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Author Topic: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.  (Read 6960 times)

WongKit

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Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« on: October 03, 2013, 12:56 PM »
Hi,

I'm coming from Launchy and want to test FARR as it looks way superiour according to the configuration possibilities. Unfortunately, I came to following situation:

I'd like to start Firefox with the search term "fi" and [Enter] for example.
The first time I'll enter "fi", Firefox is at the bottom of the result list, so I have to navigate manually to the menu.
Now I want Firefox to appear at the very top of the list for the next search results every time I search exactly for "fi". At the moment, Firefox is at the second place because of its score.

Is there a hidden option or a plugin, that remembers all previous search terms connected with the launched program?

Thanks!
WongKit

tomos

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2013, 01:10 PM »
See where the pointer is below - each item in the list has a score

Screenshot - 2013-10-03 , 20_04_06.png

Right-click your item and select "Add scoring rule..."

Screenshot - 2013-10-03 , 20_03_59.png

Add a couple of hundred as appropriate to the score field

Screenshot - 2013-10-03 , 20_04_23.png

tbh I'm not 100% sure how the scoring rule works,
but the above should help you sort out the problem
Tom

WongKit

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2013, 01:25 PM »
Thanks for your quick reply.

The problem with this setting is, that the scoring bonus is not limited to the search term "fi". So when I try to launch Mozilla Thunderbird with the search term "moz" (as "th" might be used by another application), Firefox also takes the top position of the result list.

Entering "fi*" in the field "Optional Modifier keywords" does not help either - although I am not exactly sure about the meaning of this.

mouser

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2013, 02:25 PM »
Welcome to the site WongKit.

This is actually an interesting question that has come up before.

As it stands, farr does not remember which search terms you used to launch an item, so it doesn't have a way to remember that when you last typed "fi" you chose firefox, and give it a higher score the next time you specifically type "fi".

It might be interesting to experiment with adding this..

However the current "farr" way of doing what you want would be as follows:
  • Find firefox in the farr results, right click on it and choose "add to group alias" and then choose "new alias group" at top.
  • In the new alias dialog, specify fi as the alias keyword trigger, and hit OK.

Now whenever you type "fi" it will instantly show firefox as the one and only result.

Note that this is the most basic way of using alias groups -- to create an alias for one single program.  But it's still quite useful because farr doesn't even have to search anymore once you create an explicit alias.  More advanced uses let you group programs under one alias to act like a kind of menu, or even to have a keyword that will launch the program immediately without you even having to hit enter, or regular expression aliases that can be used to perform different actions based on what you type.

WongKit

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2013, 03:48 AM »
Hi mouser,

the workaround works as described, thank you!

Please think about implementing an automated way of assigning previous search terms to a launched item.
This feature is something I really miss as it would make me feel more that the program is learning "with" me when simply using it.

Regards
WongKit

mouser

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2013, 10:32 AM »
it would make me feel more that the program is learning "with" me when simply using it.

here's someone who knows how to motivate me.  for a program with the name "robot" in it, you might guess that i want it to feel like it is learning.  so i will indeed try to add this feature.

WongKit

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2013, 09:27 AM »
That sounds very nice!  :Thmbsup:

WongKit

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2013, 01:58 AM »
Hi there,

are there any news regarding this feature? :)

Regards
WongKit

JoTo

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Re: Heuristic Scoring for previous search term.
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2013, 02:36 AM »
Hi WongKit,

if i interpret all the buzz around the right way, mouser is just right now working an a big new major release of FARR Version 3!

I don't know what new features are planned to be implemented, but i think there is a good chance your idea may make it into it. *Shrug*

I'm sure mouser will reply also to your question as soon as he wake up and have a glance at the forum. :)

Please stay tuned a  little bit more.

Greetings
JoTo