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callmemagnus / nextcloud-searchpage

App for Nextcloud providing a proper search page
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Suggestions how to improve the layout #21

Open ostasevych opened 10 months ago

ostasevych commented 10 months ago

Would that be possible to improve the new layout, as now the main page looks a bit not finished:

image

One of ideas is to try the overlay: when you click the search button a search field appears where you may enter the data to look for, and in the results of the search you may apply the filters, so it may look like:

image

callmemagnus commented 10 months ago

The layout will stay as-is for now.

Regarding the proposition to move the search input in the top bar maybe in the future but I would more see it a kind of universal entry point to the search page.

ostasevych commented 10 months ago

The layout will stay as-is for now.

Regarding the proposition to move the search input in the top bar maybe in the future but I would more see it a kind of universal entry point to the search page.

Well, from the UX point of view, the search function is better to be started on the page where a user is located now. It should be as a new hover window, which appears in the navigation bar or somewhere else, but not on a separate page.

One of other opinions is to add the option to the configuration on hiding the embedded search functionality or even replacing it with your app in order not to confuse an end user.

callmemagnus commented 10 months ago

There is no universal UX statement about how search should be presented.

You can only make the assumption that your user wants that feature always available. But this might not be true for all nextcloud usage.

The use case of "search first" is not always the first one, the space available might not be as big as the one on your screenshot.

As files storage (Nextcloud's default setup), the team has decided to go to an omnipresent search but implemented it strangely with the small overlay showing only a few results from multiple sources and the current page can also present results specific to its context.

I didn't see any real usage of the ootb search until I installed fulltextsearch, hence the creation of this application.

For the moment, I'm kind of disappointed by the quality of the search providers responses. This is maybe due to the fact that the current search widget does not satisfy those developers too.

Anyway, for the moment, I'll probably keep it like it is. If search is your main use case, define this application as your default. :-)

daffydock commented 10 months ago

As a side note and just in case you may not be aware, when using the App Custom Menu, the Search Bar appears on the top of the left hand panel. The photo below is just to show what the panel looks like, My browner did not allow to take a screenshot of the activated panel on my instance.

Albeit you are only able to search among the apps listed there. I was a bit surprised to see it show up there when I first installed your app. Since otherwise, it just appears as a button to be clicked on, like any other app on the overlay.

image

marius-wieschollek commented 10 months ago

The app really would look a bit better with a larger search bar:

grafik

That has potential to be the new default page in my NC

callmemagnus commented 10 months ago

@daffydock Are you talking about this ? image

That search is not provided by this application.

daffydock commented 10 months ago

In my instance, due to how I have it set up the search bar looks slightly different but nevertheless, yes, that is what I was referring to.

You say it isn't? Sure. I have no reason to not believe you. As such, I went and looked at their log and yeah, they did just include a brand new search component to the app. What timing, of updating one and installing your app at the same time.

My mistake.

MrSingingClub commented 8 months ago

I would like to add my first impression when using your app. First, I like the aggragation across all providers. The results list could be more compact to fit more results. 3/4 of the page are empty. Would it be possible to have a preview on the right-hand side? This would save clicks. Finally, is it possible to have more complex search terms like AND and OR? I tried but did not get the expected result.

callmemagnus commented 8 months ago

@MrSingingClub Please have a look at this: https://github.com/callmemagnus/nextcloud-searchpage#philosophy-of-this-application

Preview

Sadly, I would need to maintain version dependent hacks on top of all common search providers; this is clearly not something I want to get into.

complex searches AND and OR

Providers handle the search terms, this application has no control over that :-( I agree that this is bad and would need to be added to the contract defined by Nextcloud and implemented by applications providing Search Provider. In addition to that, some support multiple terms, some split the query at spaces some ANDs some ORs... As far as I know, there are no guidelines on what the search provider should do except return a list of result (in a specific format) to be shown in the original mini-search (on the top right). This application started because I was not satisfied with that one but this application relies on the same data... and the same limitations.