444284 - Sync search engines

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Search, enhancement, P3)

Description

[stazybohorn]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1a1pre) Gecko/2008070603 Minefield/3.1a1pre (like Firefox/3.0)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1a1pre) Gecko/2008070603 Minefield/3.1a1pre (like Firefox/3.0) ID:2008070603

It would be convenient if weave sync-ed search plugins and their history.


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Peter Lairo]

This bug is particularly valuable because it is so hard to find search engines from Firefox's UI: the "get more" link to addons.mozilla.org but the majority and good ones are in mycroft.mozdev.org.

Comment 2

[Igor Velkov]

There are some add-ons for easy cook new search engines with some mouse clicks.

Comment 3

[Michael Kohler [:mkohler]]

This is a mass change. Every comment has "assigned-to-new" in it.

I didn't look through the bugs, so I'm sorry if I change a bug which shouldn't be changed. But I guess these bugs are just bugs that were once assigned and people forgot to change the Status back when unassigning.

Comment 4

[Dawn]

Please incorporate search plugin & search keyword sync into Firefox Sync. This is the most time-consuming aspect of setting up Firefox on new computers (along with add-ons, but that's another issue.)

Comment 8

[Lucian T]

Yes... Search engine settings should be synched. This is a must!

Comment 9

[Aquila]

I'm supporting this motion, I have removed all the original search plugins and added a lot specialized / customized ones. Have them synchronized automatically would be really great.

Comment 10

[nortexoid]

This is an important part of syncing. Opera Sync supports it.

Comment 11

[Martin Stružský]

Months and years have passed and nobody cares about Mozilla users' opinions… There shall come a day when this will lead to all of them switch to Chrome. :-/ Please implement this feature. :-(

Comment 12

[IagoSRL]

I agree with Martin.

I want give an idea to developers about this: If search plugins were saved at 'Places' like bookmarks (that have the same features about assign keyworks and allow '%s' to perform searchs), sync will already work without new efforts on sync system (that involve changes in firefox and changes in the sync server software, I suppose); Can be do it this work, move search plugins to Places?
Search plugins history can be saved at History, inside Places, too.
A remaining problem can be the saved icon and additional information about the search plugin (more on opensearch.org), maybe saving the original url from what plugin was downloaded can be used to download again the plugin xml file when after sync the bookmark/search-plugin.
I'm proposing this without full knowledge of the internal operation, I'm sorry if something have no sense.

For other users like me: just now I use more the keyworks instead of the search-box to perform searches in differents engines, for this I save plugins search-url in my bookmarks (under Quick Searchs default folder, but can be any folder) and I have already sync'ed my 'search bookmarks' (like a replace of search engines). 
The only fault about this tip, is that you will not have 'search suggestions' like in the search box.

I hope this helps.

Comment 13

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

Apparently there has been a lot of recent activity in the search engine service. Unfocused suggests waiting until bug 699856 lands before we attempt to support syncing search engines.

For anyone looking at implementing this, you'll be interested in toolkit/components/search/nsSearchService.js. See also the XML files in the 'searchplugins' directory of the app/profile. Some considerations for implementation include differences in parameters between release channels. See bug 722352. This may preclude syncing the XML files verbatim.

Also, from what I could tell, search engine history is stored in the forms database, which is already syncable. So, I think we just need to sync the search engine providers and history should just work.

Comment 14

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

(In reply to Gregory Szorc [:gps] from comment #13)
> Apparently there has been a lot of recent activity in the search engine
> service. Unfocused suggests waiting until bug 699856 lands before we attempt
> to support syncing search engines.

bug 699856 is step one of multiple steps to remove the use of SQLite in the search service, and make the API async (since it depends on IO!). There's not much use in waiting for it alone, but I don't think you need to wait for it at all - it seems mostly tangential to doing search engine sync.

> For anyone looking at implementing this, you'll be interested in
> toolkit/components/search/nsSearchService.js. See also the XML files in the
> 'searchplugins' directory of the app/profile. Some considerations for
> implementation include differences in parameters between release channels.
> See bug 722352. This may preclude syncing the XML files verbatim.

I think you'll basically always want to avoid syncing app-shipped search plugins, so you shouldn't need to worry about build-specific parameters. Rather than syncing XML files, it would be simpler to sync the JSON cache that's the result of parsing them.

Search service changes will be required for this, almost certainly. Exposing the engine description as JSON and adding the ability to distinguish app-shipped plugins via the nsIBrowserSearchService API seem like good first steps to me.

Comment 15

[kud]

+1.

I would like that search engines are synchronised via Firefox Sync.

Comment 16

[kud]

Plus, it was in the roadmap for 2011.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync/FxSync/Roadmap#Desktop

Comment 17

[Gregory Szorc [:gps]]

:ally will be looking at this once she gets back from vacation.

