I agree that this should be discussed without resorting to personal attacks.
So far, in this thread, I have yet to see an example where the default search results in the app are better than the search results when sorted by name. And there are several examples where the search results by name are demonstrably better. Is there any reason why the search by name shouldn’t be the default?
AFAICT, the search is based on SQLite’s “like” function along with some extra fields (name, description) in the app description. In reading through dbhelper it’s clear that we could use FTS5 to greatly improve search results. One option could be to load the metadata.json into SQLite via the json1 extension, and then use the FTS5 engine against that table.
We’ve recreated the six year discussion in #336 in this thread.
I’m willing to contract someone to implement FTS5 in the client because clearly the community needs it and the current state annoys the crap out of me when trying to find apps on device. My java is rusty and I don’t have time to write the code. If anyone wants to take a crack at it, dm me. If not, upwork exists for this reason. The end of the contract is an accepted MR on gitlab.
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Can we expect a better search in fdroid like is is any exect word in written the actual app moat times shows in 3or 2apps down and if you make a spelling mistake then you can’t even find the app.
Interesting discussion. I switched to Foxy Droid a few years ago, its search returned much more relevant results than the official client at the time. Haven’t used the F-Droid app since.
@human Am I on shrooms or did you just throw a bunch of words together?!
Stay kind. English probably isn’t humans mother tongue.
I think I understood what was meant. Yes it wasn’t easy. But doable.
English probably isn’t humans mother tongue.
A little insulting if not true.
Stay kind.
Plz Lower the bar to the (excessive, IMO) management-specified level:
Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech. (See FAQ - F-Droid Forum )
Maybe human was just careless. Or experimenting with alpha quality text obfuscating software. A polite reminder their statement made no sense is perfectly acceptable, IMO.
I have implemented sort by score like this:
create view app_search as
(select id, PACKAGE_NAME, PACKAGE_NAME search, 1000 score from app) union
(select id, PACKAGE_NAME, SEARCH_NAME search, 1000 score from app) union
(select id, PACKAGE_NAME, SEARCH_SUMMARY search, 100 score from app) union
(select id, PACKAGE_NAME, SEARCH_Whats_New search, 10 score from app) union
(select id, PACKAGE_NAME, SEARCH_Category search, 50 score from app) union
(select id, PACKAGE_NAME, SEARCH_DESCRIPTION search, 1 score from app)
;
-- example search for "photo"
select
id,
PACKAGE_NAME,
sum(score) score
from APP_SEARCH
where search like '%photo%'
group by id, PACKAGE_NAME
order by sum(score) desc, PACKAGE_NAME;
this way finding in the app-name or app-packagename has a higher score that app-summary or app-description and is therefore listed at the beginning.
result:
ID PACKAGE_NAME SCORE ------ ---------------------------------------- ----- 542721 site.leos.apps.lespas 1111 534739 com.fediphoto 1101 534789 com.fediphoto.lineage 1101 557365 de.bahnhoefe.deutschlands.bahnhofsfotos 1101 554641 dev.leonlatsch.photok 1101 554581 fr.s13d.photobackup 1100 554602 unisiegen.photographers.activity 1100 564700 org.stingle.photos 1011 554599 la.daube.photochiotte 1001 519140 name.gdr.acastus_photon 1001 560273 com.gtp.showapicturetoyourfriend 1000 554645 com.ruesga.android.wallpapers.photophase 1000 554568 de.onyxbits.photobookmark 1000 529362 com.tnibler.cryptocam 111 555016 org.piwigo.android 111 561794 com.simplemobiletools.camera 101 562105 com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro 101 556243 com.tistory.deque.previewmaker 101 518970 de.k3b.android.androFotoFinder 101 543576 de.k3b.android.lossless_jpg_crop 101 564038 fr.nuage.souvenirs 101 565708 jp.muo.syncmemories 101 534999 me.murks.filmchecker 101 532822 me.rosuh.easywatermark 101 524765 org.proninyaroslav.blink_comparison 101 550900 org.witness.sscphase1 101 539876 click.dummer.imagesms 100 526608 com.dozingcatsoftware.cameratimer 100 570631 com.dozingcatsoftware.vectorcamera 100 536425 com.flipcamera 100 562332 com.gmail.mugcuposup.android 100 520837 