Is in-Viewer search good enough

[arabellajones]

There are a few options in the Inventory window, some of them feeling rather obsolescent, but nothing for the Appearance window, and the very flat structure in the Appearance system makes some of the flaws even worse. Search in Appearance, and every instance of the search-string is returned, both in the outfit names and in the component names. Since there is no sorting of outfit-names (which look a lot like folders) there's no real way of picking out recent outfits. If the outfit-names are folders, there can be no sub-folders. If there is no way of limiting the search just to outfit names, or to folder-names in the Inventory, it would be laughed at in the days of MS-DOS, and I have not been able to find such an option.

And have you noticed how, in the Appearance window, every outfit returned by the search defaults to open?

And no, the answer is not "Use the JIRA." I try to choose my words carefully. I try to be clear and precise about the problems I experience, but it has become clear to me that I don't speak any language known to programmers.

I'm told that the version of the Appearance window shown in the Inventory as the Outfits folder shouldn't be changed by the user. I am told there are work-arounds. It increasingly looks to me that the people responsible for the original outfits system, and fior the work arounds, just have no clue about managing an outfits list that has more than about 25 items. It's as if nobody at Linden Lab ever changes their clothes.

Just having a better search function applying to both Appearance and Inventory would make a big difference.

 

Those obsolescent features? The old distinction between such as "Clothing" and "Objects" is becoming totally pointless with so much mesh clothing. I can't see any easy way to change it, those tags are likely built-in at server level.

Possible improvements: the Inventory search can show results sorted by date or by name. The Appearance window only has results displayed by name. And I haven't found any hint of a way of getting the search based on the first letter of the name-string. Being able to search just on a folder name, and not opening every folder to show the contents would also make a big difference.

Incidentally, I am not sure that there is any strong reason for Linden Lab to have to do anything on the server side. A search seems to be something the viewer does from a cache held by the viewer.

I sometime hang around at NCI Kuula. I've tried to help people who didn't appear to have any knowledge of how Windows, or any other OS, displays and manipulates files. I have begun to wonder if somebody at the Lab, making design decisions, is similarly gifted. It's not just the search that is only a vague approximation to what an OS can do to organise files.

 

 

[Nalates Urriah]

“It's as if nobody at Linden Lab ever changes their clothes.”

That is pretty accurate… actually.

You have identified a problem that several of us deal with. I now handle these challenges by careful naming and dating (a year) of my outfits. I have given up using search in relation to outfit names and in the Appearance Panel.

I use !! at the beginning to force my outfits to the top of the list. Then group names; dress long, dress short, swimsuit, etc. Then some description: red and white. Lastly a year.

You can use the JIRA to enter a Feature Request. Your description here is well written and should make sense to even a Linden programmer that has only one outfit…

Also see: BUG-5487, VWR-20982, VWR-28280, and others.

[Buttacwup Float]

I also date my outfits and use that as a way to archive them off once I feel they are too old. My outfits are all in the form Outfit - Keyword(s) - Date. So I might have Outfit - Swimwear - 5/23/15 something like that. I can scan quickly and find what I want. I use the outfit designator because I use the appearance window for more than just saved outfits.

[arabellajones]

"Go! write a JIRA," so the geeks all cry,

Declaring that it is the only way.

This is, alas, another programmed lie

That hides the sickness of their daily play.

They take a tool, designed to run their time,

And set an object for each working hour,

Then promise us it is no useless mime

With which to bring a new idea to flower.

So often have they lost the simple plot,

So often do they fail to notice fail,

That when the bloody obvious is not

There must be something in their minds doth ail.

And so I follow literary roads,

I know the tricks; sarcasm in my odes!