Comment 18

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Erwann MEST from comment #16)
> Plus, it was in the roadmap for 2011.
> 
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/Sync/FxSync/Roadmap#Desktop

Standard disclaimer: roadmaps are subject to change :D

No plan survives contact with the enemy!

Comment 19

[Lucian T]

Soo!!! We, the users, are the enemy!??! I seeee!!?!
Anyway... still hope this will get done soon!!!!!

Comment 20

[kud]

Ahah, you guys are crazy.

Yeah it'll be great. Thanks :gps, :ally, :rnewman

Comment 21

[Felix Nagel]

(In reply to Gregory Szorc [:gps] from comment #17)
> :ally will be looking at this once she gets back from vacation.

Thats sounds great! I dont like to test Chrome again.

Comment 22

[Russell Golden]

I can't wait for this. This feature is the only thing keeping me on Opera at the moment, with its search engine sync between Opera Desktop and Opera Mobile. I really want to switch back to Firefox full time. Please add!

Comment 23

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

for those playing along at home: https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Anaaktgeboren/SearchEngineSync

Comment 24

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

This has been put on hold due to higher priorities. Unassigning myself.

See wiki for last known state of spec (to help whoever picks this up next)

Comment 25

[Allison Naaktgeboren :ally]

please see :mconnor for future schedule or priority.

Comment 26

[Stop Kicking Cans down roadmaps]

(In reply to :Ally Naaktgeboren from comment #24)
> This has been put on hold due to higher priorities. Unassigning myself.
> 


How long will mozilla kick the can down the roadmap?

Comment 27

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Stop Kicking Cans down roadmaps from comment #26)

> How long will mozilla kick the can down the roadmap?

Firstly, patches are welcome. This is an open-source project[1]; if you consider this feature important, you are encouraged to work on it and submit patches for review and inclusion.

Secondly, we consider a broad array of conflicting engineering, product, and market requirements when prioritizing, resourcing, and ultimately delivering features and products; we have a responsibility to achieve Mozilla's mission, which — like any worthwhile human endeavor — involves making difficult decisions with conflicting inputs and limited resources.

In a world with infinite resources, this addition would already have been built. We don't live in that world. As Ally's thorough notes[2] make clear, this is not a trivial feature; it'll get done when we have time and resources to get it done right.

Thirdly, I encourage you to not hide behind a childish nom de plume, and also to respect Bugzilla Etiquette[3], which asks you to refrain from content-free "me too" and similar remarks. This project succeeds thanks to the contributions of tens of thousands of people who give their time to make the web a better place; please respect both the contribution and their time.


If you have any questions on this, please feel free to come and find me on irc.mozilla.org, #sync.


[1] <https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Introduction>
[2] <https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Anaaktgeboren/SearchEngineSync>
[3] <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html>

Comment 29

[axel.foster-eoagj6zt]

>  This is an open-source project

Interesting response.  Please realize not all responses are replies.


> I encourage [not hiding] behind a childish nom de plume

The OP used a nick.  Where was your "righteous" indignation then?  Some have the good sense not to associate all interweb contributions with RL identity. If you lack this conviction such is yours by liberty by privacy disinterest or weighting commerce- [potential] or hubris more heavily.

Infinite resources?  Should irrational people deem themselves competent [developers]?  Yes, it is clear what you intended to accomplish with your creative English. Even if other than impossible by construction there would be no need for the interweb.  In case you might be saving a similar gem for other attempted witty retorts: A bag of every clock piece shaken will never become reassembled. 


> it'll get done when we have time and resources to get it done right.

obviously not.  you have such already.  see also: irrational, and causality. [1]


> How long will mozilla kick the can down the roadmap?

Given the history of mozilla's willful blindness this is not an inappropriate question.

This is bugzilla where firefox USERS may submit bugs for developers to wend coding skills into patching.  Many users contribute corroboration, or argue for urgency or prioritization.   Suggesting "patches are welcome" as the response is facetious at best, Mr Pot.



[1]
http://conservapedia.com/Cause_and_effect
http://conservapedia.com/Correlation_is_not_causation
http://conservapedia.com/Logical_fallacy

Comment 30

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to axel.foster-eoagj6zt from comment #29)

> The OP used a nick.  Where was your "righteous" indignation then?

I was commenting on the childishness of the one-off complaint account, not the use of a nickname.


> > it'll get done when we have time and resources to get it done right.
> 
> obviously not.  you have such already.  see also: irrational, and causality.

I don't think you have enough information to make that assertion.


> Given the history of mozilla's willful blindness this is not an
> inappropriate question.

I disagree with your phrasing, but if you want a blunt answer: this bug will be "kicked down the roadmap" until:

• a contributor has time to build an implementation that meets the quality and maintenance standards of module peers, or
• a MoCo team deems it important enough to Mozilla's mission to assign a paid resource to be that contributor, or
• the bug is no longer relevant.

If you want to be the contributor, great; hop on IRC and we'll discuss the scope of the work. Otherwise, see Bugzilla Etiquette, item 1.2.

