Ye Olde Konqi used to have a directory filter functionality, like Dolphin now has available upon hitting CTRL-I. It's an awesome and unfortunately rather hard to discover feature. In Konqi, I managed to get a setup where, in web browsing mode, there was a google search to the right of the location bar (like in Firefox these days) and in file browsing mode, there was the directory filter there (with the 'quick filter' drop down where you could limit the view to certain file types). This would fit in very well in Dolphin too: have a 'filter' area to the right of the location bar. Probably hide it on small windows and show it when there is room or something... Upon clicking there, it'd be nice to show the search sidebar too, and move the options for search there. This way, you have filter and find integrated and far more discoverable. While I'm not particularly good at this, I tried to make a mockup, see the attachment I add soon D: Reproducible: Always
Created attachment 72997 [details] Mockup of the find bar Here's a mockup of the dolphin window when the user hasn't selected the find/filter bar
Created attachment 72998 [details] Mockup of the find bar selected (with search sidebar) Here's a mockup of the find bar selected (with search sidebar). It works as filter by default and users can add the other search options when/where needed, utilizing Nepomuk...
Resetting assignee to default as per bug #305719
I think the search bar must be in the panel on the right on the second mockup. I like the idea, and it’s consistent with Windows Explorer and Mac Finder.
Nice idea, but it might not work well if the view is split. If each split view has its own "Filter/Find" bar, then the two bars use a lot of horizontal space. If, on the other hand, there is only one, then it cannot be placed next to the location bar, and it would also be unclear which view it applies to. Note that Konqueror uses a different approach to view splitting and always has just one location bar.
With most users on widescreen devices these days, I'm not sure how big of an issue it is - depends on the size of the search bar of course. As the word 'find' could be IN the bar, greyed out and saving more space I think it could work. I've played a bit with Dolphin - if I make the window pretty small, I think it would still fit fine. I'll upload a mockup but it isn't hard to try by hand :D
Created attachment 83724 [details] Mockup showing how it looks in split screen on 1280xX screen 1280x720 is a reasonably low-res screen these days, yet it works quite well if you ask me. What'd yah think?
Thanks for the mockup. Here are some random ideas that I had when thinking about your suggestion. I'm not sure though if this report is the best place to discuss this issue - those who have the most insight into how people use software will most likely not follow this report. Maybe you might want to start a discussion on the KDE usability mailing list? 1. Please note that not everyone maximizes application windows. There are many users who do not have windows which are more than 1000 pixels wide. 2. When looking at your mockup, my first question was: "How does the user know what this text field will do?". You suggested to put the word "find" in there, but then the user would probably expect that entering text there triggers a search, which is not the case - the filter bar actually does something different. Note that there has been another report about finding/filtering recently: bug 324411. I see that the differences between both features can cause some confusion, but I don't see a straightforward way to fix this without breaking workflows that many people got used to. I'm afraid your suggestion to move the filter bar to such a prominent place might even make the confusion worse, because I would guess that many users would expect that a text field next to the location bar would trigger a search, like in web browsers.
This is centuries ago but still I actually have a thought about resolving the problem with the two kinds of search in Dolphin: filtering and the full search. You see, ownCloud actually has a clever solution. If you use the search bar, it filters right away and you see those results on top. But below, it starts a real search, giving you results from other locations! And that works really great and makes total sense. A suggestion, perhaps, for Dolphin... Go back to ONE search which filters by default while firing up a search with results below. Screenshot of ownCloud doing this: https://cloud.josandcamila.com/index.php/s/1Q6ssRzKS0GGe3V
(In reply to jos poortvliet from comment #9) > This is centuries ago but still I actually have a thought about resolving > the problem with the two kinds of search in Dolphin: filtering and the full > search. > > You see, ownCloud actually has a clever solution. If you use the search bar, > it filters right away and you see those results on top. But below, it starts > a real search, giving you results from other locations! And that works > really great and makes total sense. A suggestion, perhaps, for Dolphin... Go > back to ONE search which filters by default while firing up a search with > results below. Screenshot of ownCloud doing this: > https://cloud.josandcamila.com/index.php/s/1Q6ssRzKS0GGe3V I thinks this is a very good idea.
This is a duplicate of Bug 175495
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 175495 ***