negative tag search doesn't work

scotto

Report ID: 1398386495

I've added a tag named 'fakeTag' to one of my entries, and if I do a tag search for `fakeTag', that entry is the only search result.

However, that entry is not eliminated if I do a search for entries that don't contain 'fakeTag'.

The negative search steps are:

1. Go to "Advanced Search"
2. Set Search Parameters:
3. Choose "Tag" from the dropdown menu.
4, Select "does not contain" as the condition.
5. Enter 'fakeTag'

The search result is all entries, including the one with 'fakeTag'

tim820

What happens if you use "is not" instead of "does not contain" ?

scotto

I get the same result if I use "is not"

Calorion

So if you say “Tag is not/does not contain X,” that means “find items with any tag that isn’t X. So even if it’s tagged X, it will still show up.

Is there any way to do negative tag searches? This is pretty basic, and I need it because I tag things with “processed” when I’ve made sure the metadata is accurate and it’s in the right Collections.

adamsmith

You can definitely do it with two saved searches -- create one for tag is processed and one for collection --is not -- [name of the 1st saved search]

Calorion

Ah. Got it to work. The trick is to ensure that you check “show only top-level items."

scotto

If this isn't a bug -- or at least an ambiguous UI -- then isn't it a missing feature? Negative searches are usually done more clearly and simply than this.