From my perspective, the question was not a serious request for information (though I answered it anyway), but either a childish outburst or an attempt to bully others into action. Neither is acceptable on Bugzilla.


> This is bugzilla where firefox USERS may submit bugs for developers to wend
> coding skills into patching.  Many users contribute corroboration, or argue
> for urgency or prioritization.   Suggesting "patches are welcome" as the
> response is facetious at best, Mr Pot.

I encourage you to read Bugzilla Etiquette, particularly points 1.1 and 1.2, and to more carefully read the second part of my response.

Use Bugzilla voting to express "me too", or "I want this feature". And refrain from implying that contributors have an obligation to build what you want them to build. The bug is filed, it's being tracked, and it will be fixed when it gets fixed.

If you wish to continue this conversation, please do so by emailing me directly, or taking it to IRC. This bug is not the place to discuss work prioritization, so please refrain from making any further comments that are not directly relevant to the implementation of this feature.

Comment 31

[nortexoid]

Chrome and Opera support search engine syncing. You'd think a browser giant like FF (in terms of market share) would have this relatively important (yes, a subjective term) feature already.

Comment 32

[(mostly gone) XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall]]

AFAIK the current Sync Implementation will not be improved/enhanced anymore.

See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/AttachedServices for current (?) Plan(s) and Richards Comments in other Sync Enhancement Bug Reports directly and indirectly confirming above Guess.

Unsure if non-Implementation Talk (like this Comment and above) should go to mozilla.dev.apps.firefox (as Fx currently being the only Sync Consumer) or rather mozilla.dev.identity using the usual Ways?!?

Comment 33

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to XtC4UaLL [:xtc4uall] from comment #32)
> AFAIK the current Sync Implementation will not be improved/enhanced anymore.

Correct. Addressing future user stories is under the PICL umbrella.

> Unsure if non-Implementation Talk (like this Comment and above) should go to
> mozilla.dev.apps.firefox (as Fx currently being the only Sync Consumer) or
> rather mozilla.dev.identity using the usual Ways?!?

dev.identity is the right forum.

Comment 34

[Florian Leitner]

While I too have to admit I will not contribute a bug-fix for this issue, I think it is worth noting that with 59 votes this is a bug with a very, very exceptionally high number of votes, as far as I can tell from browsing around bugzilla and sorting the buglists by number of votes (I could not even find a bug with more votes, but I assume there must be some, right?). So, one may ask (I hope...), how is this not the top priority of any serious Firefox developer?

Comment 35

[zero-ads-are-acceptable+buggy]

> AFAIK the current Sync Implementation will not be improved/enhanced anymore.

That's one way to address user issues.


> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Identity/AttachedServices 

No use case for the user who wants to use sync but wants control over WHERE data lives, and HOW it is LOCALLY encrypted prior to upload?

That seems irresponsible.

> Addressing future user stories is under the PICL umbrella.
> dev.identity is the right forum.

Where are the respective interweb resources?  As google- and other interweb index engineers have pandered to the lowest common denominator far too long their tools are far more frustrating to use.

Comment 36

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to zero-ads-are-acceptable+buggy from comment #35)

> > AFAIK the current Sync Implementation will not be improved/enhanced anymore.
> 
> That's one way to address user issues.

Indeed it is. It has the opportunity to discard some legacy baggage, which is important, and it more closely aligns identity attached services with the identity team, which makes a lot of sense.


> No use case for the user who wants to use sync but wants control over WHERE
> data lives, and HOW it is LOCALLY encrypted prior to upload?
> 
> That seems irresponsible.

On the contrary, the PICL team are actively exploring flexible security models to allow a sliding scale of recoverability, backup, and encryption strength. In that regard it will have *more* control than does Firefox Sync.


> Where are the respective interweb resources? 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mozilla.dev.identity


> As google- and other interweb
> index engineers have pandered to the lowest common denominator far too long
> their tools are far more frustrating to use.

This is not the right place for whatever complaint you're making.

Please mind your manners, and carefully read Bugzilla Etiquette before you decide whether to comment again on this particular bug. Thanks!

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html

Comment 37

[etienne.bretteville]

+1 from my side, search engines is part of the ff customisation. Please when you have time, add this ti FF. Thanks

Comment 38

[Mathias Homann]

+1 from me.

Comment 39

[norbert.nogacki]

+1 from me.

Comment 40

[John gp]

+1 from me.

Comment 41

[chancephelps11]

+1 from me.
As a temporary fix, I did the following:
[as a Windows 7 user; should be similar for others]

Go to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<random-name>\

You should see a folder called "searchplugins". Copy that folder into the similar profile folder in, say, another computer.

Comment 42

[nortexoid]

@chancephelps11 (comment 41). I've tried that, but it doesn't preserve assigned keywords, so you end up having to type all those in manually. Also, on linux, you have to be careful with permissions when copying that folder over, making sure you have permissions to it.

