Hi Ai,
Something like this should be no problem at all. However, you can simply click/tap on a tag in order to filter your data by that tag. Are you asking for this because you typically use the search field for most all your filtering needs?
@Mike, yes, that's exactly it. I know there are a couple of ways to filter by tag 1) like you said, click on the tag and 2) go to the left hand menu and search under the tags listings. However, like you said, the search bar is my main port of call, I go to that 99% of the time. It is more intuitive to use the search bar and fine tags with the # marker which seems to be the universal standard. This is not a deal breaker for me in the slightest, but if it is something that can be added I would be extremely grateful.
@Ai I will get this on the developer's radar tomorrow, and hopefully it can be added soon. I can't make any promises for exactly when it will be added, and there is a possibility there could be problems in trying to implement. Sounds silly, I know, but I always think certain things would be a simple change and they are far from it =)
Hi Ai,
I talked to our development team about this today, and we're going to implement a tag-specific search feature. They're already working on its implementation, but I wanted to run something by you real quick.
As usual, features that seem very simply at first glance can become very complicated when you start to work on them. For this particular feature, the first problem is what to do if people already have data formatted using # characters. We pretty much have that figured out. What we'll do is make that if you insert a # in the query, then all characters afterwards will be treated as a tag. So if you type in "#myTag some other stuff", then the system is going to look for a tag named "myTag some other stuff", and if one is found, then the records will be displayed for that tag. If anyone wants to ignore tag-specific searching, like if they have data like "#some data in a note", then they simply add a # in front of the first # - "##some data in a note".
Also, we're only planning on adding support for the searching of one tag at a time. So if you were to type in "#myTag #myOtherTag", the system would actually look for a tag named "myTag #myOtherTag" instead of looking for the data in the two different tags you might have.
First, does that all make sense, and second, is something close to what you were looking for in the feature?
@Mike, firstly thank you for the unbelievable support.
Your explanation makes perfect sense. As someone who works in IT, I completely understand that what seemingly is a simple request can be logistically complex, appreciated.
That solution would be a massive improvement for me even if I can only search one tag at a time, I don't think I would need to search for multiple combination of tags. I'm assuming that if I search #birth that it would wildcard search and bring me back #birthday, or will it only look for #birth? If it does a wildcard search to the end of the word then that would be perfect for me.
What I don't want to do is to complicate it for other users. I'm fine with the ## at the front of the word to cancel out a tag search, but I don't want it to cause issues with other users.
What I'm trying to say is, your suggestion works perfectly for me and resolves my issue, but my issue is not big enough to warrant disrupting your other users if they don't like that change.
Thank you for looking into this.
Hi Ai,
No problem at all in getting this implemented!! We're really early on in the new model for our development, but these are exactly the types of things we're excited for in the future. If a customer comes to us with a good idea, or even a feature that might only be useful for a few, and we can be reasonably sure it won't adversely affect other uses en masse, we shouldn't have problems getting it implemented quickly. We're planning a lot more small releases, with little or big fixes, and in those releases, we'll be able to add little thing as we get requests. Of course, not everything will be added when requested, but you get the idea =)
There's one thing to talk about still. When you talk about doing a wildcard search, I need to be sure I understand what you mean. If I understand, I'm hopeful it can be done, but I need a bit more information before I talk to the development team. You're essentially saying you don't want to have to type in the entire tag, correct? Since you have a "birthday" tag, mSecure should assume you are wanting to see records with that tag if you only type in a partial match for the name. Is that right?
My concern on this one is what to do if you have multiple tags that start with "birth." For example, if you have a tag called "birth," which is probably silly but works for the discussion, and you also had one named "birthday," would you expect for mSecure to return all records containing both of those tags? I know right now we're planning for a "string literal" search, which means that if you typed in "birth" and there was no tag with that exact name, then no records would be returned.
@Mike, thank you for your response. By my wildcard search, I do mean bringing back all the tags with that partial word in it. Like your example, if I had tags for 'birth' 'birthd' ' birthday', then I would expect it to bring back all records with those tags when I type in 'birth' or even if it's just 'irth'. Pretty much how the current search bar works now where it filters the records as you are typing in your letters.
If that is not possible and its a literal string search like you said, then I probably won't want to waste yours and your developers time in implementing it. If it's a literal string search then I'm probably better off just going to the menu and filtering out the tag.
So apologies if I've wasted your time Mike, however I do as always appreciate you taking the time into looking at it.
Hi Ai,
I just got a demo of how the tag searching feature works in Windows, and it looks pretty good. He was able to add the wildcard searching, so if you only type in part of a tag, it will see that and return the records for any tag that contains the substring. It's going to be in our next build published to the app stores. It will be available for Windows, Mac and iOS, and then in a later build for Android. Thank you so much for your input with this feature!
@Mike, that is fantastic news. Thanks to you and your developers, really looking forward to the release in future
No problem at all @Ai! We're working on getting a new release out for all platforms now, so I suspect you'll have access to the new feature by the end of the week.
@Mike, just noticed a iOS (6.0.3) and Windows (6.0.256.0) update to the app, the # tag feature has been added! And it works exactly as how I wanted it.
Ooooo, also noticed the focus back in the Search box after log in is also fixed. WOW!!!!
Thank you and your developers again! Fantastic work.
It's so good to hear the tag search is working the way you were hoping! At first I wasn't sure it was going to live up to what you were wanting, but after we went over it, the logic made sense to the developers, and they were able to implement it pretty easily. So thank you for the feature request!
One thing to mention, you are now using a non-production build for Windows, which is totally fine. I'm going to leave you on the list that gives you access to this build, mostly because I think you're a great tester/reviewer =) However, I want to make sure you don't get stuck on that build. We are releasing a new build as soon as we can get a really nasty freezing bug fixed, and when that is released, you should get that download automatically if you have that feature turned on for the Store app. Can you check in with me after a week or two to make sure you have the newest production build after it's published?
@Mike, I've got no problems on being your tester (as long as the build is relatively stable as you can tell its part of my day to day life! :-)) It would be good to be able to offer opinions if it helps you.
Apologies, I didn't realise I was on a non-production build, I probably jumped the gun when I said on the forum that the bug was fixed.
I don't have automatic updates turned on (I like to manually control it), but I will check in with you in a week or two to make sure I'm back on the latest production build.
Thanks again!
@Ai No problem with announcing the fixes. It's actually a good thing to hear from another customer that things are working/fixed, even if it's in a test build. Keep that up if you want to and have the time!
For the ongoing beta testing, we'll only put builds in that release track that we have tested and believe won't cause issues for customers. That being said, since it is technically a beta build there's is a higher likelihood something could go wrong, so please make sure you have the auto-backup feature turned on in Windows and all your devices. That way, at least is something does go wrong, you can restore from a recent snapshot of your information.
Thanks again for all your feedback and help over the past couple of weeks Ai!
Ai Tong
Hi,
would it be possible to search on just Tags? e.g. #birthday. This will make the search facility more useful otherwise it will pick up everything in a record