Skip to content

How can we improve Primo?

← Primo

Combining searches from search history into a new search

My colleagues misses the functionality from our previous discovery system to combine searches in the search history list into a new search in an easy way, e.g. S1 AND S3

96 votes
Vote

We're glad you're here

Please sign in to leave feedback
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close
You have left! (?) (thinking…)
Jakob Nylin Nilsson shared this idea  ·   ·  Admin →
How important is this to you?

We're glad you're here

Please sign in to leave feedback
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close

We're glad you're here

Please sign in to leave feedback
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close
Submitting...
An error occurred while saving the comment
  • Manu_Schwendener commented  · 

    Ex Libris statement about PENH-I-28340

    "Primo 2025 Enhancements cycle: This submission will not be included in the second ballot by the following Product Management statement:

    After internal discussions, including past considerations when this enhancement was raised in NERS, we've concluded that this request is extremely complex to implement.

    The main challenge lies in the variety of search scopes and tabs involved (e.g., blended, local, CDI, entire network, and deep search in Primo). Merging these into a single query presents significant technical and functional complications. Additionally, each search element—such as queries, facets, and filters—would need to be handled and reconstructed independently.

    Given the scope of changes required, as well as the high cost and risk involved, we will not be able to proceed with this enhancement.

    In addition to the reasons for rejections mentioned before:

    * High risk of query overload: Merging multiple saved searches—including their associated filters and facets—can easily result in overly long or complex queries that exceed Solr's processing limits. This may lead to degraded performance or 0 results returned.

    * Non-trivial facet logic conflicts: Saved searches often include different facet selections (e.g., multiple formats, date ranges, resource types). Merging these requires defining how to combine conflicting or overlapping filters—something that's not intuitive and prone to producing unexpected results.

    * Ambiguity in user intent: It's unclear whether merging should mean combining results (logical OR), narrowing them (logical AND), or applying some prioritization. Different users may expect different behaviors, making it hard to design a consistent and satisfying user experience.

    * Unsupported edge cases and fallbacks: Supporting all combinations of filters, keywords, scopes, and search types would introduce a high number of edge cases. Handling fallbacks gracefully (e.g., if facets don't exist in all merged contexts) adds significant complexity.

    * Disproportionate development cost vs. value: Given the above challenges, implementing this feature robustly would require major development effort for a feature likely to be used by a small subset of advanced users—many of whom may still find the results confusing or unreliable."

  • Nancy Babb commented  · 

    The related NERS request in 2024 was rejected for development in Primo BO or Primo VE with the note: "after careful consideration, we have determined to reject this enhancement due to its complexity and challenges, also in light of the upcoming NDE, we prefer to prioritize it to NDE (rather than Primo BO). We encourage you to resubmit this enhancement again in the future so it can be re-evaluated with the NDE."
    Is this functionality currently being considered for the NDE or will it in fact need to be resubmitted, presumably no earlier than 2026, since the NDE won't be fully delivered in time for NERS 2025.

  • Manu_Schwendener commented  · 

    NERS 8959, open for voting now.

    ---

    Update 2.4.2024: place 4 in NERS, round 1

  • Nancy Babb commented  · 

    This proposal was not approved in NERS 2022, but there has also been no update from Ex Libris on this Idea Exchange proposal since March 2020, when additional information was requested. Can Ex Libris please confirm whether more information is still needed, and what the status is? Thanks!

  • Nancy Babb commented  · 

    Are more examples and use cases still needed?

  • Manu Schwendener commented  · 

    See "Combining searches from search history into a new search", 70 votes.

    URL: .../suggestions/31656826

    (Direct link got deleted twice - as spam?)

  • Anonymous commented  · 

    Please create the ability to combine active search set results in Primo VE.

    For instance:
    I performed an Advanced search for author stern and keyword difficult. (Search set 1)

    I then perform a search for author stern and libraries. (Search set 2)

    I would like to be able to say in Search History: (search set 1) not (search set 2)

    I do not see a way to use previous search strings to create more complex strategic combinations.

    (This obviously becomes more important as I add additional lines of searches that would require various combinations.)

← Previous 1

Primo: User Functionality

Categories

Feedback and Knowledge Base

(thinking…)