So we still need proper cloud syncing.

Comment 43

[chancephelps11]

(In reply to nortexoid from comment #42)
> @chancephelps11 (comment 41). I've tried that, but it doesn't preserve
> assigned keywords, so you end up having to type all those in manually. Also,
> on linux, you have to be careful with permissions when copying that folder
> over, making sure you have permissions to it.

Hi, thank you for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed it. It seems the keywords can also be copied by restoring two more files from the main profile folder: "search.json" and "search-metadata.json". 

Of those, the latter stores the keywords, but I guess the former is needed as well. 

> 
> So we still need proper cloud syncing.

I agree, this just a quick-and-dirty fix, I hope this is resolved soon. Why not have Sync copy over the entire profile folder? Is there anything that must not be synced across devices?

Comment 44

[nodiscc]

> Is there anything that must not be synced across devices?

There are bandwith usage constraints (Mozilla's sync servers seem to be capped to 25MB storage per account - https://github.com/greasemonkey/greasemonkey/issues/1573) and files that can not be touched when they are in use.

Comment 45

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Copying files is not an option for several reasons, not least of which are that different clients don't use the same storage backends, blindly copying files doesn't allow for conflict resolution, and disk storage formats are not designed for efficient incremental replication.

Comment 46

[sephie]

+1
Say what you will about Opera (12), but it had search engine sync. ;)

Comment 47

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to sephie from comment #46)
> +1
> Say what you will about Opera (12), but it had search engine sync. ;)

Patches welcome!

Comment 49

[ekerazha]

Search engines sync would be a very useful addition.

Comment 50

[Alexander E. Fischer]

This would be a very useful addition. Please also preserve the assigned search keywords and the user defined order of the search plugins when syncing.

Just on a sidenote: This feature request is now about 6 years old. The new user interface of Firefox 29 that almost everyone despises got prioritized above this.

Comment 51

[B.]

Please implement this ASAP!!! Engines, keywords and order!!!

Second Alexander E. Fisher: how come Australis got ahead of this request??!??!??!??!

Comment 52

[ff12345]

Please allow for synching of search engines and their keywords. Both Opera and Chrome have it. Essential part of browser setup - I use the keywords a LOT! Thx!

Comment 54

[Jorge]

I just switched from Chrome to Firefox and so far this is the only drawback that I've had for switching (as others have said, Chrome has this feature). I use multiple computers and use around 20 search engines so not having this feature makes the transition to Firefox somewhat annoying, especially since I plan to keep adding to my list of search engines. I won't say that I'm going to switch back to Chrome due to Firefox lacking this feature, but it does make me want to keep using Chrome for whenever I want to make a search.

Comment 55

[ff12345]

I found a solution for what Jorge writes above that works for me. Instead of entering search engines as search engines, a search can be bookmarked: right-click in the search field of a site and choose "enter a keyword for this search." This keyword works the same as the shortcuts for search engines in Chrome. The only difference I see so far is that I don't have an overview of all the keywords that I created (Chrome provides this under "manage search engines"), but the keyword you have assigned can be looked up from within the bookmarks manager. Clicking on a bookmark displays the properties of the bookmark in the bottom half of the window, including the keyword.
I might, for the ease of managing the shortcuts (or keywords as they are called here), put all "search engines" in a separate bookmark folder. 
Works for me.

Comment 56

[ff12345]

Oh, and the good news is that the keywords, of course, now automatically will be synchronized as part of the bookmarks, without having to use add-ons.

Comment 57

[Artem Polivanchuk]

It's not a solution.
I think that search engines synchronization should be included as a new Sync feature.
Now this feature is lost and it makes Sync functionality not complete.

Comment 58

[Jorge]

I'm aware of that ff12345, whenever there is not an option to add a search engine through the search bar icon, I add it as a bookmark. The problem is that I already added most of the search engines through the search bar icon although I guess that for now the best is to convert them all to bookmarks. 

Also, instead of clicking the arrow to see the keyword for the bookmark, you can right click any of the column categories in the bookmark manager and check the option for "Keyword" so you can see all the keywords in a separate column.

Comment 59

[troy]

+1.  Please.

Comment 60

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

As with all other [sync-engine-addition] bugs, this depends on a story for adding new sync engines.

That means Bug 608231, and also the declined engines work in Bug 978876.

New engines will only be possible in Sync 1.5, not in old Sync 1.1.

That implies some small UI/pref complexity, and there's a testing load, too.

I'm leaving this comment here lest someone think "huh, this is easy, let me write that sync engine". (It's actually not easy to write the engine, but this is even less easy than it looks!)

Comment 61

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

Syncing search history is now Bug 1095138.

Comment 62

[Xiang Ji]

The solution suggested by ff12345 seems to be the only working workaround for now. It's not perfect. The search engines added as bookmarks don't even have icons attached to them. But it does the job.

