OpenSearch

An OpenSearch example

Here is an implementation of an OpenSearch plugin for IE 7 and Firefox 2. I'm using my blogs search as the target search engine.

Create the Description Document:

OpenSearch Description Document

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"

                       xmlns:moz="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/">

    <ShortName>Bruces Blog Search</ShortName>

    <Description>Search my Blog.</Description>

    <Tags>brucestockwell.net Blog Search</Tags>

    <Contact>bruce.stockwell@gmail.com</Contact>

    <Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,R0lGODlhMAAwA...</Image>

    <!-- <Url type="application/atom+xml" template="http://www.brucestockwell.net/blog/?s={searchTerms}"/> -->

    <Url type="text/html" template="http://www.brucestockwell.net/blog/?s={searchTerms}"/>

    <!-- <moz:SearchForm>searchFormURL</moz:SearchForm> -->

</OpenSearchDescription>

You can encode your image for the search plugin here.

The url elements template attribute will contain the full url path of the search with parameters added. A quick look at my browser address bar after a blog search for xml reveals:

http://www.brucestockwell.net/blog/?s=xml

xml is the search term. We simply remove the literal value and add add the parameter:

http://www.brucestockwell.net/blog/?s={searchTerms}

{searchTerms} will be replaced by the client when preparing the search url.

Interesting note:
What the Url element is doing is defining a search template. That could be any search template. I could have just as easily targeted my whole site via a google search like this:

Alternate Search Engine

<Url type="text/html" template="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:brucestockwell.net {searchTerms}"/>

Add the Auto Discovery link to your page:

OpenSearch link element

<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Bruces Blog Search" href="http://brucestockwell.net/osd.xml" />

Resources

Created by: admin last modification: Monday 07 of April, 2008 [01:49:54 UTC] by admin

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