For example I have a lot of names Ivan. And also a lot of middlenames: Ivanovich. And surnames: Ivanenko.
All them contain substring “Ivan”. As a result, when I make searh: “Ivan Petr” I can receive dozens of extra results like:
Ivan Perovich
Petr Ivanovich
Petr Ivanenko
Ivan Petrenko
…
…
Is it possible make search by exact name/surname? I mean something like:
^Ivan$ Petr
or
^Ivan$ ^Petrenko$
Looks like I can not use regexp because of I make search by name and surname at the same time. And also I can not use Custom Person Filters because it is too difficult to built such filters each time when I simply look for a person to add any citation/event.
Maybe there is another working solution?
The problem is the sidebar filter’s Name field looks at the complete name. In the custom filter’s General filter >> People with the <name> allows you to create an expression search specific to a Given name and/or a surname.
The custom filters are too difficult in use if I want make fast search to edit a person. I do it a hundrad times per a day. It will be 100 filters editing per a day. Looks like easier is work as is. Find 50-100 results and visually find what I need from the filtered list.
Did you try graphview ?
You can search for what you want. And you get a list of all people found. If you move the mouse over a person, you can see their dates, parents, children…
You can see what I mean in a french question:
Im looking for “Ivan Ivanowich” and receive 533 results. But almost all the results are extra (wrong for me). And only no more than 50 results are what I need. Its really hard found spesific “Ivan Ivanowich” in a such long list. But custom filters are not confinient because this is not onetime seach for export, this is continuous/regular/every day search. This is a real problem for me. I dont know, maybe othercountries like England, France, … dont have such problem because of local naming features.
The problem is separating filtering by given name and filtering by the surname. The sidebar filter’s Name field is filtering the complete name and using or between the two parameters.
Can I propose several possible solutions at least to discuss them?
Way 1: change the “Name” input to multiinput like this:
in this case will be possible input several regex expressions at the same time.
the input value will be ^Ivan$ and the second - ^Petrenko$
Way 2: change the “Name” input search ligic. Before using regex split it by any character like space. In this case one regex will be separated into two regexs.
Way 3. Implement a search query language. It already discussed on the forum, but this is a big job.
Remember, after selecting a custom filter’s name, you can quickly edit that filter using the edit icon after the filter’s name. You would just be adding the parameters to the custom filter as you would add them to the Name field.
Way 4: Use Custom Filters as shown above, but these filter will accept variables from the sidebar filter. So, I fullfill several special inputs and select the special filter which use these inputs as variables.
This would solve Urchello’s problems, especially with patronymics; as if i search in Gramps for ’John’, for example, i get a real mess of surnames and other names including patronymics.
Perhaps i’m an eediot here, but i have no knowledge of programming nor more complex boolean operators. I’ve used this search function without any instructions, it being intuitive.
All this is possible with custom filters, the People with the <name> rule and the RegEx expressions.
However, I suspect that the biggest hurdle for @Urchello (and possibly @SiberianMongoose ) learning to use them is that the interface puts too many clicks & dialogs between action and results.
You could use the Filter+ gramplet to scrape the parameters and current Custom Filter into a single custom filter, then use FilterParams to work on it as a single level in the interface. But you still have to save it load it into a fresh Custom Filter in the Filter Gramplet to apply it.
So tweaking the “ivan” ‘given name’ search to a “dmitry” search is several clicks away from where it can be applied.
To be more interactive, there would need to be something like @kku 's FilterParams interface inside a gramplet similar to Filter+.
Where you could select either a Custom Filter (OR a rule) in its “flat” form layout for editing parameters and an integrated Find button.
Unfortunately, us non-cybernetic humans become completely confused with Custom Filters.
In the genealogical application my using for years (not the current version) i mostly search for everyone with a common surname, and an alphabetical list of them all comes up, then i can scroll down to find the one that i’m looking for using dates as a guide, and click to get to them. I sometimes have a relative of whom i know their first name but they have a non-original surname (usually due to marriage), and doing the same i find everyone with that first name, which if rare i can sometimes work out how they fit into the tree.
Exactly what I’m saying. Because the interface is so remote from the action, you don’t have the feedback needed to give a sense of how it works.
So if users had a gramplet that flowed in the Fields of a rule (like the People with the <name> rule shown below) with a Find button, it would give the immediate results that reinforce understanding. (Although the RegEx portion still obfuscates things.)
This is what is annoying when one orders something via an answeringmachine, and there is no feedback as to whether it has been received; and my being dyslexic i become befuddled speaking to a machine as i have difficulty following instructions, so it can become ignored.
A gramplet might be of use here…i know nothing of programming, albeit i’m rather geeky (i’ve installed Arch Linux via the commandline), otherwise i could do something. Some of us were born before even calculators were used at school in the abacus era—i still have my German-made sliderule, doesn‘t require electricity!
I find the Person Filter very useful sometimes but often, like the OP, it does not narrow down the search as much as I’d like.
I think we could use another widget as an alternative to the Person Filter–call it the Person Hunter for sake of argument.
Ideally, I think the Person Hunter should have JUST two input fields:
Surname
Other name bits (Given names, Nicknames, Title
Features I’d like:
Find as you type. The name fields must be extensively indexed, no? Modern computers have an awful lot of memory and computing power just sitting there begging to be used. Let’s put it to work.
Option to allow for mis-spellings (is it MacDonagh, McDonagh, McDonaugh, Hellen v. Helen, …). Turning this on might mean ‘find as you type’ has to be disabled?
I think a very simple and focused search would fit the bill 90% of the time. Maybe more. Leaving the Person Filter as an option would cover the other less common needs.
Example searches
[surname] [other bits] [exact?] ← my notes
[treleaven] [dr] [y] ← only 2 doctors, both with quite common given names
[alfonso] [y] ← only 1 alfonso; can never remember the spelling of his last name
[jack] [y] ← find everybody with given name or nickname ‘Jack’
[johnstone] [helen] [n] ← find Helen or Hellen, Johnston or Johnstone
Because this is such a common activity, I really think simplicity is the key. What do you think?
