Searching Hyperlinked text / Refs. in the Research Tab

[TYA]

Please enable hyperlinked text and Scripture references to be found in the Research Tab (including combination searches, which I've requested before).

 

I just find it hard to believe that I should be prohibited from finding these two items together, as shown in this screenshot (attached).

 

Thank you.

[Fabian]

+1

 

Greetings

 

Fabian

[R. Mansfield]

I think this may be an error.

[Mark Allison]

"Ammonius" is in the "Fathers" field. Give this a try:

 

[TYA]

Glad you found it in the resource itself, but I want such combinations of words (and also, a mixture between Scripture refs. and words) to be found when searching en masse in the Research Tab through all resources.  Such a combination as this--I hate to have to say--would easily be found in two other Bible software's .

 

To be fair, I know the Research Tab is still very new in Accordance, (and I don't know what I would do without it); but this kind of search functionality is, in my opinion, a must-have in the Research Tab.  With Accordance' beautifully large library of resources, such information needs to be easily accessible from a Library-wide approach.

 

I know that not every combination in the universe (e.g. a Hebrew word WITH a Greek word AND an English word) would necessarily be feasible, but please, at least the combination of a single Scripture ref. (e.g. Mat 1:1) and an English word or two (e.g. (Messiah <OR> Christ)), so we can find likely relevant hits across all resources.

 

And in this example I posted above in the screenshot, they are simply two English words, but they couldn't be found together in the Research Tab, presumably because one was hyperlinked.  That is definitely "prohibitive," as I used the word in the post above.

Edited September 19, 2019 by TYA

[Mark Allison]

Gotcha. Not finding it in the Research Tab is an issue that needs to be fixed. I've reported it to our developers. 

[jlm]

It seems to me that part of the problem is building the GUI for searching multiple fields. One way around this would be to add a syntax for specifying the search textually. It might look something like this: Nazarenes@[FIELD English Content] <AND> Ammonius@[FIELD Fathers]

 

If it was possible to specify fields like this, searches on multiple fields would not require a GUI to add a line for each field, and so would be possible not only in the research tab, but also on mobile platforms. This would also give mobile platforms feature parity when amplifying to a dictionary, since they could search for both the lexeme and the Scripture reference.

 

Another advantage would be the possibility of searching multiple fields with a URL, which means that one could save a link to a search in one's notes.

 

A GUI for this for the research tab would present the problem that the menu of field names has to contain all fields in all resources selected for search. Another problem for multi-field searches in the research tab is that field names are not always consistent: "English Content" or "Content"? I think I've also seen "Syriac" in addition to "Syriac Content."

Edited September 21, 2019 by jlm

[TYA]

field names are not always consistent: "English Content" or "Content"? I think I've also seen "Syriac" in addition to "Syriac Content."

 

This is a point I've made repeatedly with renewed frustration over the last year, as I've requested a way to search all English content, and not be pigeon-holed into preset filters.  But I'm grateful that Accordance listens to us, and hopefully there will be a solution soon.

 

However, the point of this post was, again, that such flexibility, or "universality" in search also needs to be available in the Research Tab, because the Research Tab enables an initial approach to large body of literature (or library), after which further investigation can be made.  (Of course, I'm not suggesting that this is the only way to study or search, but it is a very valuable one, especially with Accordance' huge library of resources.)

 

One way around this would be to add a syntax for specifying the search textually. It might look something like this: Nazarenes@[FIELD English Content] <AND> Ammonius@[FIELD Fathers]

 

I can't speak to (assumed) problems with developing GUI, but I would gladly settle for your suggestion above, as long as it allows me to find the terms.

 

If it was possible to specify fields like this, searches on multiple fields would not require a GUI to add a line for each field, and so would be possible not only in the research tab, but also on mobile platforms. This would also give mobile platforms feature parity when amplifying to a dictionary, since they could search for both the lexeme and the Scripture reference.

 

Another advantage would be the possibility of searching multiple fields with a URL, which means that one could save a link to a search in one's notes.

 

I agree that there are multiple advantages.

Edited September 22, 2019 by TYA

[jlm]

I can't speak to (assumed) problems with developing GUI, but I would gladly settle for your suggestion above, as long as it allows me to find the terms.

Obviously I don't know about the internals of Accordance GUIs, but selecting fields with a GUI means that it has to be implemented first for the macOS research tab, then for the Windows research tab, then for the research tabs on iOS/iPadOS and Android, when these latter appear. It also needs to be implemented for regular searches on iOS/iPadOS and Android. I assume that if there was a parser for a [FIELD] qualifier, the search parser code could simply be compiled for all platforms and work, making the feature accessible in all six places mentioned above. However, not being an insider, I cannot be sure it is easier. A parser solution is also a bit more of a power user feature, in that it requires the user to know the field names instead of simply picking them from a menu.

[TYA]

I don't know about the internals of Accordance...

 

And neither do I, so I try never to be presumptuous.  But let me get back to a core issue here:

 

I don't see why hyperlinks, which are on the surface English text, whether its a Scripture verse (e.g. Gen 34:5 or Gn. xxxiv.v), or a person's name (e.g. Ammonius) can't be searched together with non-hyperlink text.

 

1) This is highly prohibitive for finding useful combinations of Scripture verses and English text (in this post, I used a much more simple and glaring problem to illustrate the point: two English words couldn't be found together).

 

2) Other Bible software's have this capability, and while I'm intentionally growing my library in Accordance at a significant rate, it makes the lack of functionality all the more painful for me, as I can't easily wade through my massive library to find relevant resources.

 

I would gladly "settle" (not using this word negatively here) for any solution which enabled this functionality in the beloved Research Tab, even if I had to manually enter a particular syntax parameter next to each term, like in this example below.

 

(Isa 53:4 [scripture] <OR> Isa xxxxxiii.4 [scripture]) <WITHIN 40 Words> Messiah* [English Content]

 

(Note: I recognize that different resources in Accordance format Scripture references differently, which is why I formatted the hypothetical search above with the "OR" term.  Yes, that obviously requires more work than just searching for Scripture references via one consistent format, but I would be content as long as the "OR" term worked faithfully in the Research Tab.

 

Bottom line, we shouldn't be prohibited from finding hyperlinked and non-hyperlinked terms together, as the case currently is.  Think about it: how much can you trust the results of your searches in Accordance if certain terms are being excluded?  And you know I'm not talking about something super-complex here.  These are basic things, again, which the competition can already do (much to my chagrin).

Edited September 22, 2019 by TYA