521981 - [be] Search engine setup for Firefox Mobile for Belarusian

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Mozilla Localizations :: be / Belarusian, defect)

Description

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

You've indicated an interest in participating in the localization of mobile Firefox (aka Fennec). We want to ship Fennec with a good list of search engines for Belarusian. As the technical details of implementation are being worked on, we'd like to start the discussion about the choice of search engines. This bug is about agreeing on a set of search engines, and will not tackle the implementation (at least not yet).

First, the localization team and Staś will look at the market for the locale and come up with a good set of search providers. The guidelines for making recommendations are on https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n:Mobile/Produ

ctization. You're welcome to suggest engines already shipped in desktop Firefox for Belarusian, if they fit well in the categories outlined on the wiki.

For en-US, we currently use the following set, which may serve as an inspiration:
Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Yahoo, Twitter.

Note that according to the guidelines, for some categories it may be better to leave them empty than to ship with en engine that's irrelevant or unavailable in your region.

After we decided on a particular search engine, we will need to test it in Fennec. You can test on a mobile device and on the desktop (download the builds from <http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mobile/nightly/>). Staś will help with testing on a device, too. If the service works fine, Staś will contact the owner and ask for permission, and for specifics like proper search flags. $name, we'll likely need your help to at least get the contact information if we don't have them already.

We don't know the implementation details yet, so for now, please don't create patches nor land anything. We will keep you posted as we figure out the how's and when's.

Thanks.

Comment 1

[Seth Bindernagel]

Hi Guys:  Just a friendly reminder, as we move closer to the general availability date for Fennec in mid-December, has your team had any chance to consider search providers?  Thanks!

Comment 2

[Siarhei]

Here is a list for 'be' locale:

google
yahoo
twitter
be.wikipedia.org
be-x-old.wikipedia.org
ru.wikipedia.org-be
tut.by
yandex.ru-be

They are the same to Firefox ones (see bug 388035) + twitter

Comment 3

[Seth Bindernagel]

Thanks, Siarhei.  I would like to reduce the number of search plugins for Fennec.  Would you be OK with that?  Do we need Google, Yahoo, and Yandex?

Comment 4

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

We should try to reduce the number of engines on this list, as Seth says.

I think we could start with the following basic set of 3 engines:

- global:  google
- reference: be.wikipedia.org (let's only use one wikipedia plugin)
- social: twitter

and then try to add one or two engines (e-commerce/local) if we find good candidates.

Looks like tut.by is a big Belarusian portal. Siarhei, does it offer any local ("around-me") search features for Belarusian users?

Comment 5

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

Attachment: Bootstrapping search engines with Google, localized Wikipedia and Twitter

Here's a patch resetting the mobile/searchplugins/ directory to a minimal set of search engines that we would like to ship your locale with. Please read this comment carefully before you land this patch.

*Important*: There has been a change to how we use the  <Description/> elements present in the plug-ins (see bug 528655 and bug 529869). We want to emphasize that the search is integrated with the browser to better reflect what a search plugin is and what it does. You will need to edit the Wikipedia plug-in before you commit this patch. Please read <https://wiki.mozilla.org/L10n:Integrated_Search_Instructions> for detailed instructions.

For Google and Twitter, we don't have to copy the XML files to your mobile/searchplugins/ directory. Plugins identical to en-US are pulled from source automatically. It's enough to put the engine's name in list.txt for this to work (which I did). I also updated the Wikipedia plug-in to use a bigger icon, see bug 517997 for details.

Please edit the Wikipedia plug-in and commit this patch before you opt-in in the mozilla.dev.l10n newsgroup. Opt-ins without this patch will not be taken. This does not mean that we don't want to include other search engines. On the contrary, the work and the discussion will continue in this bug until we choose a good set of search engines for your locale. Then, you will be able to opt in again, so that in the final release we include more search engines than the mineral set from this patch.

This patch is simply meant to reset your mobile/searchplugins directory so that we keep the repository clean and happy.

Thanks for understanding!

Comment 6

[Siarhei]

(In reply to comment #5)

Ok. Let it be.

Comment 7

[Siarhei]

(In reply to comment #4)
> 
> Looks like tut.by is a big Belarusian portal. Siarhei, does it offer any local
> ("around-me") search features for Belarusian users?

Yes, tut.by is a big Belarusian portal. It offers search in Belarussian sites.

It is better to keep it in the list.

Comment 8

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

Hi Siarhei,

We'd like to wrap up the remaining requirements to add Belarusian to the Fennec multilocale build for Firefox 28. What remains to be done for productization? Looking at your repo, there have been landings for search engines productization. Are you still happy with those search engines or would you like to revist and make changes?

