Timeline Search

lornawebber
@lornawebber
4 years ago
334 posts
The search function on the Timeline doesn't seem to work as I imagine it should, so either there is a problem on my site or most likely I haven't understood it.
Can anyone direct me to where this feature is explained, please?

Are the search terms applied only to Timeline entries belonging to the owner of the Timeline?
Is the whole timeline entry text searched?

Our users do a lot of following of various friends, and it's hard to see what's going on in the Timeline with so many entries from various followed members. Mostly it would be interesting to see when someone followed has uploaded images, videos etc., but I can't see a way of searching for that.
I'm pretty sure the Timeline entry used to say "x has uploaded a new photo", but now it only gives the gallery name and thumbnails of some images in it. I'd have liked to search "new photo", for example.

It would also be nice just to search for all entries of a particular profile "@-name", but that doesn't return any results.
updated by @lornawebber: 05/25/20 11:14:36PM
nate
@nate
4 years ago
917 posts
Visiting a user's profile should show you all the timeline entries for that user. The search feature searches action_data which would be text. I just searched my test site and was able to search for a site shared to the timeline. I searched text in the title of the URL. It worked as expected.
lornawebber
@lornawebber
4 years ago
334 posts
@nate Thank you for that explanation and I can see that it's very useful when I am looking at other users' Timelines.

When I am searching my own Timeline, the search applies only to my own Timeline entries, not to any of the entries that are showing for people I follow. Also, the search only applies to the text of the entry and not to the description of the entry.
Those two facts make it quite hard to find entries of interest when looking at one's own Timeline.

My Timeline is full of stuff done by people I follow (see attached) and it's really hard to find anything or even select out my own activities.
It would be extremely useful to be able to search everything that appears in my own Timeline, including the entries that arise from profiles I'm following. Would that be possible? It would be especially useful to search for profile @ names, so I can see what particular individuals have done. Is this something that other Jamroom users might like?
michael
@michael
4 years ago
7,714 posts
Yeah, that functionality does not exist at the moment. It is a good idea though. I'll put it into our 'Ideas' tracker so it doesn't get lost.

Tell me if I'm understanding it correctly.
* At the top of the profiles timeline, just underneath the 'Status Update' box there should be a "Search term" entry box.
* The "Search Term" entry box searches all items on the timeline.

* If its the owner of the profile, then it will search all timeline items that have been created by the profile owner AND the timeline items that have been created by profiles that that profile follows.
* If it is a visitor to the profile then it will search only timeline items that have been created by the profile owner.

Sound right?
lornawebber
@lornawebber
4 years ago
334 posts
michael:
Yeah, that functionality does not exist at the moment. It is a good idea though. I'll put it into our 'Ideas' tracker so it doesn't get lost.

Tell me if I'm understanding it correctly.
* At the top of the profiles timeline, just underneath the 'Status Update' box there should be a "Search term" entry box.
* The "Search Term" entry box searches all items on the timeline.

* If its the owner of the profile, then it will search all timeline items that have been created by the profile owner AND the timeline items that have been created by profiles that that profile follows.
* If it is a visitor to the profile then it will search only timeline items that have been created by the profile owner.

Sound right?

That would be so useful!

At some point, the Timeline entry text changed, for when someone add a new item. I'm pretty sure it used to say "x added a new photo to gallery y", but now it just shows the gallery name and some thumbnail images. That would not be searchable even with this proposed enhancement (unless you happen to know the gallery name).
So, it would be really splendid if the Timeline entry included "new{item}" so we could search "new photo" or "new audio" etc.. I imagine that would be a popular facility, because those interesting items tend to get lost amongst a load of Timeline entries for comments that your followed users have made.

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