Searching the "Read Later" · 11:26pm Nov 16th, 2012
Edit 11/16/2012: At this point, you can search in your Read Later list simply by going to your read later list, clicking the pulldown-thing that says "Filters" (used to be "Search"), and putting your search in there. As long as you start from the Read Later, it'll search just the Read Later automatically.
While this post is still accurate, it's no longer necessary. I'm keeping it around for 'historical' reasons.
It seems I'm not the only one wanting to search my Read Later list. It's not that hard, once you know how. The problem is figuring it out. So I decided to create this guide.
Here's a nice, simple search for a demonstration. This one finds unread fics marked "completed": http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&unread=1&completed=1
Aside: If you're like me, you can (or have!) figured out that the "unread=1" is the part that means "show only unread fics" and the "completed=1" is the part that means "show only fics marked complete".
To show the same kind of list, but only of fics on your Read Later list, add read_it_later=1 to the search URL. Here's the same search, but limited to your Read Later: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&unread=1&completed=1&read_it_later=1
It doesn't actually matter much where in the URL you add it. Here's another URL that does the same search: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&read_it_later=1&unread=1&completed=1
I use these a lot. They're handy for when I want something quick to read.
Another one I use is http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&read=1&read_it_later=1 This one is good for clearing out your Read Later list, in case you (like me) spend a lot of time reading on a device where you can't remove stuff from your Read Later.
Aside: As far as I can tell from what I've done so far, you could learn the URL parameters for every search option and just create 'em yourself. I'm not that intense, though.
Despite the wall of text, that really wasn't that hard, now was it?
This works for pretty much everything. You want to sort you Read Later by rating? http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&read_it_later=1&order=top
Rather sort it by latest updates? http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&order=updated&read_it_later=1
You want to scour it for Completed Adventure fics tagged with Photo Finish? (Yes, [http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&completed=1&category_adventure=1&characters[]=33&order=updated](some actually exist). I was shocked.) Just for you, in the default sort order: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&completed=1&category_adventure=1&characters[]=33&read_it_later=1 Unfortunately, the URL markup does not play well with the character-tag-search encoding, so that is not a clickable link. Aside: more complicated searches, especially including ones by character, you will probably want to do by creating your search with the advanced search box normally, and then limit to your Read Later. That characters[]=33 is the part that means "Photo Finish". I'm not learning all of those.
And for completeness, here's to demonstrate some other major search options:
Text search for "dashie": http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&search=dashie&read_it_later=1 'plain' search version: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&search=dashie
Minimum of 3000 words: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&minimum_words=3000&read_it_later=1 'plain' version: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&minimum_words=3000
Maximum of 5000 words: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&maximum_words=5000&read_it_later=1 'plain' version: http://www.fimfiction.net/index.php?view=category&maximum_words=5000
Bonus: If you get one of the first, mm, let's say twenty-five comments, and request a search (that can be done. I'm no wizard, I can't do stuff that the advanced search can't, I just figured out the interface), I'll reply with a Read Later version. Maybe I'll even add it to the post!
How do I remove things from my read-later list?
1060350 That's easy. The little book you click to add stuff to the Read Later? That's a toggle switch, when something's on you Read Later it lights up an interesting tan. Click the book again, and it'll remove the story from Read latter and go back to white.
I personally use the 'expanded' view, so I can do this right from the Read Later list. If you use the 'compact' view, you can go to individual story pages, or you can switch to 'expanded' view by clicking where it say 'use expanded view' (or something similar) under the Filter button.
1060773Thanks. I tried that last night but for some reason it wasn't working. Maybe I didn't see the color change and was clicking it twice or something. Anyway, it worked this time!
1060953 Ah, that might have been a behind-the-scenes 502 error. You know how sometimes you try to go somewhere on fimfiction and instead it say "502 bad gateway"? That's 'cause fimfiction isn't talking to your computer correctly. (Maybe it's overloaded. I'unno.) Well, fimfiction and your computer have to talk to each other every time you do something, even comment, 'like', or Read-Later; and if fimfiction does a 502 while you're trying to do one of those then it just won't work. The trick is usually to try again in a moment.