Search functionality in Joplin

hobbit · 2024-03-01T21:37:41.318Z

yes, sorting the search results by different fields like notebook, date, title and so on will be power feature

also "search saves" for quick searching

Nidal · 2024-03-02T16:44:32.262Z

Glad you asked, because I'm an intensive user of Joplin.
Usually I choose the PC to write large texts in Joplin, while the phone is enough to find and capture short notes. Using search, I usually find what I look for, even though sometimes it does not work. Some of the results remain missing, I don't know why.
When I find the note, I scroll to find the sought word. On Android they are highlighted, but not on the PC.
Then, I look for the folder where the note is located, in order to add additional notes besides it. This works on the PC, where clicking on the folder name above the note, opens its location on the folders tree. Unfortunately, this does not work on Android, and I spend a precious time to locate the parent folder.

acemarke · 2024-03-03T21:43:40.505Z

I'm very excited to report that after another couple sessions of hacking on the plugin code, I now have a working plugin that can do search and display each per-note hit on its own result line with highlighting of the matched text!

image1649×1168 178 KB

~~Still doing some fiddling around with the search behavior, and I'll have to figure out how to manage hiding and showing the webview panel on command, but this is pretty much what I want to have!~~

~~I'll try to get the current WIP cleaned up and published in the near future!~~

Published! Don't know how long it takes for the Joplin plugin repository to scrape NPM and update, but here's the repo for my plugin:

GitHub

GitHub - markerikson/joplin-plugin-vscode-style-search: A Joplin plugin that...

A Joplin plugin that provides a search UI panel patterned after VS Code, with matches per note and per-match hit highlighting - markerikson/joplin-plugin-vscode-style-search

I'm also sure there's a ton of other search config options that could be added, but this would do for starters.

s4j4 · 2024-03-04T13:12:53.382Z

Search functionality in Joplin Features

I'm very excited to report that after another couple sessions of hacking on the plugin code, I now have a working plugin that can do search and display each per-note hit on its own result line with highlighting of the matched text! [image] Still doing some fiddling around with the search behavior, and I'll have to figure out how to manage hiding and showing the webview panel on command, but this is pretty much what I want to have! I'll try to get the current WIP cleaned up and published in t…

Can the search results be displayed in a notebook structure?
Can the search results display the path where the notes are located?
Can the search scope include the path where the note is located, in addition to the note title and body text?
@acemarke

crtkugrrvjy · 2024-03-04T16:22:12.397Z

Thanks for starting this thread. Even just reading through other people's issues/ideas is teaching me how to use the existing app better. I'm sure any improvements will be well received too.

My biggest issue is that I forget about ctrl-p and have a tenancy to click on the search box because it's more visible

whitewall · 2024-03-04T21:09:20.729Z

@s4j4 and @acemarke This discussion really belongs in a new thread. The one you are posting on is about the existing search feature.

The plugin is great, though! Thanks for creating it. Perhaps @moderators could split this convo off into a new thread.

muzak · 2024-03-08T01:11:42.477Z

Neat plugin! Here's what I like about it compared to Goto Anything:

Shows all matches inside notes (sometimes many more than Goto Anything)
Can show many more notes at once compared to the overlay
Collapsible notes afford hiding irrelevant matches
Multiple notes can be visited without having to redo the search, like the built-in search bar

Here are some feature requests:

Can the search bar be focused upon showing the panel?
If the above is too invasive, can a keyboard shortcut be added to focus the search bar?
Can a plugin settings page option be added to preserve search results when hiding the panel?
Can clicking a note's result line scroll to where it's located in the note, like how HTML anchors work?

This post, like the one it replies to, should be moved into its own thread in the Plugins category.

kacnje · 2024-03-08T04:12:13.340Z

That's a nice plugin idea. There are some features which should be added and it would be super.

Zaisunkytset · 2024-03-09T19:22:04.666Z

I try to remember to click All notes in NOTEBOOKS, click, and type in search box of the lower section
search is quick, and responsive.
if the item queried is not in the note title, the note title would be helpful and the notebook title as well

P.S. after reading other posts, I now understand and like the Goto anything tool.
I am new to Joplin, one month anniversary.
P.P.S. I went to: Searching | Joplin and as a user I could not make head or tails on how this page instructed me on searching. I need a very basic step by step. Click here, type, these are the results you will get. Use an actual screen pic of Joplin in as many of these steps as possible.

When I first looked at this help page a month ago, it was not instructive. Too techie and I could not orient it to what I was seeing in Joplin desktop or android.

Now, after looking again today, it contains great information and a wide range of sorting. If you could make the choices a menu selection rather than having to type commands, the menu would be a huge improvement.

jotech · 2024-03-16T10:14:01.634Z

One search improvement would be predefining the search context.

My search usually starts by excluding a notebook (which is a big archive) and by checking note titles first.
I always have to write "-notebook:x title:" while, in the background, the search has already started, which is slow and annoying.

