236587 - Allow bookmark/search keyword searches from the search bar / integrate toolbar and bookmark keyword searches

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Search, enhancement, P5)

Description

[Toralf Lund]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040207 Firefox/0.8
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040207 Firefox/0.8

The "keywords" mechanism and the search field/"mycroft" plugins seem to offer
much of the same functionality. I'm thinking maybe this is against the design
philosophy of firefox. Shouldn't there be only one way of adding "quick"
searches, or at least a common backend for the two mechnisms?

In terms of functionality, I would at least want closer integration between
"search engines" and "keywords" quick search, so that I could do:
1. Somehow access the "keyword" bookmarks via the search field instead of the
location entry.
2. Access search engines via the location field as if they were "keyword" searches.

In particular, I'd really like 1) to be implemented. I find the keyword
mechanism somewhat cumbersome to use today because I have to remove the URL text
all the time.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[Neil Paris]

Confirming this bug. It seems to be an interesting/useful idea.

I talked with bsmedberg on IRC (also cc'ing him), but only parts of the
reporters suggestions are being considered here.

The first issue, about adding bookmark keywords to the search bar, is the part
of this bug that might be pursued. However, if anything would come of it,
accessing bookmark keywords from the Location bar (the current behavior) would
*NOT* be removed. (I'm updating the summary to reflect that)

The second suggestion from c#0 will not be added here. Search engines can
already be given keywords and accessed from the Location bar.

Comment 2

[u69748]

Bug 378553 – Expose search engine alias functionality
was fixed.
Still need to be fixed this?

Comment 3

[YUKI "Piro" Hiroshi]

My addon "Second Search" https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/second-search/ completely does this. It treats bookmark keywords as fake search engines. However it will die after XUL is ended. Thus I'm planning to file bugs for new WebExtensions APIs required by the addon - custom popup panels, event handling around the search bar, and so on.

On the other hand, fixing of this bug (and another bug 261124) seems more smarter solution than adding many new WebExtensions APIs. Migrating bookmark keywords to search engines (they can be generated by Firefox automatically) will satisfy my half motivation of the addon. Which is the better way?

Comment 4

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

We plan to migrate keywords, but I can't give you an ETA atm. If a WebExtension looks useful for more than just this purpose, may be worth suggesting it regardless.

Comment 5

[YUKI "Piro" Hiroshi]

I've opened the bug 1271945 to implement WebExtensions-based addon for the feature.

Comment 6

[Tyler Szabo]

I came across this while attempting to report an issue related with keyword search; I think this can be closed as implemented.

Comment 7

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to Tyler Szabo from comment #6)

I came across this while attempting to report an issue related with keyword search; I think this can be closed as implemented.

This bug is about making bookmark keyword searches available from the search bar. We don't allow that yet, hence this is still open.

Comment 8

[Ryan VanderMeulen [:RyanVM]]

Reverting spam.