[QGIS-Developer] Limitations of the search locator "af" option?

[DelazJ]

Hi devs,

I was about to write an issue report but given that I get a kind of
consistent result, I wonder if it's by design or a bug. so better ask here
before.

I'm exploring the locator feature that searches in all layers , aka "af"
and because it almost never returns something usable to me (I often search
text), i tried to understand its logic and arrived to the following: It
does not search in ALL fields of all layers; it searches ONLY in the field
set as preview field for each layer.

What is a preview field? It's that field in the Display tab of the layer
properties that you choose to show map tips.
By default, map tips option use the first field of the layer; actually
looks like it uses the first field if it's a numeric field (maybe
integer?). Having a string field as first in the layer does not populate
the map tip option: you get a [Please define preview text], also shown in
the locator bar. A bug I should report?

The limitation about the "af" feature not using all fields, if ever that's
true, is mentioned nowhere. Should be, given that the "active layer" option
does browse all the fields and people would expect the same. And the
relation between map tip fields and the locator should be more clearly
visible. I don't know where but...

I could open issue reports for these but would like to know if I'm not
missing something.

Regards,
Harrissou
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