🚢 New code search and code view feedback

[tuves]

This Discussion has been closed because it's outdated. To provide feedback on code search and code view, please click here.

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At GitHub Universe last year, we announced a total redesign of GitHub's code search and navigation experience,
powered by our all-new code search engine that we built from scratch. And in February, we announced our public beta.

Today, we are rolling out this feature to all GitHub users. Thanks to the members of the beta community for your excellent feedback and engagement throughout the beta!

Check out our blog post to learn more about how GitHub's new code search and code view can help you search, navigate, and understand your code. And if you have feedback, please share it with us down below!

[stacksize]

Could we please have some feedback from the GitHub team on how this kind of behavior is considered user-friendly?

https://github.com/search?q=model%3D%22gpt-4%22&type=code

Where exactly is the date when the code was published? Is the intention to have the user do a 4-step process by:

• Finding and clicking the Advanced search button.
• Figure out how to enter the weird date format.
• Click the button and realize that Advanced search does not save the actual search that you came from.
• You now have to go back and do it again.

All I am saying is, please - just let us have this feature and consider that GitHub is an open website with a lot of code being shared daily on various new and exciting projects. I refuse to believe that only a few people use the "Recently updated" feature in old search.

—

EDIT: Someone from the GH team commented on this on [HN

](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35863175#35865231):

(I work on code search.) Yeah, sorry about that. We've heard this feedback a lot. There's two reasons why we haven't implemented this. First, content is shared between repositories which makes this harder than before, when it wasn't. Second, we rebuild the index weekly or even more frequently, so the proxy of "when was this added" that was used doesn't work any more. What we would like to use is "when was this blob added to this branch" but that's extremely expensive to retrieve from Git because Git trees don't record it.

[highpriv]

❤️️

[mikaelarguedas]

Is it possible to search code on other branches that the default one ?
e.g. While reviewing a PR deleting a constant, I'd like to search for any use of that constant in the entire repo on the branch I'm reviewing. Is there a way to do this through the new search ?

[thunderTheGun]

Welcome to Microsoft (for the newcomers). Always focusing on constantly putting out new features without ensuring .they are stable and/or usable.

[joshistoast]

This feature is an absolute must for me

[furry72]

Yeah

[SamandarHijiakbarovich]

Can I help this project? I want to contribute

[cjhope]

The "default" view for a directory (when you don't have any files clicked) was confusing for like 5 mins as I got used to this. But I figured it out eventually.

Otherwise, this is pure awesome-ness 👏 - thanks for this update

[AdamShwert]

or at least the file type and the one particular line where it happened.

[AdamShwert]

This should now be resolved. @IceTank

[IceTank]

Sorry the file is not public. It was a typescript file with code inside of a class. I can confirm that the issue I had is now fixed. Thanks!

[Maroon502]

I'm not sure if it's a problem. When I use the Google Chrome extensions NoteExpress, it gets the same Issue like @IceTank

[AdamShwert]

@Maroon502 it looks like something is changing the font? Any plugin that changes the font will cause that issue.

[wcarpenter1-godaddy]

When searching across multiple orgs, i'm getting

This account's code has not been indexed yet. Try again later.

[wcarpenter1-godaddy]

still behaving this way. it's actually been doing it since last week when legacy search was disabled

[colinwm]

@wcarpenter1-godaddy sorry about the indexing problems, is there a specific org or query you're having trouble with?

[wcarpenter1-godaddy]

hi @colinwm there are about 30 orgs i'm searching across to try to find references in the repo's code to a search string. example:

org:x org:y org:z .... search-string

most are internal. godaddy has many orgs on github. the only way i've been able to search across all is using that pattern. it used to work with type=codelegacy, but that is no longer supported. Now the new search 1) reports not been indexed, and 2) doesn't find the same values that legacy used to

[colinwm]

Hey @wcarpenter1-godaddy, I think your issue may be that the query syntax has changed: instead of

org:x org:y ... query

in the new query language, you'll need to be more explicit:

(org:x OR org:y OR ...) query

Terms that are adjacent are ANDed together in the new query language, which means org:A AND org:B, which doesn't match anything. For more information you can checkout our documentation: https://docs.github.com/en/search-github/github-code-search/understanding-github-code-search-syntax

[wcarpenter1-godaddy]

ah! didn't realize the syntax changed. that takes care or that issue. there are still some un-indexed orgs but they aren't a blocker. thanks @colinwm!

[DNin01]

Having opted into both of these changes during their public betas, I can say I like them in general, and I'm really happy to be able to include special characters in code searches! I would like to see an improvement to the "Show Diff" feature when editing Markdown - previously, removed content was colored red and added content was colored green. I'd guess this wasn't focused on yet.

[Cbodfield]

We're working on a fix for the color-coded diff on markdown issue. Thank you for the feedback!

[DNin01]

For some reason, on Safari on my iPad, if I tap on the sandwich button or a blank area on the navigation bar, it ends up selecting the GitHub logo and going back to the dashboard.

[DNin01]

Sorry, that has to do with the global navigation update. Didn't realize that was separate from this announcement.

[shawnjones253]

Any idea when we might see this in GitHub Enterprise?

[colinwm]

We are working on bringing this new UI and the new code search to GitHub enterprise soon!

[le2Ks]

There is no version as it is just an normal Github account with an upgrade to be "enterprise account" that's all. Not version on it like it was an actual software in my computer.

What did you mean by version of GitHub Enterprise Server tho?

EDIT: NVM found it! Thanks!

[excommunicado110]

@TylerAnder is it needs to configure locally or self-hosted Github also works?

[one-ideaed]

@colinwm thank you,
is there a way to get updated on this topic going forward?

[tOverney]

That would be a huge productivity boost for my team to have that in Github Enterprise Server!

