Make specific files, folders, and folder contents show up in the default search results?

[rodarmor]

Is it possible to make specific files, specific folders, and the contents of specific folders, with some configurable recursion depth, show up in the default search results?

 

Quicksilver allows adding specific files, folders, and the contents of specific folders to the default search results, and this feature being missing from Alfred is the main thing that's preventing me from switching.

 

Using the "open" keyword includes all files and folders, but this includes many results that I rarely access, and makes it harder for me to access the few files and folders that I access frequently.

[vitor]

Welcome @rodarmor,

 

Seems like you want to either edit the Search Scope or make a File Filter.

[rodarmor]

1 hour ago, vitor said:

Welcome @rodarmor,

 

Thank you!

 

1 hour ago, vitor said:

Seems like you want to either edit the Search Scope or make a File Filter.

 

I don't think either of those are what I'm looking for.

 

It isn't possible to add specific files to the search scope. It's possible to add folders, but they don't show up in default search results unless I check the "Extras: Folders" check box, which will cause *all* folders everywhere to show up in the default search results, which is not the desired behavior.

 

File filters don't show up in the default search results, and have the same issue with not limiting recursion and having all folders be visible.

For a concrete example of what I'd like to do:

 

I have a folder `~/src` that contains all of the projects that I work on. I would like `~/src` to appear in the default search results, and all the immediate contents of `~/src`, so `~/src/foo`, `~/src/bar`, etc, but not the contents of those folders.

 

I would also like individual files to appear in the default search results.

Is this possible?

[deanishe]

5 hours ago, rodarmor said:

Is this possible?

 

Nope, afraid not. Alfred's default search isn't super customisable because the Alfred Way is to create multiple, tightly-focussed searches instead of mashing everything into one. It's how Alfred stays fast.

 

You can assign a Hotkey to a File Filter that implements your code search, but there's no way to Alfred's default search to look for some filetypes in a subset of the scope.

[rodarmor]

4 hours ago, deanishe said:

 

Nope, afraid not. Alfred's default search isn't super customisable because the Alfred Way is to create multiple, tightly-focussed searches instead of mashing everything into one. It's how Alfred stays fast.

 

That's unfortunate. I like the power of Alfred's keyword based searches, but for items I access frequently, it's much better to have them in the default search, as opposed to having to remember which keyword to use to perform the right search.

 

Adding, say, less than a thousand additional items to the default search wouldn't make it slower. Computers are very fast, and Quicksilver searches are instantaneous, even with additional items.

 

Would it be possible to add this feature? I can't think of a downside.

[vitor]

1 hour ago, rodarmor said:

Would it be possible to add this feature?

 

Renamed the post and moved it to the appropriate forum.

[rodarmor]

 

8 hours ago, vitor said:

 

Renamed the post and moved it to the appropriate forum.

Thank you for moving this post to the correct place!

 

I've attached a screenshot of what this looks like in Quicksilver. I mostly include individual folders and their immediate children. For example, a folder that contains projects, and a folder that contains text files that I often edit. The number to the right of each item is the number of results for each item.

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by rodarmor
better screenshot

[dfay]

Sorry OT but has Quicksilver been maintained in the last decade?  I thought it had been abandoned long ago.

[rodarmor]

53 minutes ago, dfay said:

Sorry OT but has Quicksilver been maintained in the last decade?  I thought it had been abandoned long ago.

 

There was a period that it was more or less totally abandoned, but a few years ago it started to see more regular updates.

It's now hosted on GitHub, and seems to be actively maintained:

 

https://github.com/quicksilver/Quicksilver/commits/master

[plainclothes]

QS has been really stable for me right up to mac OS 11 … then things started going off the rails. That forced me to give Alfred a go again. I'm always surprised by the many ways it falls short, but the community has certainly done a lot for it.

 

After struggling with Alfred's strange gaps (and even paying for the Powerpack), I'm really hoping QS dev picks up the pace soon. I've said since day one I'd pay for it -- I'm shocked no one has ever tried making a business out of it.