LJSV-1068

[kareila]

LJ just unveiled two features I've wanted here but haven't known how to implement, which are a tag list on the update page, and searching for multiple tags using AND instead of OR.

For the first, am I to assume that the new update page will support this, so we don't need to bother with trying to patch the feature into the old update page? Or perhaps rather that the new update page won't support it immediately, but it will be such a radical change that we shouldn't even bother working on it until then? (I really want this ASAP, and it has appeared on "most wanted".)

For the second, should we roll our own fix adopting LJ's URL syntax, or attempt a codemerge? Here's the syntax for those who missed the announcement:

http://username.livejournal.com/tag/tag1,tag2?mode=and
http://username.livejournal.com?tag=tag1,tag2&mode=and

The URL syntax was what bogged us down on that bug, and this seems like a reasonable solution, plus it's what users of both sites will come to expect.

Links to our Bugzilla:

http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=581 (for the tag list)
http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1585 (for multiple tag search)

Comments

[msilverstar]

argh, that gets us into teaching Boolean operators to people :-/

I much prefer the terms "ALL" and "ANY"

[cesy]

I think "AND" and "OR" are just as descriptive as "ALL" and "ANY" for a non-techie user, and considerably more useful for a techie or mathmo user.

[jazzfish]

In my depressing and frustrating experience, non-techies tend to assume "OR" means "boolean XOR" and "AND" means "boolean OR" (the logic is something like "I'm looking for X, and I'm also looking for Y"), and then get upset when there isn't any option to search for "only things that have both X and Y."

[msilverstar]

depressing and frustrating, yes

[jazzfish]

+1

I'd be happy to see "and" and "or" available as alternatives, in the same way that [lj user=] is an alternative to [user name=], but "all" and "any" are far more intuitive.

(end tech-writer / usability-guy-by-default rant)

[cesy]

I wouldn't object to them being there as alternatives, I suppose, though I'd still rather have "and" and "or" as the standard ones.

[kareila]

We could possibly codemerge LJ's support for AND, and subsequently add our own support for using ALL as an alias. (OR/ANY would remain the default behavior.)

[msilverstar]

Alternative usage is good, GUI is good, nice FAQ with examples are good.

Just, any time you use Booleans, explaining is hard

[sophie]

+1!

I prefer "all" and "any" too - it really, really is more intuitive. "and"/"or" are bad for the reasons jazzfish mentioned above. I hope that if we have this, these would be the standard.