Partially search users by name #654

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opened 2025-11-01 21:01:15 -05:00 by GiteaMirror · 1 comment
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Originally created by @GrahamJenkins on GitHub (Oct 3, 2025).

Description

When adding users to teams or projects, the search requires an exact (case insensitive) match before any results appear. The expected behavior is to use an ilike 'search' query so that any (partial) string is searched against email/usernames.

Also, search should only trigger when search.length > 0.

Which alternatives did you consider using instead?

I was looking to see if there was an admin panel or something that would list all registered users, then I could find their exact username/email, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

As it stands, the default settings (ie without specifying an environment variable I wasn't aware of) make new users invisible to search by email or username. There is no user list I can find, and all instances of user search I can find require exact email/username matching. I would argue that this puts excessive burden on the end user to A know who has an account on the system, and B know (and type) their exact username/email address.

Thanks for the consideration! I just installed this yesterday and have been testing all functionality. Looks pretty good so far!

Originally created by @GrahamJenkins on GitHub (Oct 3, 2025). ### Description When adding users to teams or projects, the search requires an exact (case insensitive) match before any results appear. The expected behavior is to use an ilike '*search*' query so that any (partial) string is searched against email/usernames. Also, search should only trigger when search.length > 0. ### Which alternatives did you consider using instead? I was looking to see if there was an admin panel or something that would list all registered users, then I could find their exact username/email, but that doesn't seem to be an option. As it stands, the default settings (ie without specifying an environment variable I wasn't aware of) make new users invisible to search by email or username. There is no user list I can find, and all instances of user search I can find require *exact* email/username matching. I would argue that this puts excessive burden on the end user to A know who has an account on the system, and B know (and type) their exact username/email address. Thanks for the consideration! I just installed this yesterday and have been testing all functionality. Looks pretty good so far!
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@kolaente commented on GitHub (Oct 6, 2025):

The problem here is that such a feature would allow enumerating all user accounts on an instance. Not a big deal for internal use, but a no-go on public instances. That's why it is a user configurable option.

If you search for users to assign them to a task, it will match partial instances of the username/name as well, but you need to have the project shared with the user first.

There is a config option for the default user setting: https://vikunja.io/docs/config-options/#1-defaultsettings-discoverable_by_name

@kolaente commented on GitHub (Oct 6, 2025): The problem here is that such a feature would allow enumerating all user accounts on an instance. Not a big deal for internal use, but a no-go on public instances. That's why it is a user configurable option. If you search for users to assign them to a task, it will match partial instances of the username/name as well, but you need to have the project shared with the user first. There is a config option for the default user setting: https://vikunja.io/docs/config-options/#1-defaultsettings-discoverable_by_name
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Reference: github-starred/vikunja#654