Integration of System.Search.QueryFocusedSummary when seaching indexed content via "si:"

Discussion related to "Everything" 1.5 Alpha.
Post Reply
ungerian
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2023 2:12 am

Integration of System.Search.QueryFocusedSummary when seaching indexed content via "si:"

Post by ungerian »

Firstly, I'd like to thank Everything for the recent addition of the "si:" query syntax. It has truly been a game-changer for me.

I manage a folder filled with over 80,000 markdown files that are constantly updated. Searching through them for specific strings has always been a cumbersome task. I've tried solutions like Silversearcher and Ripgrep, but they were somewhat lackluster, taking too much time to produce results. Surprisingly, even with its sometimes questionable reputation, the Windows indexed search has been nearly instantaneous, at least in my scenario.

The introduction of the "si:" prefix in Everything has been hugely convenient. Not only can I now utilize the speed of the Windows index, but I also get to do so through the much more user-friendly interface of Everything as opposed to File Explorer or PowerShell. (On a side note, has anyone else noticed that querying the index in Everything seems to yield even faster results? It's been a pleasant surprise for me.)

The main point of this post: I was wondering if there are any plans or if it would be possible to integrate the feature of returning System.Search.QueryFocusedSummary when using the "si:" query. For those unfamiliar, it provides a snippet or context in File Explorer when you search for a particular string, offering a preview of the content. This feature is essentially a virtual column, which makes it inaccessible via OLEDB, but it can be tapped into via Shell.

I've tried to dive deep into understanding how this can be done, and while I did find some resources, I confess the CPP example provided in the Windows SDK was beyond my comprehension. For those interested, here are the resources I stumbled upon:

Microsoft's Windows Classic Sample on GitHub
https://github.com/microsoft/Windows-cl ... wserSearch

A related StackOverflow discussion
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/882 ... sedsummary

Microsoft's Documentation on the property
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windo ... sedsummary


Thank you for considering!
void
Developer
Posts: 16775
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Integration of System.Search.QueryFocusedSummary when seaching indexed content via "si:"

Post by void »

Thank you for your feedback ungerian,

I will look into displaying System.Search.QueryFocusedSummary somewhere.

Thank you for the suggestion.
Post Reply