As an avid Firefox user I rely on its inbuilt search box to help me navigate the web.  One of its best features is its ability to add support additional websites you are interested in.  The Mycroft project contains an extensive list of compatible plugins covering thousands of websites.  But if the site you want isn’t listed there don’t despair – its easy to create your own!

I’ve been using Fishpond to buy books and DVDs because they are consistently among the cheapest online stores in Australia.  To make it easier to shop there I decided to create a search plugin for Firefox. 

The whole process was pretty painless:

1. Go to the Mycroft search plugin submission page and start entering basic description, classification and author information for the plugin.
2. Choose an icon for the search plugin.  Typically the best choice is the favicon for the website you are searching.  You can download it by opening the favicon.ico file in the root directory for the website. e.g.
   http://www.fishpond.com.au/favicon.ico
3. Open a new tab, go to the website you are building the plugin for and execute a search using a simple term.  Once the search page appears copy the URL from the location bar.  In my case I searched on the term "TEST" and got the following URL: (Note: Single URL line wrapped)
   http://www.fishpond.com.au/advanced_search_result.php?
keywords=TEST&x=50&y=13
4. Replace the search term (e.g. TEST) with the value "{searchTerms}".  This should be pasted into the "Search URL" field on the submission form.  e.g. (Note: Single URL line wrapped)
   http://www.fishpond.com.au/advanced_search_result.php?
keywords={searchTerms}&x=50&y=13
5. The "Search Form" field needs to be filled in with the page containing the search results.  This will be the search URL minus everything to the right of the question. e.g. http://www.fishpond.com.au/advanced_search_result.php
6. Hit the "Generate Plugin" button, look at the generated XML, and if it looks OK hit the "Submit" button.
7. If all goes well you will be taken to a page showing your submitted plugins.  Install and test the new plugin, and if it searches as expected you are done!

The whole process takes less than 5 minutes and you will now be able to search this site from the convenience of your browser’s search box!

Note: Please see the Mozilla developer page if you need more detail on how to create OpenSearch plugins.  You might also consider adding your new search plugin to Opensearchlist or Searchplugins so more people can find it.

Launchy is an application launcher that can help you quickly access programs without cluttering your desktop with icons or toolbars. By default it indexes all of the programs listed in your Start Menu, and with a few keystrokes lets you start any of those programs. No mouse input is required.

It also has plugin support so third party developers can extend its capabilities. Weby and Runner are two plugins that are part of the Launchy standard install. Using these we will integrate with Windows Desktop Search to launch local searches.

Windows Desktop Search (WDS) queries are typically run from Windows Explorer or the Windows Search Deskbar. Both options are easy enough to use, but for the power user they just add desktop clutter or slow down access to WDS. WDS 2 also offered a way to initiate searches from the command line. With WDS 3 the command line option has been replaced with the less intuitive search-ms protocol.

Note: If you are unsure which version of WDS you have, please try the Windows Desktop Search 3.x instructions first.

Step by Step: Configuring for Windows Desktop Search 3.x

To configure Launchy for Windows Desktop Search 3.x:

1. Invoke Launchy (default shortcut: Alt + Space)
2. Right click on the Launchy window and select Options from the menu
3. Click on the Plugins tab, and ensure Weby is selected in the “Available Plugins” list
4. Select the “+” button
5. Fill in the new row as depicted below
6. Click OK to save the settings

Update: The query string requires an ampersand character (&) at the end to avoid a trailing slash being appended to your query.

Step by Step: Configuring for Windows Desktop Search 2.x

To configure Launchy for Windows Desktop Search 2.x:

1. Invoke Launchy (default shortcut: Alt + Space)
2. Right click on the Launchy window and select Options from the menu
3. Click on the Plugins tab, and ensure Runner is selected in the “Available Plugins” list
4. Select the “+” button
5. Fill in the new row as depicted below
6. Click OK to save the settings

Note: If you are unsure which version of WDS you have, or the Runner plugin instructions don’t work for you, you probably have WDS 3.x installed so please remove the Runner configuration entry you just created and try the Weby plugin option instead.

Calling Windows Desktop Search from Launchy

After completing the configuration, searching your hard drive should be as simple as:

1. Invoke Launchy (default shortcut: Alt + Space)
2. Type WDS then press the Tab key
3. Type in your query text then hit Enter

A WDS window should open with your search results populated.