Comment 64

[Jim Michaels]

I think submitting patches is a good idea, if a person is capable of digging into the source, keeping the original around to diff, and 

I am just unsure of what exactly the config and software consists of the build environment. is that documented somewhere? are you folks using mingw-w64?

is there Sync API and documentation to look at? ahh, here they are: http://docs.services.mozilla.com/
it looks like http://docs.services.mozilla.com/storage/apis-1.5.html#api-instructions
has the 1.5 storage API and it uses a JSON object to put data in. I should suppose there is some firefox API for doing PUT, GET, POST.

finding the existing sync code should not be too difficult:
dir/s/b *sync*

Comment 65

[Richard Newman [:rnewman]]

(In reply to Jim Michaels from comment #64)

> I am just unsure of what exactly the config and software consists of the
> build environment. is that documented somewhere? are you folks using
> mingw-w64?

You probably want to start here:

https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Introduction

Comment 66

[Murz]

Jim Michaels, maybe at first will be easier to implement this as Firefox Extension instead of patch? I don't a programmist, but I want help you with testing your addion, because I need this feature.

Comment 68

[Prashant Savaj]

Please allow for synching of search engines and their keywords. Engines, keywords and in Same Sequence order.

Comment 69

[krayvis]

Bump. Also would like to say I agree that it's annoying to try and find search engines again. Wolfram Alpha, gMaps, etc are all buried in Mozilla's generally disappointing search (I mean... you can find them, but the results have such varying degrees of popularity, I hesitate to pick any given one).

Comment 72

[wiliqaz]

Bump. Also agree that it's annoying to try and find search engines again. Please Chris, can you increase the priority? Or add this bug to 1269548 - [meta] Sync more things with a high priority?

Comment 73

[Thom Chiovoloni [:tcsc] (ex-moco)]

Adding a comment so that future readers (including me) know that the planned approach and comments are in bug 1054960 comment 9 and 10.

Comment 74

[Mike Connor [:mconnor]]

That plan as written doesn't really take into account how our search and distribution partnerships work, especially across locales and territories.  That's a big problem and we should not proceed with work until we have a plan signed off by partner engineering.

For absolute clarity: we _must_ not sync the cached version of any plugins shipped with the app (in default or as a part of distributions).  This is not something we should risk.

Key requirements to keep in mind:

* All parameters for our partners must be preserved and used as configured in the build.
* Default and default-visible engines are/will be defined on a per-locale + per-territory basis.  (Right now that's mostly driven by server-side, but :mkaply is landing a set of changes to make that work out of the box as well.)
* Ordering will be less arbitrary in the new world.

I would strongly recommend that any solution follow these guidelines:

1) Mobile is tricky on a UX level and has different plugin sets. We should consider following the add-on sync model (sync mobile to mobile or desktop to desktop, but don't cross device type streams).

2) User-installed engines (i.e. those that don't show up in GetDefaultEngines) should have all parameters required for addEngineWithDetails added to a bundle.

3) Default engine setting should be synced as an engine name, mirroring the pseudo-pref.  If the default is used, we should sync nothing.  (If a user is syncing between different builds with different defaults, that's okay.)  (This one is super important for numerous reasons.)

4) Order should only be synced if the order is different from the default order.  If the only change is appending the user-installed engines synced in #2, we should sync that order and append to the default list on other devices.)

5) Conflict resolution should fail on the side of leaving engines present.

Thom, happy to discuss further if you have followup questions.

Comment 75

[Alex Davis [:adavis]]

Thom, I CC'd you to an email to Javaun. Let's sync up with him to make sure this is done to spec so that legal and BD are pleased with the outcome.

Comment 76

[Thom Chiovoloni [:tcsc] (ex-moco)]

Yep, sounds great -- replied. I totally understand that doing the right thing here is super important, and definitley don't want to end up upsetting people with our implementation.

Comment 77

[Lina Butler (ex-Mozilla)]

Clearing Thom's assignment, pending reply from Javaun.

Comment 78

[Daniel]

Any updates to this that any Mozillians would like to share with the world? Was this blocked by partnership requirements?

Comment 79

[Jan Henning [:JanH]]

(In reply to Mike Connor [:mconnor] from comment #74)
> 1) Mobile is tricky on a UX level and has different plugin sets. We should
> consider following the add-on sync model (sync mobile to mobile or desktop
> to desktop, but don't cross device type streams).

As there might be some movement on bug 648398 again, I'd like to point out for the record that
- bookmark keyword searches currently *are* synced between mobile and desktop
- there's a chance that keyword searches will often be things for which no ready-made search plugin is available that in a pinch could simply be redownloaded, in which case syncing them would be all the more valuable


I think that if
- Fennec would allow hiding search engines as well (it currently doesn't, maybe because you can't set search keywords either), and
- the hidden state of a search engine *wouldn't* be synced between Desktop and Mobile

I'd be quite happy, although maybe I'm overlooking some other problems.

