Construct a narrow

A narrow is a set of filters for uKnowva Messenger messages, that can be based on many different factors (like sender, stream, topic, search keywords, etc.). Narrows are used in various places in the the uKnowva Messenger API (most importantly, in the API for fetching messages).

It is simplest to explain the algorithm for encoding a search as a narrow using a single example. Consider the following search query (written as it would be entered in the uKnowva Messenger webapp's search box). It filters for messages sent on stream announce, not sent by iago@zulip.com, and containing the phrase cool sunglasses:

stream:announce -sender:iago@zulip.com cool sunglasses

This query would be JSON-encoded for use in the uKnowva Messenger API using JSON as a list of simple objects, as follows:

[
    {
        "operator": "stream",
        "operand": "announce"
    },
    {
        "operator": "sender",
        "operand": "iago@zulip.com",
        "negated": true
    },
    {
        "operator": "search",
        "operand": "cool sunglasses"
    }
]

The full set of search/narrowing options supported by the uKnowva Messenger API is documented in the uKnowva Messenger Help Center article on search.