Visual Studio OmniSearch Concept

A single unified search box for navigation and invocation of VS features

Introduction

Visual Studio has 16 distinct search boxes, each of which has varying levels of search accuracy, and a limited breadth. This project is a crude proof of concept of an all encompassing search box that is intended to demonstrate how a single box could conceivably act as a code search, discoverability mechanism, and user education tool.

Features

• Code Search (encompasses all of NavigateTo/GoTo)
• Menu/Options/Installer/Nuget search (encompasses all of Quick Launch)
• Template search (encompasses all of New Project Dialog search)
• Docs search (searches docs.microsoft.com)

'Nice to haves' to complete the concept

• Item template search (searches 'Add Item' dialog)
• Installed extensions search
• Display options as checkboxes inline
• Display theme as inline drop down
• Cortana style 'IDE cards' (displays quick actions such as errors, test failures, etc. based on IDE state).
• Gallery search (could be ported from: https://github.com/gundermanc/VSPackageInstaller)

State of the Project

This project is 'demoable' and 'usable' but is not 'dependable'. I'm looking for additional contributors to help me bring up the quality and breadth.

Building

This project has no special build magic. Simply clone the repo, build, and run with Visual Studio 2017 15.7 or later.