the user want to find him with:

ok, let try only to work with "AND"

cases:
HAN -> will find because: joHANnes
HAN + DOOF -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft
HAN + PAN -> will find because: joHANnes comPANy
DOOF + PAN -> will find because: microDOOFsoft comPANy
DOOF + HAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft
HAN + DOOF + PAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
HAN + PAN + DOOF -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
DOOF + HAN + PAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
DOOF + PAN + HAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
PAN + DOOF + HAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
PAN + HAN + DOOF -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
also working (without a space):
DOOF+HAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft
HAN+DOOF+PAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
HAN+PAN+DOOF -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
DOOF+HAN+PAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
DOOF+PAN+HAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
PAN+DOOF+HAN -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
PAN+HAN+DOOF -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy


if a user search for:
PAN HAN + DOOF -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy
then it will not find this contact.
(because otherwise it would not be possible to find a char {space}, which can be also on 1 name filed:

like in netherland: they are often writing in firstname field: "Peter van den"

also we will proof if it is possible, that also it would work if user is doing it like:
PAN+HAN+DOOF -> will find because: joHANnes microDOOFsoft comPANy (that no extra space is needed)

we wills ee - how we can do it ...
cu camel
cu camel
VeTRooTbok
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:40 am
Contact:

Services

Post by VeTRooTbok »

No, I cannot tell to you.
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: Services

Post by camel »

VeTRooTbok wrote:No, I cannot tell to you.
i do not understand what you are talking about ? anyhow - it is added to 2.1.1
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