Search dialog with multiple search arguments

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Geert Janssens <janssens-geert at telenet.be> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I encountered this when using the business menu search dialog (to find for 
> example a list of invoices)
>
> I entered two search criteria (using the Add button):
> - Company name
> - Date Opened
>
> After hitting find, the search results do match the search criteria. This is 
> good, as this is the main purpose of the search.

Yes indeed.

> What I like less is that at the same time the list of search criteria is reset 
> to only the last search criterium (Date Opened in my case). For me this is a 
> bit counter-intuitive. I'd expect to get exactly the same search results when 
> hitting the Find button again without explicitly changing the search 
> criteria.

You're mis-understanding what's going on.  The last Query is
retained and future searches are made off of that as the basis.
If you look into the lower-left corner of the dialog you'll see
four choices.  Those choices control how your new set of criteria
get merged into your previous (and no longer "visible") set of
criteria.

Using those choices you can:

* New search -- throw away your last set of results/criteria and start over
* Refine current search -- This lets you search within the results of the
  previous search; i.e. an "AND" into the previous query
* Add results to current search -- this is an "OR" into the previous query
  so the results from the new set of criteria will get inserted into the
  results.
* Delete results from current search -- this is a NAND operation, so it
  will remove the results of the new criteria from the existing results.

I'm sorry you're expecting something else to happen.  

> If others agree on this, I can make an RFE for it in bugzilla. But I'd first 
> like to hear other's opinions.

I think it may depend on the results of the search.  I'd want to hear
more from you on how you think it should work before I see a patch
that makes the change you propose.  However, "keeping the criteria"
is definitely not on the table for most cases (except, perhaps in
the case of "no results").

> Regards,
>
> Geert

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
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