Adding A Custom Search Engine To Firefox [closed] - firefox

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I need to add a custom search engine to Firefox. I have a name and a search URL. How do I add those to the available search providers?

Answer 1

If you are just trying to search a certain site from the address bar, you do not have to create any OpenSearch XML.
You can add a bookmark with %s as a placeholder, and give it a keyword. The subsequent search terms will fill into the placeholder. For an example that searches Stack Overflow, put these fields into a "New Bookmark:"
Field
Value
Name
Search Stack Overflow
Location
https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%s
Tags
development (your relevant tags)
Keyword
so
Description
To perform a search, type so How to exit Vim into the address bar and hit return.
If you have also added search engines in Chrome, you will recognize the same %s placeholder that is used in chrome://settings/searchEngines. I do not know, but it may be that Chrome also uses bookmarks like Firefox under the hood.

Answer 2

Here are the steps:
Create an XML file containing information about your search engine like ShortName, Description, URL, etc. (Example file)
Give a name to that XML file and put it in one of these files:
Available just to you
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXXXXXX.default\searchplugins
Available to anyone on the computer
%PROGRAM_FILES%\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins
Modify Firefox's preferences file at %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\XXXXXXXX.default\prefs.js. Simply add/modify this line:
user_pref("browser.search.selectedEngine", "engine_name");
There is no need to modify a sqlite database file manually.
The new search engine will be added automatically after restarting Firefox.

Answer 3

You can also use this opensearch Mycroft Project
It has everything already created just enter the values into textbox and and you have the XML code; and you can install the search engine directly in the browser from there.
You can also submit your website search engine, and search for (and use) a search engine submitted by another user.

Answer 4

The easiest way to add new search engines is via the "Add to Search Bar" add-on, simply right click on the search form on the webpage you want to add, then "Add to Search Bar" and it will show up in the Search Bar:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3682

Answer 5

I came here to add tldr-pages as a custom search, looking for a way how to do that.
Turns out, that there was a very simple way:
In Firefox, next to the URL-bar, there is a search-bar with a magnifying-glass. If that magnifying-glass has a PLUS on it, the page you are looking at offers its own openSearch.xml-file.
hit the search-box
a pop-up opens
find the line that says "Add" at the bottom and
click it
That is how I solved my initial problem and maybe it solves yours, too.

Answer 6

Make sure that your & is escaped as &
Firefox will NOT activate the search engine that are broken in format
Check https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Creating_OpenSearch_plugins_for_Firefox#Troubleshooting_TipsJust put a right xml file in right place,it will take effect after restarting firefox

Answer 7

Give this a try.
http://www.investintech.com/resources/blog/archives/5263-address-bar-search-engine.html
Using Iceweasel (Linux), should work for Firefox too.
Tried it for about 30 sites that i had with Chrome/Chromium.
Pro:
Works!
Cons:
Too much manual work.

Answer 8

This helped for me on Firefox v50:
Close Firefox.
Delete in profile of Firefox: search.json, search.json.mozlz4
Copy your OpenSearch from the searchplugins folder.
Add an entry in search-metadata.json:
"[profile]/your-opensearch.xml": {
"alias": "your-opensearch",
"order": 25
}