This could be improved by remembering the last search query (it does, but it is easily lost when clicking somewhere else) or better by starting with a predefined search query or context. This could be a simple string in the settings (empty by default). What do you think?

MartaLC · 2024-03-19T10:21:16.448Z

Thank you for your suggestions!

MartaLC · 2024-03-19T10:39:49.820Z

Thanks for your feedback. Indeed, having possibility to access the history of recent search queries or favourite queries could be a useful improvement.

AndreKR · 2024-03-19T23:03:41.029Z

I only use basic search and I think it should be the default. If I enter a piece of text and it's in a note, even within another word, I want that note to show up.

AndreKR · 2024-03-20T14:12:32.508Z

By the way, the search experience in Obsidian is perfect. Just copy that. It searches everywhere, exact, unanchored, splits search terms at spaces and previews and highlights search results.

jfml · 2024-03-21T09:09:07.398Z

So glad that you're looking into this, I love Joplin but search is probably the only thing I dislike.

When looking for a particular note, what is your search process step by step? Can you describe where you click and how you go about it?
Most often I search for a passage in a note, so I press ctrl-p to do a global search, hope I can make out which note it might be, ctrl-f and search for the part I'm looking for.
Can you describe your experience when searching for a note?
Doing both is pretty cumbersome, I'd love if global search would show more of the context and also show me each time a word is in a note as a single entry so I could directly go to it so I don't have to search in the note again.
Do you have any remarks about the search feature?
I never use the search bar above the notes I just remembered that this exists but it also makes searching a two-step-process (first search for the note, then for the part in the note).

Looking forward to better search a lot, searching is so important and it's a pain, atm.

jfml · 2024-03-21T09:19:58.060Z

This looks awesome! Is there a way to install this from file somehow?

Edit: It's already in the official plugin repo, nice! Thanks so much!

kacnje · 2024-03-22T05:06:34.815Z

I agree. VS-Code Style Search Plugin looks extremely promising. I hope that the author will soon continue to develop it further. @acemarke - just go on

guy-rouillier · 2024-03-26T01:00:00.981Z

With Joplin on Android, I can only search within a single note if I edit the note. That's cumbersome, and ideally we'd be able to search while in read mode. I'm on Android 10 (latest my phone supports), Joplin version 2.12.3.

acemarke · 2024-04-17T19:40:47.172Z

FYI I've created a new thread to discuss my "VS Code Style Search" plugin over here:

VS Code Style Search Plugin Plugins

I've been using Joplin for a year and love it, but the full-text search experience was very lacking. The primary search option just focuses an input above the notes list, and typing in search text only gives you a filtered list of note titles (which I think don't even match what notebook you're search in). It also doesn't show you any of the search results from any of the matching notes. I did later find out that the Quick Commands dialog (CTRL-P) has its own entirely separate full-text search…

aism · 2024-07-28T19:41:56.254Z

It's indeed great that there's an attention to this function.

When looking for a particular note, what is your search process step by step? Can you describe where you click and how you go about it?
Honestly, after some years of using Joplin I've just discovered CMD+P (global search) from this thread Of course, this says something about me, but imho it also says something about how easy it is to find it...
Considering that, when previously I was looking for a note, first I conducted a visual search of the notebook where I think the note might be, and then looked inside it.
There's a search bar right on top of the note list, which confusingly searches across all the notes (and not only within the current notebook), but doesn't show from which notebook the matching note is, nor does it show any context unless you click inside.
Previously I was thinking that this is the only search that Joplin has, and almost completely given up on it based on how it works.
Can you describe your experience when searching for a note?
Torturous. With global search it's a bit better, but it still feels counter-intuitive: you have to know that it exists, and you still don't get a lot of context in the results (and if you click inside the rest of your results are gone and so you have to start over). Then you have to use modifiers to constrain your search, but you still cannot find a matching notebook title first and then search within it (or perform a similar workflow).
Do you have any remarks about the search feature?
In a perfect world, what I'd like to see is:

the obvious search bar where you could just click and start typing (or use a hotkey instead to get the focus there, like CMD+L that we've used to in browsers)
search results that show you the notebook (and path to it when you have hierarchy) and then the note, and then enough of the context(s) where the search phrase was found
if you're in a note, then it first shows the results from this note, then from its notebook, and so on up the hierarchy of notebooks
it should be easy to constrain the search space (e.g., to a particular notebook), maybe just with a click
search that is semantic
the search results are shown in a separate sidebar that you can work with for a while

Basically, something that's intuitive - one shouldn't have to RTFM to find a "secret" hotkey to just search for a word (and its variations) - you expect this to just be there and work out of the box. One also shouldn't have to use modifiers to constrain your search in a basic way. Modifiers are great when your search space is so vast and your query is so unspecific that you have to narrow it down iteratively, exclude certain parts etc.

P.S.: I liked a lot what the gentleman above created, so it could be used as a starter.