We're catching up on some feature announcements here on the Acunote blog. For users who regularly view announcements in Acunote, this may not be new information, but it's probably worthwhile to review in any case, as these search enhancements enable some powerful advanced queries. Specific enhancements as follows:
Search Expression Grouping With Parentheses
Acunote search language now lets you group search expressions in parentheses to define the precedence of search operations. For example, the following query will return tasks that are in both sprints Foo and Bar, or task with owner Joe:
(sprint:foo AND sprint:bar) OR owner:Joe
Nested expressions in parentheses are also supported by the search language To search for names that include parentheses, quote the search term, for example:
sprint: "foo(bar)"
It is also possible to negate the grouped expression, for example:
-(sprint:foo AND sprint:bar)
Important Task Search Language Changes
Additions to the search language:
| New Syntax | Explanation |
|---|---|
| createdbefore: createdafter: updatedbefore: updatedafter: |
Search for tasks created/updated before/after given date |
| watcher: none estimate: none remaining: none |
Search for tasks that have no estimate, remaining or watcher |
| has: <property> | Search for tasks that have given property. Available properties are: tag, comment, attachment, parent, child |
| is: <property> | Search for tasks that are: deleted, parent, child |
Following search language syntax is no longer supported and the new syntax should be used instead:
| Old syntax | New syntax | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| priority: 1 | priority: P1 | Priorities without "P" prefix are no longer supported |
| priority: 0..5 | priority: P0..P5 | Priorities without "P" prefix are no longer supported |
| in_sprint: foo | sprint: foo | Changed for consistency with "project:" syntax |
| owner: "Not Assigned" | owner: none | Changed for consistency with other queries for empty values |
| status: "Not Started" | status: Not Started | Quoting is not necessary for status names anymore |
| parent_of: none | -is: parent -has: child |
"parent_of:" query type is no longer supported |
| child_of: none | -has: parent | "child_of:" query type is no longer supported |
| deleted: yes | is: deleted | "deleted: yes" query type is no longer supported |
Following search language syntax have new behavior:
| Syntax | Explanation |
|---|---|
| project: foo sprint: foo |
This will now search for tasks in projects/sprints with names that contain the string "foo". Use project: +foo and sprint: +foo to search for sprints/projects with exactly the name "foo" |
Search For Tasks With Attachments
As noted in the table above, the task search language syntax has been extended with has: attachment query type to search for tasks with attachments. New useful search queries are now possible:
- has: attachment to list all tasks with attachments
- has: attachments deleted: yes to list deleted tasks with attachments
Creating More Powerful Queries in Acunote
In addition to the syntax enhancements described above, Acunote supports a large number of search expressions and operators, as well as the capability to save and share queries. Please refer to the updated Search Help Section in Acunote for further reference.
We are continuing to enhance the search functionality of Acunote, so we welcome feedback and ideas. Let us know your use cases for search and how we can better support your needs in the future.