A revamp of the search tool?

[ma_t14]

I really like and miss how the search box works in WMP. Here a help page: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/How-do-I-perform-advanced-searches-in-Windows-Media-Player.

One of my first wishes here was copying some ideas from it: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=4968.0

( BTW, the bug i mentioned still persist for me. I'm using the version 2.1.4756 )

+1 Yes, I think that would be ideal. In conjunction with my other suggestions 

[Bee-liever]

My 5¢ worth:
1: the cross-field search bug/error needs to be fixed

2: make the current standard search box pinnable, so that if you only want to do a quick search, it will have the current behaviour. If you need to do a series of searches - eg. making up a playlist - it will stay open.

3: change the Custom Search so it "remembers" the input selection filters, not the "search". So when opened to a previous search, the fields would be set up and waiting for your input. eg. last custom search was "artist"/"is" and "genre"/"is not" and "decade"/"is any off", the Custom Search window would open, populated with those three criteria, waiting for new input in the artist, genre, decade fields

Added:
The "OR" and "AND" commands from WMP, if implemented, could use "/" and "+"  respectively

[jistme]

Digesting the input from others, I think Bee-liever's summing up, and some request from the other 'Extending the Search Box Functionality' topic would be a great step forward.

I would especially appreciate the part where Custom Search will remember all last chosen fields and it's settings, and it will assume that if input for one of those fields is left empty, it will not search those fields for that occasion, and not -as it currently seems to be- that it will search these field for 'NULL'.

Additionally I would also like it a lot if there could be some presets for custom searches, so you could e.g. create a few for 'popular music', 'classical music', or other specific uses.

[Steven]

i have changed it so the custom search dialog remebers the last search and allows fields in the dialog to be blank so they are ignored in the search execution but still appear as available for the next search. The custom search dialog is also now at the top menu in the search drop-down although you can also assign the dialog box to a hotkey.

In case people are not already aware you can already do these with the text search in version 2.0+:
- build OR conditions in the text search using " or ", "+"  eg. "billy + david or harry"
- search for phrases: "billy idol"
- restrict the field eg. artist:M83
- get similar artists eg. similar:M83

cross field text search when using restricted fields was fixed a couple of releases ago

lastly, i could have sworn someone made a comment about the handling for the "goto text search box" hotkey - was that deleted?

[jistme]

Fantastic, thnx!

lastly, i could have sworn someone made a comment about the handling for the "goto text search box" hotkey - was that deleted?

You're probably referring to Zak's request in 'the other' recent topic about search:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=8534.msg49643#msg49643

[lnminente]

I knew about or, but didn't know about artist:
Can we use multiple filters at the same time? I'm not able to search "artist:john AND year:1990", i have tried many variation with ; , + or and / but no results.

[Steven]

this has the changes as described above:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

[jistme]

Ah, this is really working wonderful.

Using this, one follow-up wish materializes; a button to clear all search fields, making it easier to start a brand new search...

[Steven]

yes fair enough - its there now:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

[jistme]

:-)

[greenday1987]

Steven you're so good to us
I'll check this out later

[Zak]

Not sure if it's a newly introduced bug, but I just tried a search for "Rating has a value" and it shows all tracks.
"Rating has no value" also shows all tracks, but searching for a value (ie "Rating is 3") works as expected.

[Steven]

Not sure if it's a newly introduced bug, but I just tried a search for "Rating has a value" and it shows all tracks.
"Rating has no value" also shows all tracks, but searching for a value (ie "Rating is 3") works as expected.

thats fixed for the next 2.1 update

[Steven]

this has the fix:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

[Zak]

Thanks for all the changes.

In case people are not already aware you can already do these with the text search in version 2.0+:
- build OR conditions in the text search using " or ", "+"  eg. "billy + david or harry"
- search for phrases: "billy idol"
- restrict the field eg. artist:M83
- get similar artists eg. similar:M83

I don't think anyone knew about these. A tooltip for the search box showing examples like this would help in their discovery.

Also, "+" in the search field appears to be synonymous with "OR". I would interpret "+" to mean "AND". 
Also also, I know "AND" isn't strictly necessary because it's implied when multiple words are entered, but for consistency it wouldn't hurt to support it if someone does type it in.