Search result order

The following would help as well: `type` can't be negated · Issue #8039 · laurent22/joplin · GitHub

Isn't Joplin supposed to be free and open-source? So couldn't we just add this extremely useful feature ourselves? Seriously, I'm bewildered that "sort search results by date" isn't at least an option.

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I find that last updated date is usually not useful to me but I could see how that might be very helpful for other workflows. Instead, created date is the important parameter for my situation.

The algorithmic search that exists now does not work for me if I'm searching for something that was perhaps not defined well when it was added. Needle in the haystack stuff. The created date is uber important for these kinds of things.

I didn't want to have to implement chevdor's technique of adding the create date to the title but it seems it might be necessary. I have been doing the manual process of changing the create date in the note properties for information or documents that I add to Joplin after the fact so they sort correctly when viewing folders. I suppose that adding the "sort" date to the front of the title wouldn't be too bad if it could be added automatically.

@laurent if changes to search sort are out of the question, is there a way to automatically add the create date to the front of the title of a note when the note is created? (see chevdor post above) AND perhaps a further automatic process that changes the title of the note to reflect the current date (if updated date is important)?

example
2022-05-01 - My cat changed the oil in my car

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I need to sort search results by title. Is there a plug-in for this?

Check out the Note Overview plugin as a desktop workaround for sorting search results.

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I definitely could have used this today.
Plus I expect many other times. (I'm only a recent Joplin user.)
Eventually one gets a large amt of notes, and some of them are on the same topic, but with new and updated info.
You want to be able to find your most RECENT note about it (or even your oldest in some cases).


FWIW I was trying to remember how to make a static IP for my pc on the router and I needed to see what the last static IP I used was.
About six notes came up and I gave up using that method and just went and looked what my Kodi was set to. :grin:

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Since your PR for desktop Joplin was not accepted, would you be able to add that feature to the VS Code Style Note Search plugin instead?

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This feature has been freshly added to the search plugin I linked above. Here's the relevant update (among others) from the discussion thread:

It also adds a sort order dropdown for all sort methods except relevance.

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What I need most is SORT SEARCH RESULTS BY DATE.
The 'VS Code...' plug-in is great, but changing 'Updated' drop down from ascending to descending does nothing at all. :frowning:

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TBH the chaotic search results renders Joplin great for INPUTTING data, but actually pretty poor for getting data OUT again. I can hardly ever find what I'm looking for quickly !

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Just to add my own experience. Searching today for 'tax statement', and of course I get 100's in some sort of random order, some going back many years, and I know the one I want is one from the last few months (so would be at the top of the date sorted list dec!). I mean - It works the same with most apps and OS. Name/context search first, secondary order for similar matched is always date/time. Personally, I would find this a significant improvement as the current search is not really useful to me unless I keep trying to add extra context to it to filter more notes, and by doing so, probably miss what I am trying to find!

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Ordering search result by date is, accordind go me, the most useful feature of a document storage app !

I have thousands of documents, getting results ordered randomly does not make any sense!!

There are many scneario where you want to type a word then orderd by last updated date.

@laurent can you fix that ?

I would add, that :
1- it wouldnt involve any UI updates : the column are already there AND the column can already be clicked
2- it would even fix an existing UI bug, because right now we can click on the columns, and the "down/top" arrows move but the order of the results do not move.

Thank you!

My thoughts

Users have been clear about the benefits of changing search result order, not only since the pull request was closed, but even years prior.

The more (similar) notes people have, the more useful changing search result order to criteria like created or updated date becomes.

Not only can relevance can be the default order, but other search result sorting methods would help built-in search not fall further behind the search plugin (which is unfortunately only available on desktop).

Giving higher weight for more recent notes in the relevance algorithm is great, but "people usually wanting to sort by date" means they want a dedicated sort option to do so.

If the relevance algorithm is "a bit experimental" as the FAQ states, why not have non-experimental functionality to sort search results by multiple criteria (whether matching the above pull request or search plugin, or using a different approach)?

Review of search in existing apps

Evernote

The first post in this thread mentions that Evernote has sort by modified date.

Evernote has sort by updated date per this thread: Can't change order of search results?

Notesnook

The Notesnook v3.0.23 post states:

Search results are now sorted by date created instead of relevance which was, to be frank, absolutely horrible. This change should make search results much more useful until we add support for sorting by other fields.

Joplin: Misleading functionality of the Detailed note list style

The post before this one recounts this bug when trying to sort search results in the detailed note list, which I can replicate:

Resolving this wouldn't improve the Compact note list style or Goto Anything. However, it would be a great start for this overarching issue.

Joplin: VS Code Style Search plugin

If this plugin could sort search results by date (on top of the other criteria I can sort results with), I would have even less need to use in-app search, albeit only on desktop.

Joplin: Sort notes by menu option

If notes are sortable in those ways, why shouldn't search results be sortable as such?

Other examples

Countless search engines, social media websites and apps, and other digital experiences with multiple ways to sort search results.

Even the Issues and Pull Request pages on the Joplin project's very own Github repositories have this feature (defaults to newest).

Even this very Discourse forum you are viewing right now has this feature (defaults to relevance).

Why can't the Joplin app have it too?

Pros and cons

I think this and similar threads make enough of a case for the pros for search result sort order.

Can someone else please present valid cons, whether for the feature itself or for any possible implementation?

If the closed pull request has tangible parts of its implementation that don't fit Joplin well, can those be described here to:

  1. Determine if that is truly the case.
  2. If so, work through it as capacity allows, instead of leaving it on the backburner indefinitely.
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Thank you! How can we make another feature request and make sure it's requeted / endorsed by as many users as possible ?