Comment 80

[Thom Chiovoloni [:tcsc] (ex-moco)]

(In reply to Daniel from comment #78)
> Any updates to this that any Mozillians would like to share with the world?
> Was this blocked by partnership requirements?

It was blocked due to that code undergoing refactors at the time, and nobody has found time to do it since. This is probably still the case, although it should be more doable now than it was in the past (but obviously it would still require someone finding the time to do it).

We never got far enough to get the sign-off from partner engineering mentioned in comment 74, and I don't fully remember the discussion around partner issues, but vague my understanding was that if this is implemented correctly (where it only synced changes made intentionally) it was probably going to be fine.

(In reply to Jan Henning [:JanH] from comment #79)
> - there's a chance that keyword searches will often be things for which no
> ready-made search plugin is available that in a pinch could simply be
> redownloaded, in which case syncing them would be all the more valuable

This is what I use for this, IMO it works well, but is quite undiscoverable; it's not clear that this is what "keyword" means in a bookmark, short of reading docs.

Comment 81

[Jan Henning [:JanH]]

(In reply to Jan Henning [:JanH] from comment #79)
> I'd be quite happy, although maybe I'm overlooking some other problems.

Thinking some more, search keywords should of course be synced as well, but syncing the order of engines between mobile and desktop is another topic that might need some further thoughts. E.g. currently the default search engine is automatically the first engine in the settings on Fennec, while on desktop there's a separate setting for that. And speaking personally, I've ordered them by most used first on Fennec because of less screen space and touch screen usage, but simply alphabetically on Desktop.

Comment 85

[maledong_forwork]

So many discussions here!
Any plans or plugins for this function yet or in the future?

Comment 87

[Lina Butler (ex-Mozilla)]

(In reply to maledong_forwork from comment #85)
> Any plans or plugins for this function yet or in the future?

Not at the moment, sorry. :-(

Comment 88

[Murz]

As workaround we can sync config file (via some file syncing service) with list of current search plugins, it is located at search.json.mozlz4 file in profile folder.

Comment 89

[B.]

I follow this bug, but I really, really, really wanted to file a new one today just to say this:

What did you do?
I installed Firefox, set it to sync, and installed some nice search engines, mainly from Mycroft Project.

What happened?
Firefox synced everything else but my search engines.

What should have happened?
Firefox *should* have synced my search engines. After all, each search engine consists of just a few lines of text, nothing else, nothing more, like this one:

<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/" xmlns:os="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<os:ShortName>Firefox Add-ons (en-US)</os:ShortName>
<os:Description>Searches all Firefox Addon-ons.</os:Description>
<os:InputEncoding>UTF-8</os:InputEncoding>
<os:Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,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</os:Image>
<SearchForm>https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/</SearchForm>
<os:Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q={searchTerms}">
</os:Url><os:Url type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" method="GET" template="http://mycroftproject.com/updateos.php/id0/ffaddons.xml" rel="self">
</os:Url>
</SearchPlugin>

How hard can it be? I really don't know, but it seems too hard for Mozilla to achieve this, right? If it wasn't so hard, it should be done by now...

Signed: a very, very frustrated loyal user, that apologizes for such a technically useless comment that is based purely on frustration and a bit more of frustration.

Comment 93

[Christian Blackburn]

So this bug is 11 years old and you guys still haven't fixed it. It still isn't assigned to anyone either. Please have the stones to say won't fix or fix it already.

Comment 94

[hildogjr]

This bug still on Firefox 65.0 (64-bit) for Ubuntu canonical-1.0

Comment 96

[u645550]

Hi ! I'm not sure of the whole evolution of the keyword syncing feature throughout all these years.. I am personally trying to migrate as much as possible to Ubuntu, and setting up Firefox on it came with the challenge of syncing a-l-l my search keywords (it is such a valuable tool on my browsing!)
Does anyone know where is this issue at? Thank you for your reply

Comment 97

[Kiude]

Hi ! I'm not sure of the whole evolution of the keyword syncing feature throughout all these years.. I am personally trying to migrate as much as possible to Ubuntu, and setting up Firefox on it came with the challenge of syncing a-l-l my search keywords (it is such a valuable tool on my browsing!)
Does anyone know where is this issue at? Thank you for your reply

Comment 98

[Mathias Homann]

(In reply to Kiude from comment #97)

Does anyone know where is this issue at? Thank you for your reply

For all we know it's being ignored. I mean, seriously, ELEVEN years?

Comment 99

[Juan Simón]

For me this is a bug not a feature request.
It syncs bookmarks, tabs, history, passwords, add-ons, preferences and even the settings of several extensions could be synced but no the search engines? What is the point of this decision?
This bug has been open for 11 years! There are enough people who ask for this and the Mozilla developers don't even case.
These days I have had to synchronize my Firefox account in 3 operating systems and I can synchronize everything except the added search engines.

Comment 100

[benpyman]

(In reply to Murz from comment #88)

As workaround we can sync config file (via some file syncing service) with
list of current search plugins, it is located at search.json.mozlz4 file in
profile folder.

