Search Bar / Open Search Plugin Issues

Discussion of bugs in Mozilla Firefox
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mwalden
Posts: 23
Joined: August 20th, 2009, 8:01 am

Search Bar / Open Search Plugin Issues

Post by mwalden »

Hello,

I am reporting these issues from a machine running Firefox 50.1.0 (32-bit) on Windows 7 SP1.

I am posting the following four issues here with the hope that someone will fix these issues, or forward them to someone who will fix them. I am not interested in getting involved with https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ at this time.


Limited number of search engines issue

With a narrow search bar there is no way to use over about 56 open search plugins since there are no scroll bars to gain access to them. They get cut-off at the bottom of the screen. I have over 100 open search plugins and want to keep a narrow width search bar. Please fix this oversight in design.


Restore Default Search Engines issue

On the "about:preferences#search" page, the "Restore Default Search Engines" button is always grayed out. Please fix this button.


Adding an on-line search engine issue

In a Firefox installation without any added search engines, navigate to "https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... h/?atype=4" in the current tab and open the search bar drop-down by clicking the magnifying glass on the left and choose "Add "Firefox Add-ons"" (which may be cut-off on the right). Doing this will add "Firefox Add-ons" to the search engine list and the associated search.json.mozlz4 file in the Profile Folder but it will not appear in the searchplugins folder under the Profile Folder as an .xml file. This behavior does not match the way it was in earlier versions of Firefox (I am unsure as to how long ago this change occurred). As far as I am concerned, this is a bug. Please fix this so that an on-line added search engine appears as an .xml file in the searchplugins folder under the Profile Folder when added.


searchplugins folder issue

When adding, editing, or deleting search engine .xml files in the searchplugins folder under the Profile Folder, no changes will register in Firefox even after a restart. I have discovered that I can force Firefox to register the changes if I delete the search.json.mozlz4 file in the Profile Folder and then do a restart of Firefox. This manual manner of making changes register should not be required. Please make Firefox recognize when changes occur in the searchplugins folder and reflect those changes in the search.json.mozlz4 file.


Thanks,
Michael
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DanRaisch
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Re: Search Bar / Open Search Plugin Issues

Post by DanRaisch »

We can't make any of the changes to Firefox that you are asking for. That's because, in case it's not clear from the statement in the right hand column of this page, we are not Mozilla. This forum is not run by or formally associated with Mozilla. We're an independent user-helping-user community.

If you think those differences from the way you think Firefox should work are actually bugs and not just differences of opinion, you should take the time to post a bug or feature request to Bugzilla.
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the-edmeister
Posts: 32249
Joined: February 25th, 2003, 12:51 am
Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Re: Search Bar / Open Search Plugin Issues

Post by the-edmeister »

mwalden wrote:Hello,


Adding an on-line search engine issue

In a Firefox installation without any added search engines, navigate to "https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... h/?atype=4" in the current tab and open the search bar drop-down by clicking the magnifying glass on the left and choose "Add "Firefox Add-ons"" (which may be cut-off on the right). Doing this will add "Firefox Add-ons" to the search engine list and the associated search.json.mozlz4 file in the Profile Folder but it will not appear in the searchplugins folder under the Profile Folder as an .xml file. This behavior does not match the way it was in earlier versions of Firefox (I am unsure as to how long ago this change occurred). As far as I am concerned, this is a bug. Please fix this so that an on-line added search engine appears as an .xml file in the searchplugins folder under the Profile Folder when added.


searchplugins folder issue

When adding, editing, or deleting search engine .xml files in the searchplugins folder under the Profile Folder, no changes will register in Firefox even after a restart. I have discovered that I can force Firefox to register the changes if I delete the search.json.mozlz4 file in the Profile Folder and then do a restart of Firefox. This manual manner of making changes register should not be required. Please make Firefox recognize when changes occur in the searchplugins folder and reflect those changes in the search.json.mozlz4 file.
Not Bugs, but rather massive changes to the Search scheme back in Dec 2014.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/3 ... easenotes/

Major changes to search engine agreements / commissions paid to Mozilla for search engine placement in Firefox and related files to the Search features came in Firefox 34.0.5. I suspect that some minor fiddling was done in Firefox 38, too. The "supplied" search engines are "locked" into the omni.ja file which can be easily changed by Mozilla as agreements change or are added as new agreements are made; that location also stops malware from changing any of the "supplied" search engines; the "supplied" search engines are unique to specific localizations in most cases, along with which search engine is made the "default". Each new update release gets a new omni.ja file, allowing Mozilla to change or add "supplied" search engines as needed every 6 weeks. But none of that prevents the user from installing their own choice of search engines or selecting their choice for the "default search engine".


The searchplugins folder is no longer used; as new search plugins are installed they get written to the search.json file, which lies untouched after a user would update from 34.0.5 to 35 (or maybe that was 38 to 39, I don't recall exactly when that change happened). The update wrote any existing search.xml files to the search.json file and didn't remove either the folder or the xml files. I happen to have 29 search-engine .xml files in the Profile from before the changes were made in back in Fx 34.0.5; I "lost" one temporarily due the "name" being the same as one of the "supplied" search engines, which take priority over any user installed or modified search-engine .xml files. To fix that search engine that I had modified years ago I just added a character (a hypen) to change the "name" slightly and then deleted the search.json file so Firefox could "build" a new search.json (or maybe it was the search.json.mozlz4 file that I deleted ??) the next time I opened that Profile and that search engine was back. BTW, that search.json.mozlz4 file appears to get updated daily.

When a new search engine is installed, the same type of .xml file is used, but during the course of it being installed the .xml file "disappears" and the contents of that .xml file are written to the search.json file. Unfortunately that makes it impossible for the user to edit an .xml file as was possible before Fx 34 versions. Now-a-days when I want a modified search engine I go to the MyCroft Project website - http://mycroftproject.com/ - and create a new search engine based upon one already posted there and then install that "new" search engine. Royal pain-in-the-ass, but it is something "you" can work with - not a "game changer".

Another change in the new One Click search scheme that has really pissed-off many users is the new action of how the search engines are changed or selected and that no "name" for the search engine which is selected appears in the Search Bar. I use this UserStyle - https://userstyles.org/styles/122214/fi ... firefox-43 - to have a "retro" appearance in the Search Bar, which gives you like 9 configuration parameters that you can select for your own "search style".

.
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serj.kzv
Posts: 5
Joined: March 24th, 2018, 11:58 am

Re: Search Bar / Open Search Plugin Issues

Post by serj.kzv »

Since Firefox version 57 and higher, you can edit search.json.mozlz4 file that is placed inside Firefox's profile directory. This file contains search engine list. There's Firefox addon to read or compress .mozlz4 text files https://addons.mozilla.org/ru/firefox/a ... zlz4-edit/
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LIMPET235
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Re: Search Bar / Open Search Plugin Issues

Post by LIMPET235 »

Thanks but this thread died in Jan, 2017.
Locking due to old age.
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