Comment 9

[Siarhei]

Hi,

Here is a list of search plugins:

google
be.wikipedia.org
be-x-old.wikipedia.org
ru.wikipedia.org-be
tut.by
yandex.by
yahoo

Comment 10

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #9)
> Hi,
> 
> Here is a list of search plugins:
> 
> google
> be.wikipedia.org
> be-x-old.wikipedia.org
> ru.wikipedia.org-be
> tut.by
> yandex.by
> yahoo

Thanks Siarhei! Are we currently shipping tut.by in the Belarusian localization of Firefox desktop? We may need you to contact them to both notify them and ask their approval to include it in Fennec.

Comment 11

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff] from comment #10)
> 
> Thanks Siarhei! Are we currently shipping tut.by in the Belarusian
> localization of Firefox desktop? We may need you to contact them to both
> notify them and ask their approval to include it in Fennec.

Yes, we are. We got the approval for Firefox desktop.

Comment 12

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #11)
> (In reply to Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff] from comment #10)
> > 
> > Thanks Siarhei! Are we currently shipping tut.by in the Belarusian
> > localization of Firefox desktop? We may need you to contact them to both
> > notify them and ask their approval to include it in Fennec.
> 
> Yes, we are. We got the approval for Firefox desktop.

Oh good! Would you be willing to contact them again for Fennec? Since it's a different product on a different platform, it will be equally as important to get their approval for being added to Fennec.

Thank you

Comment 13

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff] from comment #12)

Would you like to write an approval request yourself?

Comment 14

[Siarhei]

I sent a request to a tut.by representative.

Comment 15

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #14)
> I sent a request to a tut.by representative.

Sorry Siarhei, I was planning to respond to this today. Thank you for sending the request.

Comment 16

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

Attachment: Re_ Fwd_ Authorization to include search.tut.by as a default search-plug into Fennec.eml

Authorization from tut.by to include it in Fennec.

Comment 17

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #14)
> I sent a request to a tut.by representative.

Awesome work, Siarhei! :-)

Flod, can you take it from here?

Comment 18

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

I'll need Pike to take a look at bug 984768 before creating a patch for this one.

@Siarhei
Please don't change productization files like that ;-)

Comment 19

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

> google
> be.wikipedia.org
> be-x-old.wikipedia.org
> ru.wikipedia.org-be
> tut.by
> yandex.by
> yahoo

I have two questions before creating a patch.

Can you explain why there are 3 versions of Wikipedia? 7 searchplugins on mobile are a lot, and I'd like to be sure we're actually adding value to users by shipping all 3 versions. What's the difference between be and be-x-old?

tut.by: sorry for not realizing this before sending the email to ask permission. The current icon is 16px, we need a 32px icon for Mobile, even better if they can provide also 64px and 256px. I tried to Google for this image but could find only 16px icons.

Comment 20

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #19)
The difference is described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_Wikipedia.

Belarusian language was de facto forbidden for a long time. Almost all Belarusian schools were closed, especially in cities/towns. Russian language are used in Belarus almost in all spheres. No wonder that most people use mix of Russian and Belarusian. They are Russian educated and sometimes prefer Russian version of Wikipedia. 
That is why it is included.

I asked a tut.by representative if they can provide a bigger icon.

Can we exclude yahoo then? It is not very popular and it doesn't support Belarusian.

Comment 21

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #20)
> (In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #19)
> The difference is described at
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_Wikipedia.
> 
> Belarusian language was de facto forbidden for a long time. Almost all
> Belarusian schools were closed, especially in cities/towns. Russian language
> are used in Belarus almost in all spheres. No wonder that most people use
> mix of Russian and Belarusian. They are Russian educated and sometimes
> prefer Russian version of Wikipedia. 
> That is why it is included.
> 
> I asked a tut.by representative if they can provide a bigger icon.
> 
> Can we exclude yahoo then? It is not very popular and it doesn't support
> Belarusian.

I think excluding Yahoo is fine. There's no requirement to keep it according to partnership agreements (as far as I know). Hopefully we hear from tut.by soon.

Comment 22

[Siarhei]

Attachment: search.tut.by icon 256x256 px

I got number of search.tut.by icons including 256px. I am going to provide a patch.

Comment 23

[Siarhei]

Attachment: add.tut.by.patch

Here is a patch for adding search.tut.by.

