Search FAQ

Q: How does the search box on the iwantsandy website work?

A: This box performs a simple text search. Enter any text phrase and Sandy will return all items that contain that phrase. It will automatically extend the search so that it will search through all archived, done and past items. (Items that are normally excluded from other searches.)

Note: the search box does NOT search by tag. It doesn't matter if you type "@todo", it won't search for items tagged as "todo". It will search for items that contain the text phrase "@todo". Usually, that will include only those items that have "@todo" in their context. In other words, those items that were tagged as "todo" at the time they were created. (Example: "remember to buy milk @todo")

Q: How do I create a custom calendar feed or RSS feed?

A: Use the base feed and then add on search terms to the end.

http://iwantsandy.com/list?search_ter... (for regular search)
http://iwantsandy.com/list.rss?search... (for RSS feed)
http://iwantsandy.com/list.ics?search... (for iCalendar feed)
http://iwantsandy.com/_secret_code_/l... (using private iCalendar feed)

The search terms that you can add to the end are covered in more detail elsewhere. Here are a few examples:

http://iwantsandy.com/list?tag=todo&s...
http://iwantsandy.com/list.rss?type=b...
http://www.iwantsandy.com/_secret_cod...

Note: The RSS feed and one of the calendar feeds is "password protected". This means that the program calling the feed must "authenticate" itself by providing the appropriate username and password before Sandy will give out the contents of the feed. This has caused numerous problems because some Calendars (iCalendar feed) and News readers (RSS feed) don't support authentication. As a result, the "private" iCalendar feed was created.

Note: There are 2 calendar feeds. The short one, which is password protected, and the long one, which is not password protected. The long one is called your "private" calendar feed. It's not really "private". It just uses a hard-to-guess string of 32 characters. It was created because several calendar programs, including Google Calendar, do not support authenticated calendar feeds.

Note: The RSS feed will currently only give you the first "page" of results. That's about 25 items.

Problems with RSS authentication. See http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...

See http://iwantsandy.com/help/feeds for help with feeds.

Q: How do I search for items that have multiple tags?

A: You can add multiple tags to your search. The problem is that the results are not limited to those items that have BOTH tags. Right now Sandy returns all the items that have EITHER of those tags. (This is an OR search.)

Clicking on two tags in the "tag cloud" will return a list of all items that have *either* tag. (An OR search) You can specify multiple tags on the URL line, but this will also be interpreted as an OR search.

http://iwantsandy.com/list?tags=todo,... (OR search)
http://iwantsandy.com/list?tags=todo&... (OR search)

For more on the limitation on searching for multiple tags, see http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...

There is currently no way to perform an AND search. You can't limit the search results to those items that have BOTH tags. Although several request have been made.

Here is one idea for performing an AND search.
http://iwantsandy.com/list?tags=todo+...

See this thread for some ideas. http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...

Q: How do I exclude items from a search?

A: Right now, there really isn't a good way to exclude items from a search.

There are some things you can do:

Use "done=0" to exclude @done items. (This is the default.)
Use "archived=0" to exclude @archive items. (This is the default.)
Use "past=0" to exclude items that occurred in the past.

There is currently no way to search for an item with one tag but NOT another.
I call this a NOT search. It would be really nice if this were implemented.

Here is one idea for performing an AND NOT search:
http://iwantsandy.com/list?tags=todo+...

For more information, see http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...

Q: What are some search terms that I can use?

A: Here's a little list.

You can mix and match the parameters. (xx=yy)
type= (appointment, bookmark, contact, list or note)
tag= Ex: todo or daily or sms or any custom tag
tags= Same as tag. No difference
text= Contains a text phrase to search for.
sort= Tell Sandy what order you want the list in.
date= (today, tomorrow, yesterday, etc. Also an actual date.)

tag=todo -- limit the results to only those items tagged as todo
tags=todo,work -- can use commas to create an OR search.
type=note -- limit the results to only those items that are notes.
sort=alpha -- sort the results alphabetically and adds a Letter divider
sort=date -- sort the items by date. Excludes items that don't have a date.
sort=tag
sort=todo
sort=status
sort=updated -- sort by most recently updated.
date=none -- This doesn't work. Currently there is no way to specifically search for items that do not have a date.
date=today
date=7/4/2008

archived=1 (Use 0 or 1)
past=1
done=1
filtered=true
page=2 (Use 1 to ?)

Example:
http://iwantsandy.com/list?tags=todo,...

Kevin,

thanks for taking the time to compile this.

I'm still struggling with the calendar field only displaying todos? Do I just add something to the end of my feed?

Chris,

Yes, you add something to the end of your feed. At least add "tags=todo", although you can also add more search terms to further specify what you want.

You can include done todos, archived todos, and turn off past todos. (The default for todo items is to include past todos that haven't been marked @done.) I don't think that sort order will make any difference in a calendar feed, because the calendar application rearranges the items anyway. But feel free to experiment.

http://iwantsandy.com/list.ics?tags=todo
http://iwantsandy.com/list.ics?tags=t...
http://iwantsandy.com/list.ics?tags=t...
http://iwantsandy.com/list.ics?tags=t...

Great! Thanks for taking the time to clarify.

Is there any way to get the daily digest in an rss feed?

Can we get the Daily Digest in an RSS feed? Not that I know of.

I've tried:
http://iwantsandy.com/digest (Works)
http://iwantsandy.com/digest.rss (This would be great, but it doesn't work)
http://iwantsandy.com/list.rss?date=t... (doesn't work well)

Adding "type=appointment" causes all non-appointments to be removed.
(i.e. it will limit the items to only events that are *scheduled* for today
http://iwantsandy.com/list.rss?date=t...

Adding "tags=todo" causes all non-todo items to be removed
http://iwantsandy.com/list.rss?date=t...

Note: The "date=today" includes all those items either *scheduled* for today, or that were *created* today, or that were *updated/modified* today. So it will include all Appointments, Bookmarks, Contacts, Lists and Notes that have a date of today.
(For some reason, the RSS feed doesn't limit the results to only items that have a date of "today". The RSS feed continues with stuff from yesterday, etc.)

Also, it seems that all RSS feeds at the moment are limited to one "page" of data. About 25 items.

Currently, it seems like your best option is to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds, One for appointments scheduled for today, and one for any other tags you want to be reminded about. (There might be multiple feeds for the different tags. too. Depending on if you want to use "date=today" for all the tags.)

http://iwantsandy.com/list.rss?date=t...
http://iwantsandy.com/list.rss?date=t...

Thanks, I think that will work for now.

Here's a discussion related to this one. About searching for items without any tags.

http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...