Improve search

[cketti]

K-9 Mail's search capability is rather limited and we want to change that. The goal of this issue is to track the features we want to have.

• [ ] Improved search UI that allows…
  • [ ] entering search terms for specific properties on a message (subject, recipient, sender, body, etc).
  • [ ] selecting specific folders (or all folders) of one or more accounts.
• [ ] Support full text search via IMAP #699
• [ ] Support server-side search with multiple folders #649
• [ ] Caching remote search results so a search can be repeated offline
• [ ] Enable the ability to search on server by default (we might still make it an additional button click to extend the local search to the server)

[majutsushi]

As I mentioned in #791 it would also be useful to be able to pass a search string directly to the server, to be able to make use of powerful search syntax there. Then K9 wouldn't have to implement every possible search feature itself.

[cketti]

@majutsushi: We certainly won't allow users to inject arbitrary text into an IMAP search command. The chances we end up with a valid IMAP command are near zero. Passing the search string as is to the server could only be used with Gmail's custom search command extension (https://developers.google.com/gmail/imap/imap-extensions). But that would be useless for local searches and would make for a complicated UI/UX. So I don't see this happening.

[majutsushi]

I'm not sure I follow. I just meant that the arguments to the SEARCH IMAP command could be specified by a user. For example, taking one of the example queries from RFC 3501, you would be able to pass in the string FLAGGED SINCE 1-Feb-1994 NOT FROM "Smith" which would then get sent as SEARCH FLAGGED SINCE 1-Feb-1994 NOT FROM "Smith". This would obviously be an advanced feature since people would need to know the search syntax, but it would be useful for complicated cases or cases that K9 hasn't implemented (yet). And it would work with every server that supports that command, not just Gmail. Of course if you're imagining a search interface that allows the same flexibility in a more user-friendly way then that would be even better.

[cketti]

Like I said, we won't just pass through the search term as unencoded part of an IMAP command. K-9 Mail already contains too many footguns. No need to add a footbazooka. If you need this feature you'll have to find another client.

[elhennig]

With 5.7.708 I really miss the function "more from this sender". How can I access it with this release? I find it so useful...

[wombatch]

I am not sure if this is the best place to comment but since it relates to search, here goes. I agree with the idea of supporting server side search, for me the more that it can do the better. I have noticed however that there seems to be an issue with the existing search (Version 5.709) in that the search doesn't really seem to work. I tried with a few IMAP accounts, mostly I just get a different result from that of other mail programs but i noticed on for one (maybe a slower IMAP server) that the search says it is returning 94 results, so i guess that bit worked, but sadly it only displays 1 email.

[cketti]

@wombatch: It is not the right place. This issue is about improving the search functionality.

It reads like you're trying to report a bug. Please create a new issue and provide as much detail as possible. Especially a debug log (link to the instructions is displayed when creating a new issue) recorded while performing a search.

[nikslor]

Hi all

In 5.722 I miss a search function to search a folder in my folder list. I have hundreds of folders in my IMAP account and scrolling in the list of folders until I find the right one is tedious.

I'd love to be able to do something like this:

• enter a part of the name of the folder I look for (e.g. "australia") into a "search box"
• k9 lists all the folders of the current account having "australia" in the name
• tap on the folder -> k9 switches to that directory and lists the mails there

I believe something like this is possible in the stable version (5.722 is beta IIRC).

I'm happy to add this as a separate issue if this is desired.

I'm also happy to fund some of the work needed to get this done -> see mail address on my GH profile.

Thanks for all the work you do! I do very much appreciate it and love K9 <3

[NickWick13]

I hope the search function will soon be able to search subject, recipient, sender, body, etc as this would be very useful.

[tfardet]

Were there any roadmap or proposals put forward on the search front?

Since I haven't seen them mentioned anywhere, I wanted to list some ideas to improve the search experience, especially for non-local/remote/on-server messages. They could be used either separately or together; I ordered them by (expected) simplicity:

1. add a message or button below the search results to "pull for more results" (triggering a remote search)
2. explicitly state that remote search is not possible in the unified inbox when there are multiple accounts (until it becomes possible, which is desirable)
3. automatically trigger a remote search when there are less than X results
4. make remote search possible in the unified inbox (much better than 2)

The 1st one would fix the issue that there no explanation about how to do a remote search anywhere in the app, so people who don't know about it are often stuck and simply don't manage to find their remote messages on the phone (especially since the remote search icon became just a normal search icon). The 2nd would fix the issue that people don't know that they need to go to the account inbox to be able to do a remote search. The 3rd proposal would attenuate the 1st issue. The 4th item would make the 2nd issue irrelevant (which would be a much better solution than the 2nd one, IMO).

[xmrazik]

Adding other IMAP search keywords beyond FROM, SUBJECT, TO, CC and BCC is actually a must: My e-mail provider ONLY supports the TEXT keyword, so I am not able to carry out the server-side search at all.