Comment 24

[Siarhei]

Can I add be-x-old.wikipedia.org, yandex.by and remove twitter?
So the final list would be the following one:
google
be.wikipedia.org
be-x-old.wikipedia.org
tut.by
yandex.by

Comment 25

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Comment on attachment 8397441 [details] [diff] [review]
add.tut.by.patch

Review of attachment 8397441 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

This is not going to work: icon needs to be 32px, but width and height set to 16px, and data source can't contain % on mobile.

If I understand your message correctly, you got also the 32px icon. Can you attach it to the file?

It will be faster if I provide directly the patch once we have decided what to include. 

Unfortunately this needs to wait at least until next week, because there are some ongoing discussions about must-have search engines.

Comment 26

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #25)
> If I understand your message correctly, you got also the 32px icon. Can you
> attach it to the file?

I meant attach it to the bug.

Comment 27

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #25)
> Comment on attachment 8397441 [details] [diff] [review]
> add.tut.by.patch
> 
> Review of attachment 8397441 [details] [diff] [review]:
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> This is not going to work: icon needs to be 32px, but width and height set
> to 16px, and data source can't contain % on mobile.
> 
> If I understand your message correctly, you got also the 32px icon. Can you
> attach it to the file?
> 
> It will be faster if I provide directly the patch once we have decided what
> to include. 
> 
> Unfortunately this needs to wait at least until next week, because there are
> some ongoing discussions about must-have search engines.

It looks strange. I generated it from the attached image using http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/cgi/data/data described at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/data_URIs. Gvenview reports image size 256x256. Firefox also reports 256x256.

Comment 28

[Siarhei]

Attachment: search.tut.by icon 64x64

Comment 29

[Siarhei]

Attachment: search.tut.by icon 32x32

Comment 30

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #27)
> It looks strange. I generated it from the attached image using
> http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/cgi/data/data described at
> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/data_URIs. Gvenview reports image
> size 256x256. Firefox also reports 256x256.

I know it's strange, but the % is a bug in Fennec, and we need to use a 32px resized to 16px by setting width/height.

As soon as I have more info about searchplugins, I'll provide a patch (for sure before middle of April).

Comment 31

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Attachment: bug521981v2.patch

We've received a request to include in localized builds some searchplugins currently shipping in en-US.

This patch adds 2 more items (Bing, Yahoo) to your list from comment 24. Does this sound OK? Also, do you think that Amazon.com could be useful in this list?

If you have an Android device, could you try the new searchplugin installing them from this page?
http://l10n.mozilla-community.org/~flod/testsp/

I did a quick test and everything seems to work normally. I switched tut.by to UTF-8, based on the toolbar they ship on their website.

Comment 32

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #31)
> Created attachment 8402778 [details] [diff] [review]
> bug521981v2.patch
> 
> We've received a request to include in localized builds some searchplugins
> currently shipping in en-US.
> 
> This patch adds 2 more items (Bing, Yahoo) to your list from comment 24.
> Does this sound OK? Also, do you think that Amazon.com could be useful in
> this list?
> 
> If you have an Android device, could you try the new searchplugin installing
> them from this page?
> http://l10n.mozilla-community.org/~flod/testsp/
> 
> I did a quick test and everything seems to work normally. I switched tut.by
> to UTF-8, based on the toolbar they ship on their website.

I tried the plugins. There were two problems:
1) Wikipedia plugins have the same icon
2) I couldn't install yandex.by. Firefox complained that it couldn't install the plugin since a plugin with same name exists. I use Russian locale since Android locale is Russian, that I can't change because Belarasian is not supported by Android.

Is there any way to change Firefox locale without changing Android locale?

Comment 33

[Siarhei]

Firefox complains about existing plugin even after it deletion.

Comment 34

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #31)
> 
> We've received a request to include in localized builds some searchplugins
> currently shipping in en-US.
> 
> This patch adds 2 more items (Bing, Yahoo) to your list from comment 24.
> Does this sound OK? Also, do you think that Amazon.com could be useful in
> this list?
> 
I don't like the idea about including Bing, Yahoo. They don't have Belarusian versions.

Amazon.com may not be very useful. Belarus has a very strict limit for receiving purchases/parcel via post. A person can receive goods for 120 euro a month. Goods exceeding the limit is a subject to a rather big custom duty.

I don't take a strong objection to including the plugins. They can be *appended* to the list.

Comment 35

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #32)
> 1) Wikipedia plugins have the same icon

There's nothing we can do here, Wikipedia must have that icon, and names are not displayed on Android. That's also the reason I asked about having so many Wikipedia searchplugins.

> 2) I couldn't install yandex.by. Firefox complained that it couldn't install
> the plugin since a plugin with same name exists. I use Russian locale since
> Android locale is Russian, that I can't change because Belarasian is not
> supported by Android.
> 
> Is there any way to change Firefox locale without changing Android locale?

