Extending the Search Box Functionality

[WannaBee]

Hi to everyone and my best wishes to you all for the year ahead. 

Already, MusicBee is so feature-packed that it is hard to imagine that anything else could still be needed. My own contribution to the wishlist concerns the Search Box functions where, I hope, the addition of the following items will be favorably considered:

1. Check-boxes to enable/disable options to carry out a search in either:

1.1 The complete library (default), or-

1.2 Any single, or multiple, selection of open tabs

2. A drop-down list inside the Search Box to display a history of searches already made. Predefined maximum, cleanable.

Thanks for your consideration.

[paq]

Your first wish has been discussed a little bit in http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=3682.0 (his second wish).

I like your second wish but I wonder how good it would look if that list of searches was in the same dropdown-menu as you open when you click the search icon. Maybe a divisor in that dropdown would do to separate the search options from the recent searches.

[Zak]

I like your second wish but I wonder how good it would look if that list of searches was in the same dropdown-menu as you open when you click the search icon. Maybe a divisor in that dropdown would do to separate the search options from the recent searches.

It could be implemented the way Firefox does it. The drop-down menu showing previous matches is only displayed after you type at least one character, which means it won't interfere with the fields selection right-click menu. This also provides the benefit of only displaying items that are relevant to what you're looking for which allows for more terms to be saved because they'll never be all shown at once. The only minor disadvantage is that you can't search for a previous term solely using the mouse.

It could also be tricky to get the timing right between waiting for input, displaying the menu and performing the search - you don't want to type something then be forced to wait a couple of seconds while MusicBee decides whether you want to search for a previous term or not. The easy solution would be to only perform the search after the Enter key is pressed, but I suspect that wouldn't be a popular change.

[Steven]

i do plan to look at this and as a very minimum i plan to change the custom search dialog to keep the chosen search fields and remember the last custom search. However the way things are going at the moment it might only be the very minimum that gets done

[Zak]

May I sneak in a minor related request? Pleease...?

Pressing the hotkey assigned to the search box puts the insertion cursor at the end of any existing text. I propose it sets focus and selects any existing text - so it can be immediately typed over.

[WannaBee]

Thank you all for your fine comments. If anything, I think what is eventually provided should be minimalistic, simple - something such as Steven already seems to have in mind.

If I may, I would also like to add my vote to Zak's for this excellent suggestion:

May I sneak in a minor related request? Pleease...?

Pressing the hotkey assigned to the search box puts the insertion cursor at the end of any existing text. I propose it sets focus and selects any existing text - so it can be immediately typed over.

[WannaBee]

+1

[marmonto]

+1

[biker51]

Hallo,

I'm using MusicBee since the future of WinAmp is not clear.
What I found is, that MusicBee seems to search in the tags of music files, but not in the file names.
It does not find files without tags where the file names do contain the search string.
For example, a file with with the name "Bodycount_Hey Joe.mp3" is not found if searching for "Body".
If this could be added to the search it would be fine!

[phred]

What I found is, that MusicBee seems to search in the tags of music files, but not in the file names.
It does not find files without tags where the file names do contain the search string.
For example, a file with with the name "Bodycount_Hey Joe.mp3" is not found if searching for "Body".
If this could be added to the search it would be fine!

This can be accomplished by clicking the down-arrow next to the magnifying glass in the search box and then selecting 'custom search.'  Within the resulting window, use the dropdowns to set the criteria you want to search for.  Granted, it's not as simple as just entering part of a filename in the search box, but it will work.

[psychoadept]

Actually, you should be able to click on the search icon in the toolbar and check "+Filename" to include filenames in general searches.

If that doesn't work, make sure you're on the latest update (see phred's sig).

[phred]

Actually, you should be able to click on the search icon in the toolbar and check "+Filename" to include filenames in general searches.
If that doesn't work, make sure you're on the latest update (see phred's sig).

The downside to that method is that you have to select 'search all fields' in order to select "+Filename."  IOW, MB will search -every- field as opposed to only searching the filename (in my method.)  One could easily wind up with a number of false hits with your method. 

[psychoadept]

The downside to that method is that you have to select 'search all fields' in order to select "+Filename."  IOW, MB will search -every- field as opposed to only searching the filename (in my method.)  One could easily wind up with a number of false hits with your method. 

True.  What about using the URL field?

[biker51]

Many thanks to all for the helpful hint related to the search in file names!
It works! But should not this setting be the default to give a user the best possible search result from the start?

[Pingaware]

If you search in the forums, Steven gave his reasoning for that back when the change was made. As far as I can remember, it was for memory reasons (I think).