[ARCHIVED] Search/Filter/Sort functions are mostly unusable

[cerbino]

1. When are the search/sort/filter applications in the mail system going to be made usable? For example, searching for all the emails I received or sent from or to a specific student will yield those messages, BUT the user, not the program, has to perform almost all of the search. Messages I am looking for will end  up among a collection of messages in no particular order. The user has to scan through them to find what he or she is looking for. And said history is all over the place; there is no particular order that I can see with the lists show up.

HERE IS ALL I WANT WHEN I DO A SEARCH REGARDING AN INDIVIDUAL STUDENT IN THE CANVAS MAIL SYSTEM: a list of all those messages, in one place and in chronological order, that correspond to that student. That is not an unreasonable request. Now, if I am doing something wrong and that is why I fail to get that, please let me know. I did speak with a tech support person about this, but he could not tell me what I was doing wrong. He also told me that all messages in which the specific student was on the distribution list will show up, including mass mailings. That certainly makes things worse. And I already knew that; it's part of the problem. And when I search for a specific student's correspondence, I will get individual messages sent to OTHER students, NOT from mass mailings. It simply makes to sense. 

2. Why is it impossible to determine whether or not a student has opened a messages? That such a function is useful should go without saying.

3. More generally, why are all the filters in the mail system so primitive (at best)? Example: starring messages does no good. Searching for them later, using the drop-down menu, yields 0. 

4. Why is it that I can send messages to individual students, but in a few days (or even a few hours later), if I ask for a list of said messages, again by  using "Sent" in the drop-down box, the results that unfold may or may not be useful . Again, yes, what I am looking for will be somewhere on the lists that result, but I am the one who has to try to find them. 

WebStudy figured out everything that I have noted here several years ago. It should not be that difficult for a good developer.