Not yet, there's work going on but it's a long road.

Can you try installing a single locale build for Belarusian from here?
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mobile/nightly/latest-mozilla-aurora-android-l10n/fennec-30.0a2.be.android-arm.apk

You'll need to enable the installation of .apk from outside Google Play in Android's settings.

> I don't take a strong objection to including the plugins. They can be *appended* to the list.
The list above is just in alphabetical order to make it easier to read. I'd say we keep Amazon out, and in the next version of the patch I'll remove Yahoo and Bing from being 2° and 3°.

Comment 36

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Siarhei from comment #32)
> (In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #31)
> > Created attachment 8402778 [details] [diff] [review]
> > bug521981v2.patch
> > 
> > We've received a request to include in localized builds some searchplugins
> > currently shipping in en-US.
> > 
> > This patch adds 2 more items (Bing, Yahoo) to your list from comment 24.
> > Does this sound OK? Also, do you think that Amazon.com could be useful in
> > this list?
> > 
> > If you have an Android device, could you try the new searchplugin installing
> > them from this page?
> > http://l10n.mozilla-community.org/~flod/testsp/
> > 
> > I did a quick test and everything seems to work normally. I switched tut.by
> > to UTF-8, based on the toolbar they ship on their website.
> 
> I tried the plugins. There were two problems:
> 1) Wikipedia plugins have the same icon
> 2) I couldn't install yandex.by. Firefox complained that it couldn't install
> the plugin since a plugin with same name exists. I use Russian locale since
> Android locale is Russian, that I can't change because Belarasian is not
> supported by Android.
> 
> Is there any way to change Firefox locale without changing Android locale?

I'm actually very surprised to hear this. Our research indicated that Belarusian was a supported locale on Android. What Android device do you own?

It is possible to switch firefox locales independent of Android locale and that feature will be delivered in Firefox 31 or 32. Having Belarusian ship this cycle, will help us to test and validate the feature once it hits Aurora.

In the mean time, testing the single-locale build will be the best way to test, as flod has mentioned above.

Comment 37

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #35)
> (In reply to Siarhei from comment #32)
> > 1) Wikipedia plugins have the same icon
> 
> There's nothing we can do here, Wikipedia must have that icon, and names are
> not displayed on Android. That's also the reason I asked about having so
> many Wikipedia searchplugins.
> 
Let's left be.wikipedia.org and remove other wikipedia plugins then. There is not good for having three plugins without having possibility to distinguish them.

Comment 38

[Siarhei]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #35)

> 
> > I don't take a strong objection to including the plugins. They can be *appended* to the list.
> The list above is just in alphabetical order to make it easier to read. I'd
> say we keep Amazon out, and in the next version of the patch I'll remove
> Yahoo and Bing from being 2° and 3°.

Ok.

Comment 39

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Attachment: bug521981v3.patch

New patch removing be-x-old.wikipedia.org, and B/Y from search order per discussion.

Comment 40

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Landed
http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/l10n/mozilla-aurora/be/rev/b330221fae3a
http://hg.mozilla.org/l10n-central/be/rev/b330221fae3a

@Siarhei
Please be careful in not overwriting (or changing) these files when you update your localization.

Comment 41

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

Forgot to create tracking bug for the release. Flagging this bug for adding release of Belarusian to Fennec 30 release notes.

Comment 42

[Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo]

Updated the note on locales added to FF Android 30: "Added new locales (be, es-AR, es-MX, lv, ms)"

Comment 43

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] from comment #42)
> Updated the note on locales added to FF Android 30: "Added new locales (be,
> es-AR, es-MX, lv, ms)"

id is in there too, right? It should be according to bug 960060

Comment 44

[Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] use ?needinfo]

(In reply to Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff] from comment #43)
> (In reply to Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] from comment #42)
> > Updated the note on locales added to FF Android 30: "Added new locales (be,
> > es-AR, es-MX, lv, ms)"
> 
> id is in there too, right? It should be according to bug 960060

Yes - there were two notes, one under the wrong tag, this has been updated

Comment 45

[Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff]]

(In reply to Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] from comment #44)
> (In reply to Jeff Beatty [:gueroJeff] from comment #43)
> > (In reply to Lukas Blakk [:lsblakk] from comment #42)
> > > Updated the note on locales added to FF Android 30: "Added new locales (be,
> > > es-AR, es-MX, lv, ms)"
> > 
> > id is in there too, right? It should be according to bug 960060
> 
> Yes - there were two notes, one under the wrong tag, this has been updated

Thanks!