Feature Request: show results as table

[hmijail]

It would be great to have the results presented as a table sortable by headers, instead of having them grouped by URL and then having to expand each independently.

Thank you for the add-on!

[jcfieldsdev]

Yeah, I've thought about having different ways of presenting the results and will try to implement something like that.

[hmijail]

Actually, the thing I keep finding myself wanting is just to sort by first visit date. So just having that option would be great, and I guess simpler.

[dogfella]

Actually, the thing I keep finding myself wanting is just to sort by first visit date. So just having that option would be great, and I guess simpler.

Without doubt the number one problem with Firefox is not being able to find past "ORIGINAL" site visits.

It is the only reason I arrived at this Github repo searching for a way to get a standard table view of the browser history so I can find sites that I visited in the past by the FIRST SITE VISIT DATE. By the first site visit. Not solely by the "Most Recent Visit". Most recent visit shifts a link from 3 months ago immediately to the top. Well human memory can't keep up with that. It can keep up with approximating that a site was visited about 3 months ago an that's how it should work. It should work how a human thinks, not how a geek thinks it might be cool, or how they think. By the way, I am a thirty year geek. But, I design stuff the way every day Joe's think and work. This is why my applications are popular due to my UIs and building things how people intuitively think things should work.

And for simple stuff, less is more in this case rather than a bunch of clutter with radio buttons, dropdowns, ridiculously complicated search tools with sixteen options and other stupid things. They are stupid for the first initial default view. Any of those detailed sort mechanisms should not override the first view a user needs. They should be optional views that a user opts into seeing.

Most people looking for a history search remember the topic, the approximate date and maybe the domain name if it's a site they visit often. Due to the laziness of webmasters and coders, the site TITLE meta tag is typically very poorly defined as to what the page is about. Either it's too short, too long, ignored, or it is worded in geekish way that doesn't reflect the actual way a visitor would word the title. Geeks cannot write. It is their achilles heel. Either they write nothing and no support, or they write geekish terms that are not simple in context which is what a TITLE meta tag should be.

Therefore, it is my opinion that a proper first view search table should include: the following columns in this order. The first two columns could be swapped. Both are the two most important columns.

1. Title
2. First Visit Date
3. Last Visit Date
   (this should not overwrite the First Visit Date. It should be two columns in a database: "added" and "updated" in the SQL file
4. URL

The final URL string length should probably be limited so it doesn't squish the other columns or it should wrap inside the table. Something you typically can't do with a string with no breaks in it. So, it should be truncated to a certain percentage width of the entire table width using the ... syntax. ----> https://www.mydomain.com/myDirctoryTitle/Morestuffhe...

I did not download and test your plugin because I read this thread first. It doesn't appear you have built in the feature for the obvious need for a "First Visit Day" search option. I am uncertain if the places.sqlite file from Mozilla even logs this date. I just assumed it did and certainly someone online had built a tool that would let you search by columns for First Visit Date. Well, to no avail. So, my hunch is that the First Visit Date is not logged in the places.sqlite file. If it is and you have not built this into your software, it is a big big error to not include it. If you have built it in and I'm missing it with this long diatribe, it would be great if you could comment below. I would try your software out, but I don't really need another search tool that does a similar sort process to what I have already.

When I search Stackoverflow I remember the topic I read and the approximate date I initially viewed the link. If I visit that link and it shoots to the top of the search table by Last Visit Date, it totally messes up the date with respect to how a human remembers. A human mind doesn't readjust it's mind in this method. When your parent(s) die, you don't remember the last time you visited their grave. You remember the day they died. I will leave it at that. It's so obvious what should be done with search history now FOR MOST USES. Amazing Mozilla hasn't done this in two decades. It's the basics of simplicity and functionality.

Diatribe out.....

[hmijail]

You would have saved time for everyone, including yourself, if you just downloaded the add-on.