spotlight search does not work in OSX native file open dialogs (1195 on 10.10.5)

[pfile]

i've had this problem for quite a while, but i thought it was OS related. turns out it happens on multiple machines, and other software on the same machine behaves properly.

attached screenshots are of searching for a filename in the native file open dialog box in some other program and in pixinsight. PI finds nothing while the other program finds many files. i guess something must be wrong with the call to the native file open dialog box?

thanks,

rob

[pfile]

i note that for some reason, "kind CR2" does seem to find files, so perhaps it's just the filename search that's broken.

rob

[Juan Conejero]

Native open file dialogs have nothing special in the OS X version of PixInsight 1.8.4, besides Qt 5 instead of Qt 4 in version 1.8.3. I have seen also examples where spotlight works as you are trying to use it on PixInsight (like a file name filter on a particular folder?), and it does not work in other applications on the same folder...

The File Explorer window in PixInsight has a powerful name filter feature that supports multiple patterns with wildcards. You can also use multiplatform file dialogs in the same way.

[NGC7789]

I've read many things about Spotlight being very buggy. For example:

http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2016/20160102_1616-AppleCoreRot-Spotlight-file-search.html

[pfile]

juan, there is something wrong here... it used to work and now any spotlight search returns exactly nothing in PI. other programs: no problem as shown in the screenshots. same exact search in both.

it is like this both on my laptop and on my desktop, both of which are running yosemite.

rob

[jkmorse]

Rob,

I'm not a OSX guy but in looking at the two files you attached, I noticed the one that worked says "all documents" while the other that failed says "all formats".  Could that make a difference?

Jim

[pfile]

what's in that dropdown is a function of the caller - clearly there are options that the program passes to the OS when asking for one of these dialog boxes - that makes me think that there must be some issue with the way PI is calling the open file dialog.

rob

[pfile]

by the way, more messing around with this has shown that for whatever reason PI can not find any fits files. searching for filenames of tiff or jpg files always returns some result. however if a file being searched for is a fits file, no result is returned.

spotlight is working properly - for instance:

Code: [Select]

[/Volumes/astro_arch] pfile% mdfind -onlyin . -name "tmb_trf ros ha light 1200s"
/Volumes/astro_arch/STT-8300M/2014-01-17/tmb_trf_ros.Light.1200S-30X1Ha_5nm.21652.fits
/Volumes/astro_arch/STT-8300M/2014-01-17/tmb_trf_ros.Light.1200S-30X1Ha_5nm.21653.fits
/Volumes/astro_arch/STT-8300M/2014-01-17/tmb_trf_ros.Light.1200S-30X1Ha_5nm.21654.fits
...

is there any filtering or any reference made to the types of files that the open file dialog might support? this isn't a case of the files being greyed out, they are simply not found.

rob

[rockyraccoon]

I can second the bug.
the open file dialog box invoked from inside PI can't locate fit files, while on the same exact folder the open file dialog box from inside Photoshop can.
Therefore, it's not a spotlight issue.

[pfile]

this might be a QT5 bug, but it is still kind of a showstopper for me. the only way i can easily find and load all my uncalibrated sub exposures is by searching with spotlight in the open file dialog. we have lots of folder hierarchy going on.

anyway i can see that it worked properly on 1.8.3, but never worked in any version of 1.8.4 (1.8.3 attached)

i tried the multiplatform file dialog but could not figure out how to get it to recursively search a directory hierarchy, which is what i need.

juan, is there anything you can do to look into this? any reports of this kind of behavior on other QT5 applications?

thanks,

rob

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Rob,

I have been studying this issue, gathering information from several sources (among which Apple's official documentation has been pretty useless), and it seems the problem comes from the way PixInsight declares support for several file types in its info.plist file (inside the core application bundle). For example, JPEG and TIFF files can be located without problems with Spotlight from a file dialog in PixInsight, but XISF and FITS files cannot. The obvious difference is that OS X knows well the .jpeg and .tif suffixes, while .xisf and .fit are sort of "alien" types and thus ignored. I'll try to get this problem fixed, now that I am on the right way (or so I hope...).

[pfile]

OK thanks i appreciate your looking into it - it seems like a pretty obscure problem.  here's hoping that it goes smoothly.

rob

[jmtanous]

Hi,

Any update on this issue?

I am experiencing the same problem with 1195 and 10.11.5

Cheers,

Jose

[Juan Conejero]

Still nothing new on this problem. The problem is definitely related to the way OS X handles "strange" file types, such as .fits and .xisf files. I have tried all reasonable changes in the application's info.plist file to no avail. Something must elude me here, but I have no idea what it is. Sorry for not being able to offer a solution.

Anyway, a new version of the PixInsight core application will be released in September-October, with the latest Qt version and new features. Let's see if we can solve these issues then.