Search Function in iPhone App? [Yes; added in OmniFocus for iPhone 1.5]
 

Will a search function ever be added to the iPhone app?

The ability to search in the active project I'm working on (as in the desktop version), or more importantly a GLOBAL search. Global search in the desktop version would be a good thing, too!

I'm finding it extremely limiting not being able to do this.

I use OF mainly for making lists. There are times when I want to find all items with similar content that are scattered throughout numerous Projects; ie: items from the same manufacturer, or tasks that I've delegated to other people.

Global search already exists in the Mac app (and has since before the 1.0 release over 18 months ago). Just switch to the built-in "All Items" perspective. There has been some discussion in the OmniFocus for Mac forum about making the "search all" capability more discoverable and accessible -- not sure if anything has been decided there.

As for the iPhone app, search functionality is supposedly on the way. The Omni Group said they were working on it. Although I'm not sure when it's slated for release.

-Dennis

Global Spotlight style search is coming to the iPhone with OS 3.0

Michael

[QUOTE=mmurray;60768]Global Spotlight style search is coming to the iPhone with OS 3.0[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Michael. That's a good point. Although I think the OP was looking for search functionality [I]within[/I] the OmniFocus iPhone app, which is what I was referring to in my earlier post.

It's also not clear to me if Apple's Spotlight-style search for iPhone OS 3.0 will work with third-party app data. Is there some way Omni can offer up an index of OmniFocus items for the Spotlight search mechanism?

-Dennis

[QUOTE=Toadling;60781]Thanks, Michael. That's a good point. Although I think the OP was looking for search functionality [I]within[/I] the OmniFocus iPhone app, which is what I was referring to in my earlier post.

It's also not clear to me if Apple's Spotlight-style search for iPhone OS 3.0 will work with third-party app data. Is there some way Omni can offer up an index of OmniFocus items for the Spotlight search mechanism?

-Dennis[/QUOTE]


Hi Dennis

Yes you are right. I guess I was hoping that the existence of spotlight searching means that behind the scenes searching was easier. Actually I also just did an experiment on my mac and found that Spotlight finds entries in Omnifocus. Be nice if that worked on the iPhone.

Regards -Michael

Michael, did you mean "on the phone" in your last post?

I'm unsure if the spotlight search on the phone works, but in-app searching is coming to OmniFocus/iPhone.

Yes sorry Brian I'll edit it.

Thanks - Michael

That capability to do spotlight searching is supposed to be in iPhone 3.0 update probably available either this month or next (rumor). Will OF be able to take advantage of that?

J.

I'm not sure about OmniFocus, but this video on Apple's site makes it sound like Spotlight search in iPhone OS 3.0 only searches for the names of third-party apps (in addition to the [I]contents[/I] of several Apple apps).

Scroll to about the 11:55 mark for the section on Spotlight search.

[URL="http://www.apple.com/iphone/guidedtour/"]http://www.apple.com/iphone/guidedtour/[/URL]

Hopefully, there's some way for third-party apps to tie into this further. Maybe we'll hear more once the Omni folks get back from WWDC.

-Dennis

Yeah, the spotlight search only works with a handful of default apple apps and it can be used as an 'app launcher' where you can type in the name of any application and it will come up as a result as well.

However, I'm pretty certain it cannot index 3rd party data (yet).

Folks running iPhone OS 3 can now get OmniFocus for iPhone 1.5 from the App Store. That version of OmniFocus incorporates a search tool into the app.

I presume you mean that it has been submitted to the app store. Currently the version that shows up is 1.2.3.

J.

My mistake. it shows now. the app store is seriously brain damaged today with all the iPhone 3.0 downloads and updates going on (mine was, let's say, entertaining).

j.

Sorry to double-post, but is the Search function limited to item titles only? It's not returning matches that I know are in the text of my entries.

More than likely as the search capability in OS 3.0 is not capable of indexing the content of files like Spotlight does on your Mac (I imagine that would kill your iPhone's battery very rapidly if it could).

Yeah, the search at the iPhone level finds nothing - last I checked - in OF. But even OF's own search returns only matches in topic titles, rather than matches within the topic itself. That's a nice first step, but I hope they'll add searching with topics. That's a "gotta have" in my book.

The iPhone/iPod OF built-in search function currently searches project names, action names, and action group names, but does not search folder names, context names, or the notes field in any item.