GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 332299
It's difficult to save a Nautilus search
Last modified: 2015-02-02 15:59:38 UTC
That bug has been described on https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/32542 "Currently, the only way there is to save a file search in Nautilus is to click on the "Save Search As" menu item under the File menu. This isn't very obvious and having this option near the "Empty Wastebasket" menu item doesn't help. Since the search window already has a Reload button, would it be possible to add a "Save As" button below it? This would be more intuitive and easier to find."
I agree that it's too difficult. I read about the feature somewhere, and just couldn't get the saving done. It makes sense that the option is not visible when browsing normally, but this way its more like an easter egg than a feature.
I totally agree! I spent half an hour googling. I would like to add: please tell how to save a search in the gnome documentation. In yelp, there is a topic about saving searches... It says you can... and does not tell you how! Pretty funny :) I had to google for "nautilus saved searches", dig an osnews topic, to end up on a gnome blog post about that feature to figure out that it was hidden in the File menu. Please, add this as a button in the query window when the query was successfully launched, and/or add this to the right-click menu in the folder. Thanks for the great feature :)
> please tell how to save a search in the gnome documentation. I couldn't agree more. It wouldn't take more than a sentence in the lines of "To save a search, go to File>Save Search As..." > In yelp, there is a topic about saving searches... It says you can... and does not tell you how! Exactly.
distro comment: "I think KDE has the best option for this: You can bookmark searches. Just visit the bookmark to perform the search again."
Still valid in 3.1.4.
Created attachment 209149 [details] [review] Proposed patch
Awkwardly, nautilus 3.8 does allow to bookmark a search, as suggested by comment 4, in addition to "Save Search as...". However, the bookmark simply points to 'x-nautilus-search://#/'. This works as long as nautilus is running, but the search history is forgotten when nautilus quits. On relaunch, 'x-nautilus-search://#/' no longer points to the same search. [It may even lead to a funny, broken search for nothing on nowhere, which crashes when changing the scope to "All Files".] Proposal: Merge the best of "Bookmark this location" and "Save Search as..." into a single "Bookmark this Search" menu item, which saves the search behind the scenes (no dialog) to a known location such as ~/.local/share/nautilus/searches and adds this saved search to the bookmarks. This way, saving searches and bookmarking folders will have the exact same workflow and discoverability.
As of today, its possible to bookmark a search, but the bookmark brings back the last searched string, instead of restoring the bookmarked string. Antonio Fernandez proposal is ok, except there is no need for a specific entry : it would be nice when the common "bookmark action" would simply bookmark the current search.
Comment on attachment 209149 [details] [review] Proposed patch $:andre\> patch --no-backup-if-mismatch -p1 < aaaapatch patching file src/nautilus-query-editor.c Hunk #1 FAILED at 24. Hunk #2 FAILED at 1017. Hunk #3 FAILED at 1051. 3 out of 3 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file src/nautilus-query-editor.c.rej patching file src/nautilus-view.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 1663 (offset -111 lines). patching file src/nautilus-view.h Hunk #1 succeeded at 361 (offset -4 lines). Hence setting 'needs-rework' as patch does not apply cleanly against git master.
Obsolete since we no longer offer that option from the UI and functionality has been removed accordingly.