Custom search engines? Topic is solved

[Sessh]

Using v33.4.1 64-bit

My question is does Pale Moon support adding custom search engines? I don't see it where I'd expect to see it (Manage Search Engines, but clicking "Get more search engines" only takes me to the Pale Moon Addon site to add search plugins), so does that mean adding custom search engines are not supported at all? What I was looking to do was add perplexity.ai as a search engine.

Thanks in advance.

[Moonchild]

If the site does not offer a way to integrate it as a search engine, then Pale Moon can't magically do so. Since it seems to be your typical "ai dialog", you can only do so on the website.

If they offer a single-shot search query, then you can create your own search engine entry by providing the query URL (e.g by creating an OpenSearch xml file)

[Sessh]

It looks like the single search query you'd use for such a thing is:
https://www.perplexity.ai/search?q=%s

..which is what I would have used to add it. I wasn't expecting magic.

Never heard of OpenSearch, but I think I found a Mozilla site showing how to make one. How do I integrate it into Pale Moon? Drag and drop like an Addon?

[Moonchild]

which is what I would have used to add it. I wasn't expecting magic.

Well you didn't exactly tell us it was possible Most "AI search" things aren't available outside of a web interface.

How do I integrate it into Pale Moon? Drag and drop like an Addon?

Unfortunately not. You either need to install it from a web server presenting the proper MIME type so it knows to treat it like a searchplugin definition, or you need to drop it into the "searchplugins" folder in your profile folder. The xml files dropped there will be picked up upon restart of the browser.

[Sessh]

Well you didn't exactly tell us it was possible Most "AI search" things aren't available outside of a web interface.

lol Fair enough. I just assume that everyone knows more about AI than me and if I know it, most others probably do. My bad

Unfortunately not. You either need to install it from a web server presenting the proper MIME type so it knows to treat it like a searchplugin definition, or you need to drop it into the "searchplugins" folder in your profile folder. The xml files dropped there will be picked up upon restart of the browser.

I'll just try the searchplugins folder then. Thanks for the help MC.

[frostknight]

Just a heads up too, if this is not false:

browser.privatebrowsing.autostart;

you cannot add new search engines from mycroftproject and many other places too.

Which always puzzles me, because I never had this problem with Basilisk-Browser or Iceweasel-Uxp.

[suzyne]

In case it's of any use or interest, a while back I made a web page that can add a search engine to Pale Moon. By examining the HTML and XML files, you can see what is required for a site to offer the option of adding its search (or any other search if there is the appropriate XML magic) to a visiting browser.

https://fiftynineisprime.com/palemoongooglewebplugin/

[Sessh]

Ok so I don't want this so bad that I want to dump a bunch of time into it, but I'm kinda curious why it's not working for me. I even had perplexity write the XML file just to make sure it wasn't me making an error. I name it OpenSearch.xml (saved in UTF-8) and put it in the searchplugins folder in my default profile, but it doesn't show up in the list of search engines even after a restart. The contents of the XML are as follows:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
    <ShortName>Perplexity AI</ShortName>
    <Description>Search Perplexity AI for answers to your questions.</Description>
    <Url type="text/html" template="https://www.perplexity.ai/?s=o&q={searchTerms}" />
    <Url type="application/json" template="https://www.perplexity.ai/api/search?q={searchTerms}" />
    <Image height="16" width="16">https://www.perplexity.ai/favicon.ico</Image>
    <Query role="example" searchTerms="What is AI?" />
    <Developer>Your Name or Organization</Developer>
    <Attribution>Powered by Perplexity AI</Attribution>
</OpenSearchDescription>

Anything look obviously wrong here? The links / ico all seem to be accessible.

[frostknight]

Oh also after you turn private browsing off, you have to reboot the web browser to add most search engines.... just something i forgot

[suzyne]

Anything look obviously wrong here?

I don't have a deep understanding of how this all works, and my results have been from copying existing files. But looking at the contents of google.xml in the Pale Moon searchplugins folder, it is very different from your file.

Code: Select all

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<os:ShortName>Google</os:ShortName>
<os:Description>Google Search</os:Description>
<os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding>
<os:Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64, blah blah blah have removed the encoded data</os:Image>
<SearchForm>https://www.google.com/</SearchForm>
<os:Url type="application/x-suggestions+json" method="GET" template="https://suggestqueries.google.com/complete/search?output=firefox&amp;client=firefox&amp;q={searchTerms}" resultDomain="suggestqueries.google.com">
</os:Url><os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://www.google.com/search" resultDomain="google.com">
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
  <os:Param name="ie" value="utf-8"/>
  <os:Param name="oe" value="utf-8"/>
</os:Url>
</SearchPlugin>

[Sessh]

Yeah I was actually looking at that too. I tried editing another one to make it work, but nothing yet. I'll try that google one.

[Sessh]

Based on that formatting, i get this:

Code: Select all

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<os:ShortName>Perplexity AI</os:ShortName>
<os:Description>Search Perplexity AI for answers to your questions.</os:Description>
<os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding>
<os:Image width="16" height="16" type="image/x-icon">https://www.perplexity.ai/favicon.ico</os:Image>
<SearchForm>https://www.perplexity.ai/api/search?q={searchTerms}</SearchForm>
<os:Url type="application/x-suggestions+json" method="GET" template="https://www.perplexity.ai/api/search?q={searchTerms}" resultDomain="perplexity.ai">
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
</os:Url><os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://www.perplexity.ai/?s=o&q={searchTerms}" resultDomain="perplexity.ai">
  <os:Param name="s" value="o"/>
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
</os:Url>
</SearchPlugin>

Still doesn't work. Clean profile or not (copying searchplugins folder to that profile first) and yes, that privatebrowsing.autostart setting was already off.

I don't have a deep understanding either of all this. Not sure if I'm just doing something wrong or it's just not being picked up properly, but it's not a big deal really. I thought it might go smoother than this which is usually a sign of overconfidence, so I shoulda known better. lol

[Moonchild]

if you include "param" to pass parameters to a URL, then you have to remove those from the URL in the template. e.g.:

Code: Select all

<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://www.perplexity.ai/">
  <os:Param name="s" value="o"/>
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
</os:Url>

And you may want to remove the search suggestion URL block if they don't explicitly support that.

[frostknight]

Still doesn't work. Clean profile or not (copying searchplugins folder to that profile first) and yes, that privatebrowsing.autostart setting was already off.

Did you try mycroftproject then to get those search plugins? If it still failed, that is strange. No idea why that would happen. Especially if after making it turning that off, you proceeded to close and reopen palemoon.

[Sessh]

if you include "param" to pass parameters to a URL, then you have to remove those from the URL in the template. e.g.:

Code: Select all

<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://www.perplexity.ai/">
  <os:Param name="s" value="o"/>
  <os:Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
</os:Url>

Removing the parameters from the URL template worked! Now it shows up in the list and works as expected. Thanks again and also to everyone else that replied.

[suzyne]

Yay!