[zed-wong]

Every time I click on a subfolder it will load, this feels slow. I think it's better to load all directories from the beginning so I don't need to wait after every click.

[jdrush89]

Thanks for the feedback @zed-wong. The reason we don't load all folders on the initial page load is that it would slow down the initial page render. For larger repos it can have a significant perf impact and we'd be loading extra data that the user likely does not need.

[StaticPH]

we'd be loading extra data that the user likely does not need.

At the risk of sounding confrontational, I'll be blunt with you; that exact phrase describes the way I see and experience this update. Everything takes noticeably longer to load already, so what difference would another tenth of a second make on top of the slowdown I see already? Can't we just keep things simple, and not try to render both a directory tree and the syntax-highlighted contents of a file on the same page? 😅

[Bonifase]

Can you search for a file and the file contents as well?

[letmejustputthishere]

Yes, if you search for a term, it will match the filename or the contents of the file. If you want to explicitly find content, you can use the content: qualifier, like content:asdf. Or if you want to just search a filename, try path:a/b/c.txt.

For more information you can read our documentation: https://docs.github.com/en/search-github/github-code-search/understanding-github-code-search-syntax

@colinwm When will those new keywords be enabled on the API search? i can neither use content nor path. The documentation says

The REST API supports the same qualifiers as the web interface for GitHub.

which is currently not true.

Its very odd to have two different syntax running at the same time, one exposed through the API, the other one exposed through the UI. Please consolidate the changes and provide backwards compatability in general.

[letmejustputthishere]

@colinwm bump

[colinwm]

Hey @letmejustputthishere, sorry for the confusion about the API. We do intend to release a new API version with all the new search capabilities and new query language, but it's not ready yet.

Re: content or path, in the old query syntax you can use in:file or in:path which is equivalent to content: and path: respectively.

And you're right, the documentation is out of date, we'll fix it. Thanks for reporting.

[shahzaib-zafar]

Unable to create new branch.

[Cbodfield]

Sorry for the friction! This was likely due to a GitHub-wide service issue yesterday. If you continue to have issues, please let us know.

[Drarig29]

Hi! I saw this weird glitch where an extra comma is added in the code view:

https://github.com/microsoft/azure-devops-extension-tasks/blob/b853d1335b2287a2ad21662476463f2508e36237/BuildTasks/Common/Common.ts#L343

When looking at the raw code, the comma is not there so it's a visual artifact of the code view.
It might be linked to the recent incidents on GitHub.

What I tried:

• Open the link in an incognito window --> same issue
• Logout and login again --> same issue
• Cleared the cookies and the localStorage --> same issue
• When logged in, tried with both the light theme and dark theme --> same issue

[AdamShwert]

Thank you for the report! We will work on a fix ASAP.

[AdamShwert]

This should now be resolved, please let us know if you encounter any similar issues!

[orwagodfather]

@AdamShwert
Hi
What about code search issues

no recently indexed option
date not printed out the repo
just first 5 pages you can check

Do you see this as issue and will working on fix that or not

Thanks

[andersonshatch]

Strange 🐛 where a line of python is displaying incorrectly in the new view:

(Extra for keyword)

When logged out, it displays correctly

[AdamShwert]

We have a fix for the issues deploying later today.

[rgnnb]

Your correction does not work.

[milemons]

Sorry, due to things out of our control, the fix has not shipped yet. It should be released soon. We will let you know when it does!

[AdamShwert]

The fix has now deployed @rgnnb please let us know if the issue is still occurring.

[rgnnb]

I confirm that the problem is now, at last, corrected. Thank you.

[cobavcova]

Thanks github.

[orwagodfather]

i cant found it
in my 2 accounts , any idea to help ...

[AndreKR]

I don't have that. :(

[mirabilos]

Where is it? I cannot find it either!

[cobavcova]

thanks github , has restored access to the old search code

[sixgodfan]

??? Please give me a link, thank you

[orwagodfather]

hi i cant found new code search / view to disabled in my Feature preview
and idea or quick link to disabled

Thanks

[circl-lastname]

Files sidebar: Would be nice for an option for hiding when viewing directory but leaving it open for files, that way directories don't have the duplication of information if the user doesn't want that

[ThreeSevenths]

Comments in JSON are commonplace enough to appear in a multitude of repositories. Eg. https://github.com/microsoft/chat-copilot/blob/main/webapi/appsettings.json

The error syntax coloring chosen, white-on-red, is garish and distracting. It should be far more subtle or omitted altogether making code more browsable.

[dgleich]

I would love to get the old navigation back or disable this new view. On MacOS Safari, the current interface is frustrating to use. On page load -- I see "blank" code if I scroll down to find the part I'm looking for, and it remains blank for a lengthy period before things jump and scroll around. Scrolling at all frequently results in a blank image. Clicking on a symbol results in a huge delay and then something happens. I took 10 seconds to scroll to the bottom of a 1000 line file and see the contents appear. I don't remember the previous code view having this many issues. The symbol information also takes a long time to appear.

[xamidi]

This pretty much sums up my experience as well. I try to rarely use GitHub for viewing files since they shat out this new 'feature'.

[nasir-aviva]

Yep on safari as well on mac os and it's extremely slow - just looking at blank pages for a couple seconds

[bytefish]

@milemons I have reported a bug some time ago. Sadly the Discussion UI here isn't able to handle the 1000 comments, so I cannot find it.

The Bug basically works like this:

1. Search for Code
2. Navigate to Page 2
3. Select a Repository to drill into

The result is, that the Search UI happily tells you "1 Result" and in the Results Section it tells you "Nothing Found".

I've just got bitten by this error again, because the same happens for Repositories:

[github-actions[bot]]

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