Multi-Level Search Syntax (aka Ancestor Search, aka Layered Search, aka Nested Search, aka Breadcrumb Search aka Progressive Search)

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Matt Hulse

• March 09, 2021 20:04
• Edited

It would be very useful to be able to filter my list at multiple levels with a search.  The easiest way to show the desired behavior is through this shared list: https://workflowy.com/s/QXsuGEhYWT

Another way to think about this problem might be something like XPATH search syntax:
https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp

Path Expression Result
  bookstore                Selects all nodes with the name "bookstore"
  /bookstore               Selects the root element bookstore
  Note: If the path starts with a slash ( / ) it always represents an absolute path to an element!

  bookstore/book       Selects all book elements that are children of bookstore
  //book                      Selects all book elements no matter where they are in the document
  bookstore//book      Selects all book elements that are descendant of the bookstore element, no matter where they are under the bookstore element

I'm not saying implement XPATH.  There are just some interesting concepts that could be borrowed from that style of path navigation in a WorkFlowy outline.

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• 

  George Jardim

  • November 21, 2018 12:10

  Seconded.  Also, search including “*”, “?”, “and”, “or”, “not” would be great!

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  CHARLES D BRODHEAD III

  • June 01, 2019 16:02

  Completely agreed.  I've been waiting for this nested filtering functionality since 2013.  I assumed that it would be an organic evolution of the platform as it is rather trivial to code.  It's especially necessary when you have many thousands of entries.  

  This is the only thing that prevents Workflowy from being "great" rather than just "very good".

   

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  Alistair MacDonald

  • July 20, 2019 21:27
  • Edited

  This deep search feature would be fantastic 👌

  Example:

  - Calendar
  - - # 2019
  - - - - # Jun
  - - - - - - #20th
  - - - - - - - - #Todo
  - - - - - - - - #Events
  - - - - - - - - #Journal

  I want to be able to search:

  "#Jun #20th #Todo"

  ...and see me Todo list for that day.

  Currently this would show me nothing, and it feels "wrong".

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  Alexander Kirchhof

  • December 13, 2021 08:43

  What Alistair MacDonald describes is also my problem. 

  Status quo is that in the example with the calendar list you would have to give every line all tags to be able to search and find them what makes it very clumsy, laborious and unreadable. 

  The interpretation of a search term should include the ancestors aka the breadcrumb/path of an element, so that I can find the elements under

  Calendar / #2019 / #Jun / #20th / #Todo 

  by searching for 

  #Jun #20th #Todo

  without having to put all tags in every line.

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