Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

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reachalex
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Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by reachalex »

Organize Categories does not search sub-categories text. This was a useful feature. You needn't know what category and still could get to the correct categorization.
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Re: Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by MartinArmstrong »

Organize Categories does search subcategories.

Please take a look at the screenshot below.

I have created 2 subcategories (Business and Home) of the subcategory Telephone of the category Bills.

If I search for 'tel', I see Telephone plus its 2 subcategories.

If I search for 'hom', I see all the categories & subcategories that contain those letters.

cat search.png
cat search.png (93.44 KiB) Viewed 804 times


Is this not working for you? Which version of MMEX are you using please?
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Re: Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by Renato »

However, the search behavior in "Organize Categories" is not the same as when entering transactions "Transaction Details", because there this sub-category search does not work. I am using the current beta.

It would be desirable if all who write here would also tell us with which MMEX version and which operating system the problem occurs.
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Re: Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by MartinArmstrong »

Renato wrote: Sun Apr 09, 2023 6:25 pm It would be desirable if all who write here would also tell us with which MMEX version and which operating system the problem occurs.
I am using the current beta.
Which, for reference, at the time of posting means 1.6.4 Beta 4 (on Windows, I think)

---
However, the search behavior in "Organize Categories" is not the same as when entering transactions "Transaction Details", because there this sub-category search does not work.
Because they are two completely different types of fields:

1. If you want the Organize Categories style of search you can press Enter when in the empty Category field on the Transaction dialog.

2. If you want in-place quick entry of category:subcategory:... (on Windows a least, but I'm not sure about Mac/Linux) then on the Transaction dialog:
- Start typing the category name, then : to autocomplete
- Then start typing the subcategory name, then : to autocomplete
- Then (repeat for as many levels of subcategories as you have).

Here's a gif showing both methods while selecting Bills:Telephone:Home

1. Entry via Organize Categories... Type Enter, then hom, then double click the Home subcategory
2. Direct entry... Type B : T : H

category_entry.gif
category_entry.gif (666.9 KiB) Viewed 800 times
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Re: Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by Renato »

Hi Martin, I know the logic (or rather the illogic).
Sorry I find it very confusing for the users that you have realized these searches so differently.
Especially because you need a (non-existent) description to understand the (il)logic.
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Re: Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by reachalex »

Well, I am on MMEX Ver 1.6.3 64-bit on Windows 10.
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Re: Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by MartinArmstrong »

Renato wrote: Sun Apr 09, 2023 7:44 pm Hi Martin, I know the logic (or rather the illogic).
Sorry I find it very confusing for the users that you have realized these searches so differently.
Renato, sorry, but with respect to you... you are now just complaining ineffectively without proposing any solution as to how, from a functional point of view, the searching can work.

You have a professional interest in software and you have followed the lengthy development discussions about this feature on github. There are limitations on how the wx combobox works across the platforms that has led to this solution.

So:

1. If you want consistency with the 'old' way of searching for categories, then on the Transaction dialog just press Enter in the empty combobox. You will then get the (now much improved) Organize Categories dialog to search for and manage categories.

2. If you want to scroll through the entire category:subcategory list, then click the dropdown arrow on the combobox (or press down arrow on the keyboard).

3. If you want faster selection by reducing the size of the dropdown category list, then start typing a name in the combobox and you will be presented with a list of the categories that begin with the letters entered.

4. It is not possible, as discussed on github, to filter on a substring of the category:subcategory:... strings by typing in the combobox. So, as a further speed up, we have an extra capability (which you don't have to use if you don't want to) of typing : to autocomplete each level of category:subcategory as it is presented after typing the initial letters of its name.

Especially because you need a (non-existent) description to understand the (il)logic.
Yes, the Help needs some help!
Lots of things need documenting, including the above.

But this is an open source project. People are free to do whatever interests them... or nothing at all.
Nobody is obliged to fix bugs, or write code for new functionality, or do testing, or propose ways of streamlining UI, or write documentation. People give their time and skills where they can. MMEX keeps moving forward; not in a perfect way, I'd agree... and not in a way that a funded commercial product might... but nevertheless it keeps moving forward and getting better all the time.

Sorry to be so frank about this - but a complaint, without any suggestions as to what to do, especially as the topic has been discussed and worked on at great length, just demotivates people.


Transaction category entry is much faster than it used to be, and coupled with payee default categories - and soon for 1.6.4, payee (and therefore category) matching during file import - the need to manually enter many categories will be further reduced.


I would add just one more point, and that is that we do not actually get many questions about category selection now. We did at first, when the combobox was first being introduced but now there are very few. If there is a question, it's easy for one of us to point people towards the answer, for example by linking to this forum thread.
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Re: Organize Categories does not search sub-categories

Post by Renato »

We are here in a public discussion forum (General Discussion) and there everyone can express his personal opinion. However, there is no obligation to suggest solutions. However, the contributions should remain factual, otherwise it is the task of the moderator to intervene.

By the way: The majority of users will turn to our forum, because (almost) only IT specialists know Github. Many users also can't (properly) understand the many different information, because they are not (so) familiar with the English language. Of course there are translation options, but even there many MMEX users are already overwhelmed. To realize self-explanatory user-friendly software should actually continue to be the goal of MMEX. You can't measure a product satisfaction only by the number of questions, there is also an unknown silent majority.

I too use www.deepl.com, because when I went to school 75 years ago, there were no English classes.
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