Whilst I agree this a ridiculously old bug, at least this workaround is easy enough. I used a cloud service (could've used FF send) to copy this file from my PC with defined keywords to my new PC (with FF closed) and when I reopened FF on my new PC all my search engines and keywords were there, yay! I'll try to summarize more concisely.

Workaround

Assuming copying from one PC to another

1. Close FF on both PCs
2. Navigate to your profile folder on the old PC: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
3. Find file search.json.mozlz4
4. Copy file to USB/Cloud Service/FF Send
5. Download to new PC and copy to your profile folder (replace the existing file)
6. Open FF on your new PC and enjoy your search engines and keywords

Note: when I reopened FF after doing this my default search engine had been changed, so you may need to manually reset the default.

Comment 101

[Dmitriy]

How can this still be not fixed? This is a critical flaw of the browser, without this I have to waste lots and lots of time on every new device to collect all my search providers and position them in exactly the order to which I am used to. Without this, search functionality is incomplete.

Comment 102

[sergey.gorbikov]

(In reply to benpyman from comment #100)

(In reply to Murz from comment #88)

As workaround we can sync config file (via some file syncing service) with
list of current search plugins, it is located at search.json.mozlz4 file in
profile folder.

Whilst I agree this a ridiculously old bug, at least this workaround is easy enough. I used a cloud service (could've used FF send) to copy this file from my PC with defined keywords to my new PC (with FF closed) and when I reopened FF on my new PC all my search engines and keywords were there, yay! I'll try to summarize more concisely.

Workaround

Assuming copying from one PC to another

1. Close FF on both PCs
2. Navigate to your profile folder on the old PC: %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
3. Find file search.json.mozlz4
4. Copy file to USB/Cloud Service/FF Send
5. Download to new PC and copy to your profile folder (replace the existing file)
6. Open FF on your new PC and enjoy your search engines and keywords

Note: when I reopened FF after doing this my default search engine had been changed, so you may need to manually reset the default.

@benpyman you are my savior. I confirm that this workaround has worked flawlessly at my machine. I repeated the exact steps as you suggested at my Linux machine (Arch Linux OS) and all my numerous search engines were transferred from my old OS to my new OS including keyboard shortcuts (keywords) for the search engines.
Note: at my Linux machine the file with search engine settings was located at: /home/username/.mozilla/firefox/some_not_human_readable_string.default-release/search.json.mozlz4

Comment 105

[remirampin]

The workaround for this was to use bookmark keywords, however those were removed (without warning!) from Firefox Android. I have 25 search engines configured (actually bookmark keywords) and don't want to configure those on every device.

Comment 106

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

(In reply to remirampin from comment #105)

The workaround for this was to use bookmark keywords, however those were removed (without warning!) from Firefox Android. I have 25 search engines configured (actually bookmark keywords) and don't want to configure those on every device.

FWIW, while these will not work as you expect on Android, these should sync fine - even by Android.

Comment 107

[Gerardo]

I did this other workaround where I dropped my custom search engine keywords and used duckduckgo as default search engine instead, this lets me use its !bang commands. Most of the search engines I used previously have their own !bang already, (e.g. Youtube is !yt, google images is !gi), so it isn't much of a problem, only have to remember their new term (if it's different).

Then there's this other search engine called DuckDuckGoog that uses duckduckgo if the search starts with "!", but switches google if it doesn't start with a "!", I'm not sure how secure this one is though.

Comment 108

[ceyhuncanu]

As a workaround I have written a script (in Scala, runs on Ammonite) that can take backup, restore from backup and add a new engine (on some sites Firefox doesn't show an option to add). It doesn't help Android, but at least my search engines are safely stored and if I migrate to another machine, I'll have them restored.

https://github.com/ciuncan/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/ammonite/firefox_search_engines.sc

For usage, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/scala/comments/i35gs9/ammonite_script_to_manage_firefox_search_engines/

Comment 109

[Ayush]

While there are workarounds to copying search plugins, their keywords and history, is there any plan to incorporate this functionality in FF Sync, and if so, any timeline on the same? I would want to be able to keep all of my FF settings sync'ed between my desktop and laptop, without having to keep them up to date manually? This seems to be one of the major things that is missing in sync for me. Thanks.

Comment 110

[Mathias Homann]

(In reply to Ayush from comment #109)

is there any plan to incorporate this functionality in FF Sync, and if so, any timeline on the same?

..this request is TWELVE years old. without any definite yay or nay frm a developer. Just sayin.

Comment 112

[yehoudin]

Hi everyone.

This is a copy&paste feature, that works manually throughout different FF Versions and platforms. I can copy the search.json.mozlz4 from FF80 on a mac to FF78 on Windows, and it works perfectly. prefs.js as well, btw. Even though syncing just the single one click search engines would be way more elegant.

