feedback (error messages?) when something does not work as expected

[dmgerman]

Dear Armin,

first of all, thank you for this great package. I can see how it will change the way that I search and navigate information.

I have started configuring the sources and one thing I have noticed is lack of feedback when things don't work.

Here are a couple of examples:

1. consult-omni-ripgrep-all. I didn't have the ripgrep-all installed, and thus, consult-omni did nothing (not even issued an error)

2. previews. I have previous enabled and they work in google and mu4e, but they don't work for rip and ripgrep-all. I am still debugging what the error is (I am in MacOS).

Finally, this is more of a question. I enabled C-o as a way to turn-on/off previews. But this key is never received by consult-omni. Instead, it executes open-line (which is the default binding of the key). Is there something else that needs to be done?

again, thank you for all your work and making this available to everybody

[dmgerman]

I looked a bit closer and found that the key preview key for consult-omni-ripgrep-all is nil.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp   :exports both
(describe-variable 'consult-omni--source-ripgrep-all)
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
#+begin_example
consult-omni--source-ripgrep-all is a variable defined in ‘consult-omni-ripgrep-all.el’.

Its value is
(:name "ripgrep-all" nil nil :narrow 114 :state consult-omni--dynamic-state-function :category consult-omni :history
       consult-omni--selection-history :add-history consult-omni--add-history :items consult-omni--ripgrep-all-builder
       :annotate nil :lookup consult-omni--lookup-function :group consult-omni--group-function :preview-key nil :enabled
       #f(lambda () [t] (and (executable-find "rga") (fboundp 'consult--ripgrep-make-builder))) :sort nil nil nil
       :require-match t)

Not documented as a variable.

#+end_example

I am not sure why, this is my configuration. I am forcing consult-preview-key before anything is loaded. The weird thing is that the preview works in some sources, but not in ripgrep-all

This is my configuration:

 (setq consult-omni-preview-key 'any)
 
 (require 'consult-omni)

 (require 'consult-omni-sources)
 
 (require 'consult-omni-apps)
 (require 'consult-omni-calc)
 (require 'consult-omni-dict)
 (require 'consult-omni-doi)
 (require 'consult-omni-locate)
 (require 'consult-omni-ripgrep)
 (require 'consult-omni-ripgrep-all)
 (require 'consult-omni-wikipedia)
 (require 'consult-omni-youtube)
 
                                         ;(setq consult-omni-preview-key "H-&")
 (setq consult-omni-show-preview t)
 (setq consult-omni-locate-args "/Users/dmg/bin/mylocate -i")

 (setq consult-omni-sources-modules-to-load
       (list
        'consult-omin-apps
        'consult-omin-ripgrep
        'consult-omni-calc
        'consult-omni-dict
        'consult-omni-google
        'consult-omni-mu4e
        'consult-omni-ripgrep
        'consult-omni-ripgrep-all
        'consult-omni-wikipedia
        'consult-omni-youtube
        'consult-omni-wikipedia
        ))
 
 (consult-omni-sources-load-modules)
 
 (setq consult-omni-multi-sources '("calc"
                                      ;; "File"
                                      ;; "Buffer"
                                      ;; "Bookmark"
                                      ;;"Apps"
                                      ;; "gptel"
 ;;                                     "Brave"
                                      "Dictionary"
                                      "Google"
                                      "Wikipedia"
                                      ;;"elfeed"
                                      ;;"mu4e"
                                      ;; "buffers text search"
                                      ;;"Notes Search"
                                      ;;"Org Agenda"
                                      ;;"GitHub"
                                      ;;"YouTube"
                                      ;;"Invidious"
                                      ))

[armindarvish]

@dmgerman Thanks for the feedback. I agree that we can do a better job with throwing errors, but it's not as simple as it seems. In general, I avoid throwing errors because in a multi-source search, I would still want to see the results from other sources even if one source is causing errors for any reason. So instead of throwing errors, I try to show messages, but even that can sometimes get annoying, so by default it is kept to a minimum. However, you can set consult-omni-log-level to 'debug, and then you can see some more info in the log buffer (the name of this buffer is stored in consult-omni-log-buffer-name and by default is set to *consult-omni-log*. Note the space at the beginning, which makes the buffer hidden).

With regard to ripgrep-all, the preview-key is set to consult-omni-preview-key like any other source, and the preview works for me just fine. Here is a screenshot:

So, I don't know why it fails in your case. The chances are something else is wrong in your setup/settings. You should inspect the consult-omni--ripgrep-all-preview function and see if there is something that may cause issues. I have defined conditions for pdf-view-mode, etc., and that may cause issues in your setup.

[dmgerman]

Thank you for reaching out.

I tried to set the log, but the buffer is never created. I am using

(setq consult-omni-log-level 'debug)

But I finally seem to have gotten previous to work in all backends. I don't know if this is what fixed it, but it is working now:

I set the following consult variables before loading consult-omni:

(setq consult-omni-preview-key "C-o")
(setq consult-omni-show-preview t)
(setq consult-omni-log-level 'debug)

(require 'consult-omni)

it works as expected.

On a related note, I think it might be useful to be able to switch from preview-key 'any to C-o dynamically. Please correct me if I am wrong: it seems there is no easy way to change the preview key once the source data structure is created.

Or perhaps make a preview key for every source (ripgrep-all is fast enough for 'any, but google is too slow, so C-o is ok).

thank you for your help,

[armindarvish]

Or perhaps make a preview key for every source (ripgrep-all is fast enough for 'any, but google is too slow, so C-o is ok).

This is already possible with a little bit of elisp. All you need to do is to redefine the source with a new preview-key.
For example, to change the ripgrep preview-key, you can do:

(consult-omni-define-source "ripgrep"
                            :narrow-char ?r
                            :type 'async
                            :require-match t
                            :face 'consult-omni-engine-title-face
                            :request #'consult-omni--ripgrep-builder
                            :transform #'consult-omni--ripgrep-transform
                            :on-preview #'consult-omni--grep-preview
                            :on-return #'identity
                            :on-callback #'consult-omni--grep-preview
                            :preview-key 'any
                            :search-hist 'consult-omni--search-history
                            :select-hist 'consult-omni--selection-history
                            :group #'consult-omni--group-function
                            :enabled (lambda () (and (executable-find "rg")
                                                     (fboundp 'consult-ripgrep)))
                            :sort nil
                            :interactive consult-omni-intereactive-commands-type
                            :annotate nil)

For any other sources, you can see the definition of it toward the end of its respective .el file starting with (consult-omni-define-source ..., and then you can redefine it by evaluating that same function with adjustments you like to do.