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. I've uploaded a patch file that outputs a series of dump("DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGE: function name - what the source code is doing") statements to the terminal window while running a debug build of Firefox (i.e. Minefield). Specifically, what functions/methods are called and what is happening in the source code with respect to the searchbar menu when the following events occur:

The browser auto-detects a site that has a search plugin available.
The user selects the button to display the search engine list when a search plugin is available.
The user selects the option to "Add this search engine".
The user changes the current search engine by selecting it from the search bar drop-down list (menu).
The user moves the position of a search engine using the Search Engine Manager.
The user removes an auto-detected search engine from the list of "installed" search engines.

Downloading and applying the patch

1. Download the patch file to the root mozilla directory of your source tree and unzip the file there. I suggest renaming the file localsearchpatch_v01.txt.

NOTE: This patch requires that you use a DEBUG build of firefox. To see the output messages from the dump() statements in the patch, you have to enable it by setting the preference browser.dom.window.dump.enabled to true. You can set this preference in about:config or in a user.js file. This preference is not listed in about:config by default, so you may need to create it. Enter about:config in the browser's address bar -> right-click the empty content area -> New -> Boolean.
You can preview the patch here: Localized Search in Firefox Search Box: Release v.01

2. Apply the patch.

 $ cd mozilla
 $ patch -p0 < localsearchpatch_v01.txt

NOTE: Use the -p0 option to strip 0 leading directories from each filename in the patch because it is being applied in the same directory where the patch was created.

3. Build your source tree.

 $ cd mozilla
 $ make -f client.mk build

4. Run the browser to test the patch.

 $ cd objdir/dist/bin
 $ ./firefox --ProfileManager --no-remote

How to use the patch

1. Navigate to a web site that offers a search engine plugin:

Note the DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGE in the terminal window.

2. Click the searchbar's dropdown menu button.

Note the DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGE in the terminal window and the "Add this engine" option on the searchbar menu.

3. Click the "Add this engine" option on the searchbar menu.

Note the DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGE in the terminal window and the position of the newly added search engine on the searchbar menu.

4. Select "Manage Search Engines..." from the searchbar menu and select the newly installed engine from the list. Click the "Remove" button and then click "OK".

Note the DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGES in the terminal window.

5. Select "Manage Search Engines..." from the searchbar menu and select one of the installed engines on the list. Next, click the "Move Up" and "Move Down" buttons and then click "OK".

Note the DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGES in the terminal window.

6. Click the searchbar's dropdown menu button and select a different search engine as the current engine.

Note the DIAGNOSTIC MESSAGES in the terminal window.

How to remove the patch

You can back-out a patch by using the patch command with the -R or --reverse option. This swaps the new file with the old one to reverse the patch.

 $ cd mozilla
 $ patch -R -p0 < localsearchpatch_v01.txt

Release Target for v.02

When Firefox loads a web page with an available search engine plugin, dynamically load the search engine and propagate it to the top of the searchbar's menu as the current engine.