Features/Plain Query Format

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Summary

Provide simple string query format for Datastore find() method to cover all kinds of requests.

Owner

Current status

Detailed Description

Let users create complex queries with all possible terms(see Xapian glossary) including system ones. Users can use in query string system prefixes and predefined set of custom prefixes.

Prefixes in query string could look like

<prefix>:<one-word-value>
<prefix>:"<multi-word-value>"

Values for system prefixes, sugar fills on its own i.e. if title metadata field is My activity, user can type title:"My activity" in query string.

Values for custom prefixes user should place to tags metadata field in the same form like in query string.

If value is multi worded, any of these word could be used in query e.g. title:My or title:activity.

System prefixes

Datastore field Flags/Parameters Dublin Core Notes
uid identifier
bundle_id postponed until we decide to use Journal to represent activities
mime_type format
title sorted title
activity
activity_id
timestamp ranged sorted
keep
tags see #Users predefined terms
filesize ranged sorted postponed for Features/Unified Browser for Objects
participant sorted
description description

Users predefined prefixes

Datastore field Flags/Parameters Dublin Core Notes
contributor sorted contributor
coverage sorted coverage
creator sorted creator
date ranged sorted date
language sorted language
publisher sorted publisher
relation sorted relation
rights sorted rights
source sorted source
subject sorted subject
type sorted type
track ranged sorted
disc ranged sorted

Result set control parameters

New find() method still has optional dictionary argument to control final result set.

Dictionary key Notes
offset
limit
order_by
lang to setup stemming

Benefit to Sugar

  • feature lets users specify exact metadata fields to search for

Scope

  • implementation in Datastore

How To Test

This does not need to be a full-fledged document. Describe the dimensions of tests that this feature is expected to pass when it is done. If it needs to be tested with different hardware or software configurations, indicate them. The more specific you can be, the better the community testing can be.

Remember that you are writing this how to for interested testers to use to check out your feature - documenting what you do for testing is OK, but it's much better to document what *I* can do to test your feature.

A good "how to test" should answer these four questions:

  • What special hardware / data / etc. is needed (if any)?
  • How do I prepare my system to test this feature? What packages need to be installed, config files edited, etc.?
  • What specific actions do I perform to check that the feature is working like it's supposed to?
  • What are the expected results of those actions?

User Experience

  • In Journal search bar users can use system terms e.g. timestamp:<date1>..<date2> AND mime_type="text/plain" AND participant:me'
  • use tags with prefixes to differentiate them from regular words e.g. having substring books:favorite in tags field, user can type books:favorite in search bar and differentiate word favorite with prefix books from other books words.

Dependencies

Just regular glucose dependencies.

Contingency Plan

None necessary, revert to previous release behaviour.

Documentation

Release Notes

The Sugar Release Notes inform end-users about what is new in the release. An Example is 0.84/Notes. The release notes also help users know how to deal with platform changes such as ABIs/APIs, configuration or data file formats, or upgrade concerns. If there are any such changes involved in this feature, indicate them here. You can also link to upstream documentation if it satisfies this need. This information forms the basis of the release notes edited by the release team and shipped with the release.

Comments and Discussion