TW Blog :: Archives for November 2004

Extending Firefox Search Plugins

Relates to Accessibility and Firefox and Co

What makes Firefox so great is the unlimited scope for customisation. Take the Firefox search plugin - a great utility for stockpiling search engines from MyCroft. But it doesn't have to just be a search tool, for plugin files can easily be composed to extend the functionality to your requirements. As an example, placing the following snippet in a src file in the searchplugins directory below Firefox's installation route will give quick access to Jens Meiert's User Interface Test Resources.

<search
    name="UI Tests"
    description="UI Accessibility and Validity Site Tests"
    action="http://uitest.com/en/check/results/"
    method="GET">
<input name="url" user>
</search>

Now a domain can be entered in the search box to generate UITR's comprehensive set of links to the major validation sites. If the site to be tested is already being viewed a Conquery could be used instead to avoid entering the URL string:

<search
  name="UI Tests"
  description="UI Accessibility and Validity Site Tests"
  action="http://uitest.com/en/check/results/"
  method="GET">
<input name="url" value="[:url]" label="Enter URL">
</search>

This should be placed in a cqr file in the searchplugins directory.

Posted on Saturday, Nov 13, 2004 at 14:54:54.