Re: [Evolution] Multiple folder search

[Eric Lambart <lambart got net>]

I agree, this is not a trivial thing... I think it fair to expect it.
If it's not possible to implement with the current folder system,
perhaps there's a flaw in the design of said folder system... ;)

Searching for something like "curious george" and "banana" throughout
all folder types doesn't sound like a common or even reasonable request,
but searching all mail folders certainly is.

Why not have a little algorithm monkey that climbs throughout the folder
tree and just ignores any folders that don't contain tasty mailbox
summaries (or whatever you want to use to indicate it's a mail folder)?

--Eric

P.S. Help!!! I'm running at zero RPMs here... I haven't had a fresh
Evolution fix for over a week!

On 15 Aug 2001 14:28:14 -0700, Arcterex wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 05:16:38PM -0400, Peter Williams wrote:
> > On 15 Aug 2001 13:41:30 -0700, Mike Leckey, Jr. wrote:
> > > Am I missing it, or is there really no way to search all folders?
> > >
> > > For example, select 'Local Folders', then search.  This would then
> > > search *all* folders* under 'Local Folders'
> > >
> > > Or, select an IMAP folder, then search all folders on the IMAP server.
> > >
> > > I could setup a Vfolder, but that takes too much time, and overkill,
> > > since I am only looking for something one time.
> >
> > No; you're right. One could argue that if you use vfolders, then you
> > need fewer physical folders, so searching in "all" folders is not such a
> > big deal.
> >
> > Searching under "Local Folders" as you describe would be nice, but would
> > be extremely hard to implement because the shell owns the Local Folders,
> > and they're not guaranteed to contain email. For that to work we would
> > need to implement a common search infrastructure across all the
> > components, which would be very nice, but very difficult.
>
> $ grep -R "search string" $EVOLUTION/Local
>
> Or something like that.....
>
> Seriously though, this is something that is (IMHO) needed.  The impression I
> got for vfolders were they were for organization, not one time searches.  IE:
> if I remember that bob sent me an email a while back about penguins, I'd like
> to just be able to go search->from contains 'bob' message contains 'penguin'
> -> search.
>
> Telling a user they have to create a folder to do this (even a virtual one) is
> going to be a bit of a stretch, assuming they understand what a vfolder is in
> the first place (I love vfolders, but having worked in support for a while, I
> know that the average joe out there will not "get" vfolders right away.
>
> So yea, if you could just do that, that'd be greeeeeeeaaaat.... :)
>
> alan
>
> --
> Arcterex <arcterex userfriendly org>   -==-   http://arcterex.net
> "I used to herd dairy cows. Now I herd lusers. Apart from the isolation, I
> think I preferred the cows. They were better conversation, easier to milk, and
> if they annoyed me enough, I could shoot them and eat them." -Rodger Donaldson
>
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