Special link format for in-document search

🌟Features
#1

Use case

When I’m in a document, I might want to save a few frequently used searches for quick access in the future. The current option is to execute that search, and copy the entire URL.

Proposed solution

Have a special link format that will do the above. Some syntax along the lines of [Search name](search://parent:#todo -is:completed). This link will search for everything after search://, but only in the current document. This makes this search more portable and you don’t need to replace the hardcode document link.

An alternative solution might be to have search histories, but the limitation is that due to the screen space limit, only the 10-15 most recent searches can be accessed conveniently. The link syntax might be more flexible. Related feature request: Feature Request: Search History

P.S. This idea is not my own! I think I’ve heard it before, either in one of the email support tickets or on the forum. I’m curious to see how many people are interested in this.

4 Likes
#2

Both serve different searches.

The one with portability and re-usability is more appealing esp for “pre-conditioned” searches, while the search history addresses sporadic and ad-hoc ones.

And I needed both. The desktop app seriously lacks history page of a web browser.

1 Like
#3

Would a shortcut to copy the URL of the current view help? Or do you need to actually look at the URL?

#4

I can’t say that I’ve been missing this feature (special link format), but…I guess it never hurts? :slight_smile:

Right now, URLs such as https://dynalist.io/#q=hello already do a global search.

Maybe we just need a special query param that indicates a search local to the current document, or current node and its children?

Maybe something like:

https://dynalist.io/#q=hello&z=doc

https://dynalist.io/#q=hello&z=parent

https://dynalist.io/#q=hello&z=kefiejflzielaazzsqm

Right now you already use the z query param to restrict a search to a particular node ID and its children. Maybe just reserve the keyword “doc” to always indicate the current doc, and “parent” to always indicate the parent node of wherever the URL resides.

That would make the search URL portable. You can cut/copy to another document or node and it will always work as expected.

As for search history, I do think that is very useful, even if you only support 5 or 10 most recent searches. Right now CTRL/CMD O already have a history of recent docs. (I only see 5 recent ones. It would be nice to support 10 for bigger screens.)

I think CTRL/CMD F should also have a history of at least 5. That would be super convenient.

Thanks!

1 Like
#5

Hi @Erica
Can you help to clarify the above? I could not relate that to anything else … did you actually mean “to extract” rather than “to exclude”?

#6

It was a typo, fixed! :sweat_smile:

#7

I would LOVE this!!!

#8

Thanks for your input, @David_Eiffert! And welcome to the community! :heart: