Localized Search in Firefox Search Box

Project Name

Localized Search in Firefox Search Box

Project Description

Firefox features a search box that can be customized to work with different search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, etc.). Most websites have their own search facilities, but the location of the search box on the page varies considerably. This project creates a mechanism for Firefox to pick up a web site's search mechanism and make it accessible to the user through the Firefox search box so that users have a consistent place to look for site-specific search.

Project Leader

Kerry M. Singh

Project Details

Release v.01

This release demonstrates my understanding of how some searchbar features currently work in the Firefox browser by outputting a series of dump("DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGE: Function Name - What the functioning is doing") statements to the terminal window while running a debug build of Firefox. Specifically, what functions/methods are called and what happens to the searchbar menu when the following events occur:

• The user selects the button to display the search engine list.
• The browser auto-detects a site that has a search plugin available.
• The user selects the option to "Add this search engine".

Release Target for v.02

• To be announced after further discussions with instructor.

Release Target for v.03

• To be announced after further discussions with instructor.

Resources:

Bugzilla@Mozilla

Mozilla Cross-Reference

MDC- Mozilla Developer Center

Search Service: Code Design - Automatic Detection

SearchLoad Options :: Firefox Add-ons

Project-Related Bugs

Bug 236587 - Allow bookmark keyword searches from the search bar

Bug 249481 – User-defined searches available not only as bookmark keywords, but also from the Search box

Bug 374268 – Quicksearch/keyword should be integrated into search engine manager

Bug 261124 – Textbox context menu should have "Add to Search Bar..."

Bug 335448 – Autodetect repeated use of a search field, and ask the user if they want that engine added to the browser search box

Bug 360907 – Search current site with OpenSearch

Bug 408244 – show opensearch plugin availability same as feed availabilitiy

Bug 405443 – Making search engine discovery more discoverable

Bug 356332 – Select default search engine again after searching with another

Bug 384124 – Option to reset search bar engine to default when starting Firefox

Project News

For up-to-date information about my project, visit my blog: Kerry's Open Source Blog