Firefox Search Plugin

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So, I was fiddling around with Firefox and got to wondering about add-ons. And I came to find out that making search engine plugins isn't too hard! So, I made one for EQ2i... It works perfectly for me (and in theory, should work with IE v7+ as well, but I haven't tested it out there yet), complete with search suggestions. Now, maybe it's not a plugin everyone will use, but for folks on slower connections (or those of us who spend alltogether too much time on the wiki for various reasons) it might be a boon. You just click the search box, input your query and if the page exists, bam you're loaded straight to it!

For anyone interested in trying it out, and/or if y'all decide you like it enough to spread it around further, you can go to this Mozilla [ Mycroft Project ] page and find the download/install link there.

Feedback is, of course, very welcome!
-- Mysterious drake 22:04, December 16, 2009 (UTC)

In forum parlance: < bump >

No one has anything to say about this? Or is it just a frivolity for an eccentric user such as myself to have a search plugin for EQ2i? -- Mysterious drake 16:22, December 29, 2009 (UTC)

I haven't checked yours out... EQ2i already has a search plugin by default (with suggestions). I think it's automatically generated by MediaWiki. -- lordebon 16:26, December 29, 2009 (UTC)

Well every time I'd search for an EQ2i plugin through firefox itself, I never found one... which is why I created one and submitted it to the Mycroft project (where they have tons and tons and tons more search plugins -- aside from the "official" or commercially published ones, a la wikipedia or amazon, etc). -- 06:58, December 31, 2009 (UTC)

You are correct. MediaWiki generates its own, automatically. If your browser can use these "plugins", it can also likely detect them, provided the page sends the right meta headers. Each browser is different, in firefox, there is a slight blue (green?) glow behind the search button icon, letting you know a new one was detected on that page (all pages in mediawiki/wikia do this), in newer IE, the little drop menu arrow to the right of the icon should light up orange, and chrome does stuff in a very strange way, you have to right click in the address bar to manage these.

View the source to this very page, and you should see

this opensearch_desc.php file returns a blob of opensearch v1.1 compliant xml (same thing that the mycroft stuff stores/generates), that defines what/where the search urls/icons for this site is at. Each page on wikia has this header, and this file will return (automaticlly) the correct urls for THAT wiki.

I have no idea why its not showing up for you, try checking those menus even if there is no glow/color, it might be there without you knowing. -- Uberfuzzy 08:16, December 31, 2009 (UTC).

I used Mysterious drake 's plugin and it worked fine (Firefox 3.5.6, Windows Not 7). However, I already have Recent Changes loaded on to my Bookmarks toolbar, and my unsteady hands find it easier to hit that button and search on this wiki, rather than click on FF's pulldown window for search engines. Janze-Nek 08:52, December 31, 2009 (UTC)