zulip/zulip-mobile

User search screen should order prefix matches first

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#4,869 opened on Jul 6, 2021

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 (6 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)JavaScript (673 forks)github user discovery
P1 high-priorityhelp wanted

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Description

At present, user search results are shown with all matches in alphabetical order. This doesn't match what the user is trying to do, which is usually to put in the start of someone's name. It looks especially "broken" when the user first start typing, as it's unclear why these particular names are being shown, or why the name list didn't seem to change (or change much) when the first letter was typed.

We should change the ordering to show prefix matches with any part of the name above other results, the way we currently do in the right sidebar of the web app. It should be fine to just use <space> as the separator, or match whatever implementation we have in the web app.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Locate the search results ordering logic in the user search screen, then modify sorting to prioritize prefix matches (matches at the start of a name) over other substring matches, similar to the web app's implementation.
Tech stack
javascript
Domain
mobile
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
JavaScript
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70