com.isanexusdev.androidcpg 100 527611 com.nathanosman.chronosnap 100 528181 com.nauj27.android.colorpicker 100 567548 com.thibaudperso.sonycamera 100 533166 com.weatherlight.elloshare 100 564771 de.digisocken.stop_o_moto 100 544486 de.hu_berlin.informatik.spws2014.mapever 100 535409 de.repat.mosf 100 520396 eu.domob.anacam 100 535097 eu.faircode.finegeotag 100 528194 eu.quelltext.coloring 100 537750 fr.mobdev.goblim 100 526546 fr.tvbarthel.apps.cameracolorpicker 100 560382 mobi.omegacentauri.SendReduced 100 520560 org.quovadit.apps.andof 100 563413 wb.receiptspro 100 539823 com.germainz.identiconizer 11 535459 com.ultramegasoft.flavordex2 11 537017 de.hauke_stieler.geonotes 11 538256 me.anon.grow 10 547437 uk.co.richyhbm.monochromatic 10 528290 ac.robinson.mediaphone 1 518574 cf.fridays.fff_info 1 528999 ch.admin.bag.covidcertificate.verifier 1 557098 com.asdoi.quicktiles 1 527330 com.cheogram.android 1 533916 com.exifthumbnailadder.app 1 568805 com.genonbeta.TrebleShot 1 538071 com.graphhopper.maps 1 532873 com.hos_dvk.easyphone.full 1 541503 com.infomaniak.drive 1 547714 com.jairaj.janglegmail.motioneye 1 555223 com.m3sv.plainupnp 1 537937 com.mendhak.gpslogger 1 572809 com.nathaniel.motus.cavevin 1 536473 com.pitchedapps.frost 1 560265 com.securefilemanager.app 1 572017 com.tobykurien.webapps 1 533381 com.vishnuraghav.EnRecipes 1 571511 de.cyberit.wasgeht 1 552507 de.dennisguse.opentracks 1 558005 de.digisocken.reotwe 1 526559 de.k3b.android.camerafolder 1 561302 de.k3b.android.geo2articlesmap 1 548833 de.msal.muzei.nationalgeographic 1 554661 de.rwth_aachen.phyphox 1 560965 dev.marchello.sharik 1 536552 eu.quelltext.mundraub 1 553073 io.oversec.one 1 568827 io.treehouses.remote 1 563063 me.ccrama.redditslide 1 526943 me.hackerchick.catima 1 530198 me.thanel.dank 1 529596 net.cyclestreets 1 556552 net.guildem.publicip 1 552886 net.osmand.plus 1 532805 net.schueller.instarepost 1 535871 org.forkgram.messenger 1 540843 org.jellyfin.mobile 1 541982 org.kontalk 1 536244 org.liberty.android.freeotpplus 1 550066 org.noise_planet.noisecapture 1 533463 re.indigo.epistolaire 1 565358 superfreeze.tool.android 1 532185 sushi.hardcore.droidfs 1 568377 truewatcher.tower 1
Absolutely.
But maybe we don’t agree on the meaning of “polite”.
When a you man product page2 under another another interpretation errr throw suchlife id don’t overthink it 
agree on the meaning of “polite”
And we’ve nearly reached the level of “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” Bill Clinton and the meaning of “is”
Someone has an attempt to improve the searching via the androidx appsearch library Fdroid-appsearch-release.apk · 8d112782abb717c44f9e97209863ed391c62c8b4 · Ngenge Senior / F-Droid Client · GitLab
No, we haven’t. I was being sarcastic. Unspas reply was anything but polite.
Nevermind.
Hello,
I just registered to reply on this threat.
I was looking for a simple contact app for my newly LineageOS for MicroG running phone installed from scratch. Not even one result containing “contacts” on the first page. Complete rubbish to be honest. Very frustrating finding all those random results. It’s like putting first gear on a car you want to drive and the car starts going backwards.
If you have plans to make it work in the future but you know it doesn’t work well at the moment why did you leave it by default? Common guys this is important.
I am lucky that I searched why the search on F-droid was so bad and I found this thread. Many others won’t do it and won’t find the “search by name” option and therefore stop using F-droid.
Thank you
better search
Try
F-Droid Classic (F-Droid client with the classic UI) - F-Droid Classic | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
Bonus: developed on F/LOSS self-hosted gitlab.
Hello, I think this is a major issue that should be prioritized as high by the development team (if any), because F-droid is the first result for new users that want to switch to FLOSS and Search is the main feature they want to use. We need to make FLOSS more accessible to newcomers.
The Nightly has a slightly different search, not radically better but meh
I have the same problem. Often I’ll search for something in F-Droid with the exact name, for search results I’ll first get a handful of unrelated apps, and the app I’m looking for is halfway down.
I knew I wasnt losing my mind; I have same problem!