Search bar issue

[Kirk_Masden]

Hi! I’m wondering about whether or not a modest change in the functioning of AppSheet’s search bar (within apps) would be out of the question. Here’s something I wrote today in a related feature request (which was originally initiated by @Andrea_Saccavini😞

Advanced search Feature Requests

I’ve just voted for this. I’m wondering why the search feature is not more “Googlelike.” In Google search, you need to place words in quotations if you want Google to limit the search to that string but without quotation marks, word order is not an issue. For example, searching for the words “search” and “criteria” (but without putting the two words together with quotation marks) yields pages with where the two terms are somewhere to be found in the text, regardless of order or separation. …

It seems to me that the difference between the default functioning of the search bar in apps and Google search’s default functioning is likely to confuse users. It confused me today, which prompted me to look into it.

I see that many ingenious creators have built workarounds for the limitations of the current configuration:

Custom enhanced search function Tips & Tricks 💡

Inspired by this thread: I put together a sample app to perform a more free-form search rather than the literal search provided by the built-in search bar. The app uses slices, a dashboard view, and keeps searches isolated to each device. https://www.appsheet.com/samples/community28312?appGuidString=2ea965d7-8656-4d9d-a9d2-ed3dc5ca5813 A huge limitation is that text manipulation in AppSheet is very difficult. The inability to easily isolate words from non-space non-words (e.g., punctuatio…

Search multiple columns with different criteria Tips & Tricks 💡

The built in search is very easy to use, but it only allows a single search term across all (searchable) columns. [36%20AM] A multi-term search can be built by constructing a Virtual Column of type List with elements of type Reference. The formula should return a list of keys from the table you want to search, and should update the list based on your search terms. FILTER("Order", AND( OR( ISBLANK([_THISROW].[Status]) , IN([Status] ,[_THISROW].[Status]) ), OR( ISBLANK([_THISR…

Search multiple columns and multiple tables with different criteria Tips & Tricks 💡

I’ve used the sample given by GreenFlux (Search multiple columns with different criteria for the first search.) Context: I have Events, and for each Event I invite Persons. 3 tables are needed (Person, Event and Invitation), Attributes: a Person has a name and a country (USA,France, …) an Event has a name and a class (Football, Handball, …) an Invitation has a type of invitation (VIP, Normal, …) Relations One Person is invited to many Event One Event has many Person invited for each r…

And, I think there are probably some others that I have missed or forgotten.

I wonder, though, if we might have a discussion about the default function itself, not about workarounds. Is the reason for the current configuration technical or functional? In other words, is the current configuration the best that is possible with current technology or is it deemed to be preferable? If it is deemed to be preferable, I would like to suggest that the configuration be reconsidered. As I indicated above, now that AppSheet is part of Google, wouldn’t it make more sense for the search function to emulate the logic of Google search?

I’ll read any responses with interest. Thanks!