BUG: Explorer plugin search with Everything

[DFreezerR]

Checks

• [ ] I have checked that this issue has not already been reported.

• [X] I am using the latest version of Flow Launcher.

Problem Description

Same search prompts in Flow launcher search box and Everything returns different results. Examples below.

Case 1

Trying to search - C:\Downloads\ venc Well basically you can use any full path + word to search with space between them like {path} {word} Results in app:  Results in Everything:  The results clearly different. BUT it somehow works if we add "" to the path or don use full path Results in app with "":  Results in app without full path:  It also works if we use some Everything's functions like "parent:": 

Case 2

Trying to search - C:\Downloads\ *.jpg Again - can be any extension. Result in both apps: 

To me it looks like plugin tries to use "default" search instead of Everything, and only when "forces" with some syntaxis/keywords it can search with Everything. Why the exact same query not working in plugin search?

Settings in app

    

To Reproduce

1. Install Flow.Launcher (1.17.2)
2. Switch everything in Explorer plugin to Everything app
3. Try searching
4. Install Everything app when asked
5. Try to search with both Flow.Launcher and Everything with examples I provided

Screenshots

No response

Flow Launcher Version

1.17.2

Windows Build Number

Windows 11 Pro 22631.3155

[deefrawley]

Why are you using a space for the filespec after the folder? C:\downloads\*.jpg will find those files

[DFreezerR]

Why are you using a space for the filespec after the folder? C:\downloads\*.jpg will find those files

But why it shouldn't work? I expected consistency in searching with Everything and Everything in Explorer plugin. I believe C:\downloads\*.jpg is an example of default Windows masked search, while you can use C:\downloads\ *.jpg in Everything. As stated in Everything docs, space used as AND keyword to search for right part and left one, in my example C:\downloads\ is part of the path and *.jpg is file name, and they are combined with logical AND (space). There is a lot of non consistent behavior between Everything and in app plugin - you also can't use something like C:\downloads\ regex:^read

The reason I liked the idea of using Everything with Explorer plugin was because Everything has very convenient search for me. But it's troubling as I can't use the same thing in Explorer plugin even though I selected Everything everywhere in the settings.

And I hope you can agree with me that the same search not working in plugin is not very ideal thing.

[deefrawley]

Flow handles spaces differently to identify keywords and arguments so as to trigger plugins, therefor any functionality of Everything that works with spaces will not work here. I'm not a core developer though so happy for one of them to jump in and confirm or offer alternatives.

[DFreezerR]

Flow handles spaces differently to identify keywords and arguments so as to trigger plugins, therefor any functionality of Everything that works with spaces will not work here. I'm not a core developer though so happy for one of them to jump in and confirm or offer alternatives.

Thanks though for your answer Yes, me too. I can understand that Flow might handle spaces differently. But even if so, in that particular case I think there is no problem to make space work as in Everything (though I'm also not a dev here). On screenshots above I can tell that plugin recognized which one it should trigger, even with space, but again it "feels" like it's trying to use "default" search instead of Everything (but maybe I'm wrong). Would be exciting to see if one of core devs can clarify this situation, and maybe there is a way to make this work consistently.

[deefrawley]

@jjw24 @taooceros is this possible? If not, let's close

[jjw24]

Probably does make sense to align search behaviour with Everything search engine to the behaviour using native Everything app. The space in-between the two terms is probably the same as using '>' in flow, essentially you are providing a path and you search for 'venc' in that path.

I personally can't promise when I can add this in, but hopefully someone else will be able to in the meantime.