New Search functionality

[gardenweed]

Some changes to the search function have been made.

1) According to the Changelog notice the following should be in production:
http://status.fastmail.fm/2013/01/24...elog-update-3/

"Add saved searches to the AJAX UI.
Includes some backwards compatibility with existing HTML saved searches as well."

I can't see how to save a search in the Ajax interface - How is it done please?


2) I notice that a search in the Inbox now searches all my folders (and it is Fast) not just my inbox. Is this meant to happen?
The difference between searching on the Inbox and searching "All Mail" seems to be that when "All Mail" is selected, the search result shows the folder in which each email is found. Whereas when searching with just "Inbox" selected, the same search result is presented, but without the extra information of which folder each email is stored.

(I'm thinking that a search on the Inbox alone should not be presenting the results of a folder wide search.)

[robn]

Originally Posted by gardenweed

I can't see how to save a search in the Ajax interface - How is it done please?

We had a slight hickup. The saved-search code got onto the release list when we were preparing the rollout. Its not ready yet, so we removed the code, but the changelog didn't get updated. I've just removed that line from the status blog. Thanks for the heads up.

(And the feature is coming soon, I promise!)

[gardenweed]

OK thanks Rob.

What about the second part where doing a search on Inbox actually searches all folders?
Is that supposed to happen?

----------------------------------

PS - I like the other changes that you implemented:

• If a message has an attachment, show an icon in the header of the message in conversation view.
  
• Show indicator of read status on message, and allow click to toggle on conversation view screen

[gardenweed]

Originally Posted by gardenweed

OK thanks Rob.

What about the second part where doing a search on Inbox actually searches all folders?
Is that supposed to happen?
[/list]

OK that strange action seems to have gone now.

[robn]

Originally Posted by gardenweed

What about the second part where doing a search on Inbox actually searches all folders?
Is that supposed to happen?

That was quick fix for something else that didn't get enough testing before it was rolled out yesterday. We weren't sending the folder name down to the mail server to limit the search. It was fixed this morning. Sorry about that!

[kpuru]

Love this feature. Its working on beta.fastmail.fm right now.

Just one thing, can we have saved searches above the folder list? instead of below? Or , maybe option to change the order?

And, visually, they appear continuously without any divider etc. So, small formatting change will make it look good.

[gardenweed]

Originally Posted by kpuru

Love this feature. Its working on beta.fastmail.fm right now.

Just one thing, can we have saved searches above the folder list? instead of below? Or , maybe option to change the order?

And, visually, they appear continuously without any divider etc. So, small formatting change will make it look good.

Thanks for this tip.
I just tried the Beta and tried to save a search.
But I can't see where the search is saved.

I can see some of my previous saved searches listed at the bottom of the folders list.
These searches were saved prior to the introduction of the Ajax interface.

But I can't find the searches that I "saved" using the Ajax Beta.

[kpuru]

Originally Posted by gardenweed

Thanks for this tip.
I just tried the Beta and tried to save a search.
But I can't see where the search is saved.

I can see some of my previous saved searches listed at the bottom of the folders list.
These searches were saved prior to the introduction of the Ajax interface.

But I can't find the searches that I "saved" using the Ajax Beta.

So when I click on save button (next to the search), it pops out a dialogue to enter a name and then saves it at the bottom of the folder list.

[gardenweed]

Originally Posted by kpuru

So when I click on save button (next to the search), it pops out a dialogue to enter a name and then saves it at the bottom of the folder list.

I was getting the popup to allow me to save.
But this wasn't resulting in a saved search.

But now even this popup does not appear.
(Tried in Chrome and in Opera)

[Pfolson]

Originally Posted by gardenweed

But now even this popup does not appear.
(Tried in Chrome and in Opera)

Are you sure you're logged in to the beta server? It still works for me in Opera, Firefox and Safari.

[gardenweed]

Originally Posted by Pfolson

Are you sure you're logged in to the beta server? It still works for me in Opera, Firefox and Safari.

It has the Beta watermark.
Is there more than one beta?

[gardenweed]

Also, the "contains basis" for searching does not appear to work for me in the Beta UI when the text element being searched on is only in the email address.

For example, I might have some emails from jack@glasshalfempty.com
If I search on "glass" or use "from: glass", nothing shows in the search using the Beta platform.

Whereas I will get the expected result in the production Ajax UI.

[n5bb]

Here is how this now works in beta AJAX (http://beta.fastmail.fm with classic not checked). I think you are not looking inside the folder containing the saved search.

• Select a folder, then enter a search string into the search box.
  • Or click the search box, and then click Advanced search... to see more choices.
• By default the search will be done in the currently selected folder.
• The normal mail type selector (All mail, Unread, Personal, etc.) and pinned mail selector at the top (below the Archive, Delete, Report Spam, etc. buttons) changes to a search folder selector during a search operation.
• Searches seem to be at least partially cached. After performing a search, you can perform the same search and it will be performed must faster than the first time it was executed.
• When the search results are displayed, the search is shown with a the search icon (magnifying glass) and default search name above the folder list (directly below the Compose button).
  • A Save button is shown adjacent to the search name. You can change the default name of the search before saving.
  • When saving the search, searches on all mail are shown below the folder list.
  • Searches in a particular folder are saved inside that folder. The saved search includes the search icon (magnifying glass), but otherwise looks similar to a subfolder. An arrow at the left shows which folders contain searches or subfolders.
  • After you save a search, you can use the Edit button to change the search name or delete the search.
• When viewing the search results, you can exit the search in two ways:
  • Selecting the X in the search box.
  • Selecting any folder or saved search icon.
• The search results show the search hits with yellow highlighting.
• Currently it appear that only searches on messages received on or before about January 27, 2013, are possible. You can't in general discover messages received more recently with beta searches.

Bill

[gardenweed]

Originally Posted by n5bb

Here is how this now works in beta AJAX....
Currently it appear that only searches on messages received on or before about January 27, 2013, are possible. You can't in general discover messages received more recently with beta searches.
Bill

Aha.
That would explain the strange action where the "contains basis" appeared not to work.
I have been searching only on my Inbox, and the date issue mentioned would have resulted in zero results for those searches I tested.

And thanks for your patience with me.
I finally found the saved searches.
I was looking for them at the bottom of the Folders pane because I can see a couple of my saved searches there from old searches that I'd saved that were carried out using Classic.
I didn't realise that new saved searches are located as a sub-menu item of the particular folder. So instead of looking at the bottom of the Folders pane, I needed to click the arrow located to the left of the folder (indicating a new folder had been created).

Thanks.

[n5bb]

Glad that everything showed up. Since it's still beta, they might have performed an indexing operation on old messages last week, but stopped indexing new messages last Sunday. That would explain why searches on older messages work but recent ones fail.

I spent a long time experimenting with this before my last post. At first I thought it was ignoring the subject lines, but then by searching message by message in my Inbox I found where the searches seemed to fail (after last Sunday). I'm pretty sure it is a time issue due to the search index which is being used. But I could be wrong, since I'm just guessing based on search attempts which pass and fail.

The search syntax allows use of AND and OR (these must be capitalized). But NOT seems to be broken and causes a lockup. If you enter multiple words they are implicitly ANDed together. So "bob jones" is the same as "bob AND jones".

Bill