Looking for beta testers to try new SAVED SEARCHES feature

[(cool) Hector]

SAVED SEARCHES: it can be tedious to craft a complex search, but once done it's now only one click away!

The fastest method to launch this new feature is to use the keyboard shortcut CONTROL + F. You can also click the Saved Searches button from the Movie Filtered Search. A window will appear where you can invoke a previously saved search or save the current one. Your searches are organized into as many folders as you want and you can give them any name you want. You can navigate with the mouse or with the arrow keys, right click to rename/delete/insert, drag & drop to move somewhere else.

The saved searches come pre-filled with a small default library. Instead of being loaded with hundreds of obvious searches, that library showcases only the most clever searches, using tricks that you might not have thought of. The goal is to inspire and reveal the potential of each filter and filter combinations. You're welcome to suggest some smart searches that I could add to the default library.

When it showcases the use of the "genre" filter, the default library will populate the searches with your favorite genres. Reminder: you've set your favorite genres the first time you've used the app, and you can change them anytime by selecting the menu "Tools->Rate the movies you've seen" then clicking the button at the bottom left. If you haven't set any favorite genres, the default library will use action + comedy + drama.

Your searches are saved inside a file named SEARCHES.txt, which you can find easily with the menu "Help->Locate the Saved Searches file". Knowing the file's location allows you to make backups of it, or to transfer it to another computer, or to share it with other users. It's also possible to edit SEARCHES.txt manually as it's a human-readable text file whose format looks something like that:

Code:

folder name
   search name
      filter:value,filter2:value2,filter3:value3|ordering

There are cases where editing the file directly is more efficient than using Coollector's interface (for example to delete a bunch of searches that you don't want to keep, to make a lot of renaming, to add a same filter to many searches, to copy/paste some parts from someone else's SEARCHES.txt). If you're meticulous enough and cautiously make backups of SEARCHES.txt, you shouldn't have any problems, just make sure that Coollector isn't running while you edit the file. If for some reason you want to revert back to the default library, simply delete SEARCHES.txt and it'll be recreated.

When the beta-testing will be finished, I'll open a dedicated forum thread where you'll be welcome to share your SEARCHES.txt for the others to pick up the parts that they like. It'd be greatly appreciated if those of you who've put a lot of work creating an extensive library would save the others the time and efforts.


Here's the beta for Windows:
https://www.coollector.com/Coollector_BETA_2.exe

The beta for MAC will come later...


Happy testing!

[Skavau]

Well it seems to work. What kind of feedback are you looking for?

[(cool) Hector]

What kind of feedback are you looking for?

1) if you notice any bug.

2) if you have suggestions for improvement.

3) if you think of a cool search that I could add.

4) anything you want to say... Do you plan to use it? Don't you think it's an improvement?

[Skavau]

I absolutely do plan to use it, yeah. Can't think of anything specific rn but it seems to work fine atm.

[(cool) Hector]

[Skavau]

Wait wdym "cool search"? Like a template or some new filter?

[(cool) Hector]

Wait wdym "cool search"? Like a template or some new filter?

I mean a clever use of the filters that most people would probably not think about and that I could add to the default library to boost their creativity.

If you think of a new filter, you can also suggest its addition. For example, this beta contains a new filter that didn't exist previously. It's "watched long ago" and it's the same as "recently watched", but in reverse order. I've realized that this could come handy when you're in the mood of watching again some of your favorite movies you haven't watched in a long time, for example using the opportunity that it's available on streaming.

[(cool) Hector]

Here are some of the possibilities that I've tried to showcase: you can use "this year" and it'll still work when we'll move on to 2025, you can use a year range, you can use a negative genre or a negative tag, you can use a random order, you can filter out the movies with a low IMDb popularity, etc...

There are so many special uses of the filters, I've probably missed a lot. I was focused primarily on the bugs and spent little time creating the default library, you can probably help me improve it, all the ideas are welcome.

I'd like people to look at the example searches and think to themselves "Oh, I didn't know we could do that, that's great".

[Skavau]

I can look into some default filter options but one thing that just stood out to me. When making new saved searches it might be useful to have a "Clear all Filters" button that maybe you have to double check to prevent you accidently wiping filters.

https://i.imgur.com/CGWByoC.png put it here somewhere.

[(cool) Hector]

Thank you for the suggestion, but I add a new button only if it's super worth it and I'm afraid it's not the case here.

When you create a new search, the first thing you should do is to to find the closest saved search to use it as a template. This way you get most/all of the filters that you need and you just have to tweak them. Resetting all the filters would mean that you don't need any of them and would only happen if the current search is completely unrelated to the search you want to create.

I think that you're skipping this first step of selecting an existing similar search. Maybe it's because you're just starting your library, but as you'll have more saved searches, most of your new searches will be slight variations of existing ones.

[Skavau]

Bug?

https://i.imgur.com/uyNtG06.png

Right-clicking now only brings this up for me. I can still do the general things you'd by clicking the title options. This is since your last data update so not sure if its related.

[(cool) Hector]

Bug?

Definitely a bug of the beta!

Thank you very much for finding and reporting it!

[Skavau]

Okay so "saved searches" is very stable.

Quick suggestion:

https://i.imgur.com/amTfL6R.png

You could have a "send to bottom" option here for people with a lot of searches, so they don't have to drag a new search they've made down manually (assuming they want to organise them).

[(cool) Hector]

You could have a "send to bottom" option

Thank you for the suggestion. Have you been in a situation where you could have used such an option? I fail to understand when it'd be useful, please explain with more details.

[Skavau]

You could have a "send to bottom" option

Thank you for the suggestion. Have you been in a situation where you could have used such an option? I fail to understand when it'd be useful, please explain with more details.

Yeah, adding lots of things in a category with custom tags. I put them in alphabetical order, but obviously being able to send to bottom would've made things quicker.