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First problem: When searching, I can't use the file extension as a substring for the object name. It looks like a file extension is not considered to be part of the "Object Name". 1. I choose "Find in Files" then selected the "Object Name" tab. 2.Then I choose "Substring" option for "Search for Object Names Containing:" 3. Then I entered a file extension (jsp). 4. Made sure the "Use this criterion for search." was checked. 5. Clicked the "Search" button. 6. Resulted in "No matching nodes were found". Second problem: The Regular Expresion option doesn't seem to work either for searching by object name. I entered ^a.* to find any files starting with a (I know I have serveral) but nothing was found. I entered \.jsp$ to find any files with a jsp extension and again no results were found. IMHO, since search by file type does not work (Issue 32923), I think the search by "Object Names" should be working better.
When searching by object name, names of files are ignored totally. Rather names of objects (each object is made of one or more files) are used for searching. Since object names are usually equal to names of their primary files minus their extensions, it works as you described. The fact is that regular expressions for searching objects by names do not work (I reproduced the problem on a Sun machine running Solaris 8).
Is there or will there be the ability to search on all files with filenames that begin with a specified string, end with a specified string, or contain a specified string? Or the ability to search on a files by type or extension?
Once I fix this bug (should be in NB 4.0), it will be possible to search for objects whose names begin with a specified string, end with a specified string, or contain a specified string. It is possible to search by object types already - use tab "Type" of the "Find in Files" dialog. The current search engine does not search _files_ by names. It searches _objects_ by names. This probably will not be changed in NB 4.0.
Thanks for the feedback. That's good that it will be part of NB4.0. You mentioned that it is possible to search by object types already using the tab "Type" of the "Find in Files" dialog. However, as I stated initially and I think others have reported that this feature is not working in NB 3.5 (Issue#: 32923 ). Should it be? Part of this problem seems to be that you cannot manage the search types in the tools->options->ide configuration- > system->search types section. When yoy try to create a new search type all you get is a list of "<unrecognized setting>".
Searching by object types does work. The only problem is with subnodes of node "Search Types" in the Options dialog - and it is tracked as issue #32923.
Fixed in the trunk. Now it is able to find files whole names (without extension) begin, end or contain a specified string. Examples: Type the regular expressions below to field "Regular Expression" within the "Object Name" tab of the "Find in Files" dilaog. ^Color .... find files whose names begin with "Color" view$ ..... find files whose names end (without extension) with "view" ^Color.*view$ ... find files whose names begin with "Color" and end (without extension) with "view" Image ..... find files whose names contain substring "Image" ^[AF] ..... find files whose names begin with "A" or "F"