Accessing search isnt easy and definitely not very discoverable with it only being a custom action in the directory context menus. Instead i would suggest that it be easily visible in the UI by having it as a button in the toolbar, as it is with all file managers - Nemo, Caja, Nautilus, Dolphin, Windows Explorer, and Finder.
I agree that it would be nice to have a "search" toolbar button. For the first shot, the button could be shown only if e.g. catfish is installed and make use of it. (afaik check can be done with "g_find_program_in_path") A complete approach could be an option to add toolbar items via thunarx API, and a plugin like the thunar-archive-plugin, in order to pic between search providers if multiple are available.
Can you name any other search providers you know, as all other file managers have internal search.
Found this one: https://www.fossmint.com/file-searching-tools-for-linux/ Though I did not check if all these tools still exist
Happened to visit that page yesterday and most of them are launchers, while fsearch, angrysearch and catfish aren't, but other than catfish are the others used in any distros. I was thinking that we might consider falling back to the terminal with find or grep if no gui search is available.
(In reply to Jay Philips from comment #4) > I was thinking that we might consider falling > back to the terminal with find or grep if no gui search is available. When using catfish as search tool, I guess a catfish window would popup on <enter>, doing the search and displaying results. Though when using grep/find, how you plan to display the search results ? We could introduce a new view to show a list of specific files, or we would need to tweak the existing views so that they can display not only the current folder. Either way, that would require alot of work.
How I see it, we have a few options. 1. If we have a search field and button, then pressing the button will open catfish and search 2. If we have just a button 2a. Pressing the button opens up catfish. 2b. Pressing the button opens up a simple dialog with a search field and when pressing the okay button or enter key, will then open up catfish in search mode and show the results. For grep/find, if it was 2a, then the terminal opens and fills in the basic command and the user types in the remainder and presses enter. If its was 2b, then the terminal is launched with executing the full search query and show the results in the terminal, which is no different than what it would do in catfish.
(In reply to Jay Philips from comment #6) > How I see it, we have a few options. > > 1. If we have a search field and button, then pressing the button will open > catfish and search > > 2. If we have just a button > > 2a. Pressing the button opens up catfish. > > 2b. Pressing the button opens up a simple dialog with a search field and > when pressing the okay button or enter key, will then open up catfish in > search mode and show the results. For the first implementation I would go for 2a, since it would be a good first step. I dont like 2b. This extra dialog IMO does not add any additional-value. For later: (That should be an additional patch) 2c. Pressing the button turn the pathbar into a search-filed entry. When pressing the okay button or enter key, will then open up catfish in search mode and show the results. (See Nautilus and Caja) > For grep/find, if it was 2a, then the terminal opens and fills in the basic > command and the user types in the remainder and presses enter. If its was > 2b, then the terminal is launched with executing the full search query and > show the results in the terminal I disagree with this solution. When using thunar, I dont want to mess in the terminal. > which is no different than what it would do in catfish. It makes a big difference .. usually when I search something, I want to open it afterwards. Via terminal that might be not that easy and includes typing. Via catfish, just activate one of the results. If you are going for that feature, I would advice to keep the first implementation simple (KISS) ... we can add all bells and whistles later on :)
(In reply to alexxcons from comment #7) > For the first implementation I would go for 2a, since it would be a good > first step. > I dont like 2b. This extra dialog IMO does not add any additional-value. Okay > For later: (That should be an additional patch) > 2c. Pressing the button turn the pathbar into a search-filed entry. When > pressing the okay button or enter key, will then open up catfish in search > mode and show the results. (See Nautilus and Caja) Nice idea. > I disagree with this solution. When using thunar, I dont want to mess in the > terminal. Terminal was only suggested when there are no gui search options available. > It makes a big difference .. usually when I search something, I want to open > it afterwards. Via terminal that might be not that easy and includes typing. > Via catfish, just activate one of the results. Yes obviously in the terminal you couldn't open the the files directly, but the importance of search is being able to find where the file is, as you can then navigate to it in thunar. > If you are going for that feature, I would advice to keep the first > implementation simple (KISS) ... we can add all bells and whistles later on > :) If only I had such skills to implement it. :D
> If only I had such skills to implement it. :D Instead of opening one bug after the other, please rather take a try to provide fixes :) This one really is not that hard ... adding some button to the toolbar, make use of "g_find_program_in_path" .. there are already examples in the thunar code of similar stuff. If you get stuck, I can help you with it !
(In reply to alexxcons from comment #9) > Instead of opening one bug after the other, please rather take a try to > provide fixes :) I do try to fix bugs that I file when I already do have the knowledge to do so, but i don't know C programming. If you think this is a simple fix, i'll try to give it a shot. > This one really is not that hard ... adding some button to the toolbar, make > use of "g_find_program_in_path" .. there are already examples in the thunar > code of similar stuff. > If you get stuck, I can help you with it ! Can you point me to a previous patch where a button was added to the toolbar.
Nice ! > Can you point me to a previous patch where a button was added to the toolbar. I dont have a commit .. though I know where in the code you have to look: Best base your work on this branch, since thunar-window.c is going to be changed with it soonish: https://github.com/alexxcons/thunar/tree/ReplaceGtkAction2 Here happens the creation of some toolbar items: https://github.com/alexxcons/thunar/blob/0389cdb6b7a6f20a3bcc256121584e41c4e31efe/thunar/thunar-window.c#L739 Here how you can check for the existence of catfish and launch it: https://github.com/alexxcons/thunar/blob/0389cdb6b7a6f20a3bcc256121584e41c4e31efe/plugins/thunar-wallpaper/twp-provider.c#L97 https://github.com/alexxcons/thunar/blob/0389cdb6b7a6f20a3bcc256121584e41c4e31efe/plugins/thunar-wallpaper/twp-provider.c#L296
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