Forum mobile interface - can it search only within current thread?

[DeadJohn]

The adaptive interface lets me search for a specific word in a thread using any browser on a Windows desktop, but I lose that feature on my phone (Android Firefox).

Is this a known problem, and is a fix planned?

[AlamoVampire]

@DeadJohn Im just a rank and file user, but i did a quick test from my iphone on the forums home page after seeing your question. I hit the search thing and just put in android firefox into it and your question popped up for me. Fwiw im on iphone, using safari on ios 15.3.1. The search functionality (i may have totally failed to understand you so sorry if im off base) seems to function broad scope for me. Idk if this helps or hinders you. But its my attempt to add data so the tech savvy folks can use it if it helps.

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[Gargamel]

Works for me too, IOS Safari and Netscape. 

[DeadJohn]

@AlamoVampire @Gargamel Can you limit your search to just the current thread on a phone or other small browser window, or does the search look at *every* thread? The context is I'm checking a huge thread to see if something's been mentioned before within just that one thread.

The forum disables some search functionality when the screen is narrower than some threshold. I can replicate the issue without even using a phone. Open the forum on Windows, change the browser window size, and at a certain point the search text box gets replaces by a just a search button. The text box allows filtering on "This Topic". The search button does not allow "This Topic" filtering as far as I can see.

Example of a wide window and the search text box:

Example of a narrower window has no text box, just the magnifying glass search button, and there is no "This Topic" filter:

[AlamoVampire]

@DeadJohn on my iphone im not seeing “this topic” but only “topics”as a content filter. For me for what this is worth as its 100% speculation from a user with functionally 0 coding or programming experience but it feels like it may be a design feature for mobile devices to limit something but again I am totally guessing. Maybe @Gargamelor another moderator can toss this up to the IT folks if I am wrong (98% chance i am lol)

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[Gargamel]

4 hours ago, DeadJohn said:

@AlamoVampire @Gargamel Can you limit your search to just the current thread on a phone or other small browser window, or does the search look at *every* thread? The context is I'm checking a huge thread to see if something's been mentioned before within just that one thread.

Ah yes, I see what you mean now, I read your OP backwards, thinking you meant you could _only_ search in a single thread.

No, now that you point it out, I can't search in only this thread.  We'll see about bumping it up the ladder. 

[DeadJohn]

15 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Ah yes, I see what you mean now, I read your OP backwards, thinking you meant you could _only_ search in a single thread.

No, now that you point it out, I can't search in only this thread.  We'll see about bumping it up the ladder. 

Agreed that my original wording was imprecise. A screenshot is worth a thousand words.

Thanks for escalating this. It seems like a small interface issue, but limited search capability discourages people from searching before asking the same question that's already been answered dozens of times.

[Gargamel]

On 3/20/2022 at 12:39 PM, DeadJohn said:

Is this a known problem, and is a fix planned?

IT got on to it, applied some patches, and...... it didn't fix it.   Apparently Invision states this is the intended behavior.   We disagree, so bug reports have been filed.   Update to fix this? Sometime between tomorrow and never, it's out of our hands now.  

[DeadJohn]

13 hours ago, Gargamel said:

IT got on to it, applied some patches, and...... it didn't fix it.   Apparently Invision states this is the intended behavior.   We disagree, so bug reports have been filed.   Update to fix this? Sometime between tomorrow and never, it's out of our hands now.  

Thanks for letting me know.

"intended behavior" = working as designed = correct coding of a bad design