Since this was on the roadmap 2011 as mentioned above and since this feature is missing since FF3 (yes, THREE) there is no other way than code it ourselves. how knows what i do have to learn and where to submit an alpha/beta version?

Comment 113

[yehoudin]

(In reply to ceyhuncanu from comment #108)

As a workaround I have written a script (in Scala, runs on Ammonite) that can take backup, restore from backup and add a new engine (on some sites Firefox doesn't show an option to add). It doesn't help Android, but at least my search engines are safely stored and if I migrate to another machine, I'll have them restored.

https://github.com/ciuncan/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/ammonite/firefox_search_engines.sc

For usage, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/scala/comments/i35gs9/ammonite_script_to_manage_firefox_search_engines/

I do not quite understand what you can do with it. to store and restore, both on OS X, Win7, Win10 and assumingly on OS XI, the command copy & paste will do the job, even if you change FF versions and/or your OS. That is what I do regularly, for many years already.

Comment 114

[Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond]]

I'm not sure why I was needinfo'd, but if you are asking for a short summary of things you can do to move this forward, I don't know. Any proposal would need to take Android and iOS into account - syncing this just between desktops probably isn't going to get off the ground. Rest assured, if this was anything like "easy", or even if the approach we should take was obvious, it would already have been done.

Comment 115

[remirampin]

A good workaround is using bookmark keywords, since those are exactly equivalent (functionally) to search engines. I have been using those since the very start when I noticed search engines didn't sync. Maybe those functionalities could be merged together? I have a "search engines" bookmark folder with my keyworded bookmarks, which could be what the "search engines" section of the settings manipulate. Honestly the two functionalities always felt like duplicates.

Of course bookmark keywords are among the many functionalities that were ripped out of Firefox Android during the recent "upgrade", I am saying this assuming they are coming back.

Comment 116

[yehoudin]

(In reply to Mark Hammond [:markh] [:mhammond] from comment #114)

I'm not sure why I was needinfo'd, but if you are asking for a short summary of things you can do to move this forward, I don't know. Any proposal would need to take Android and iOS into account - syncing this just between desktops probably isn't going to get off the ground. Rest assured, if this was anything like "easy", or even if the approach we should take was obvious, it would already have been done.

Hmm, any proposal would need to take Android and iOS into account . Well, within FF desktop win and mac, i can browse my bookmarks by typing first letters of keywords added to them. not possible in iOS, bookmarksync is there anyway.
In other words, not everything is possible on iOS but on desktop computers.

Hmm. there is no searchplugin or such thing within FF iOS. Do we wait for a new searchplugin standard, compatible with Android AND ioS?

Hmm, the feature this thread is about would have been helpful since.... look on top the page ... 12 years ago. No FF Android on iOS or Android thinkable back then

Well, "if this was anything like "easy"," on would be able to copy the search.json.mozlz4 from FF 80 on Win to FF 78 Mac or what ever change of operatin systtem or FF version ever. Rest assured, i do this since 12 years, even back then when there were those single files.

Comment 117

[yehoudin]

ok, anyone else here who can simply tell me what i would need to learn to either code that missing lines or to comprehend that this would be difficult?

Comment 118

[yehoudin]

ok found it. thanks anyway

Comment 119

[ceyhuncanu]

(In reply to yehoudin from comment #113)

(In reply to ceyhuncanu from comment #108)

As a workaround I have written a script (in Scala, runs on Ammonite) that can take backup, restore from backup and add a new engine (on some sites Firefox doesn't show an option to add). It doesn't help Android, but at least my search engines are safely stored and if I migrate to another machine, I'll have them restored.

https://github.com/ciuncan/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/ammonite/firefox_search_engines.sc

For usage, see: https://www.reddit.com/r/scala/comments/i35gs9/ammonite_script_to_manage_firefox_search_engines/

I do not quite understand what you can do with it. to store and restore, both on OS X, Win7, Win10 and assumingly on OS XI, the command copy & paste will do the job, even if you change FF versions and/or your OS. That is what I do regularly, for many years already.

Hi @yehoudin, if just copying and pasting the file works for you, then by all means, you can do that. I wanted to have search engines in plain text and version controlled so I can keep track of changes. The script does that and also can add more engines where you cannot do from the UI (you know, for some sites, you don't even get choice of adding that site as a new search engine even though it provides a search facility in some manner). It asks for some fields and can fetch the favicon automatically. This is something I found myself needing regularly. So I thought that if anyone has similar needs they could use this as a workaround.

Comment 120

[yehoudin]

cool i'll try that, adding search engines for was like create one just a while ago on ready.to and there before on searchplugins.net.

"if just copying and pasting the file works for you"
so i was lucky, and that wont work in general? i guess it works for everyone.

of course, making different changes on each FF installation and sync that together would not work with c+p, but at least the feature could be added with a warning that only the youngest search.json would be kept and older changes to that file on other intstallations would be lost.

Comment 121

[Michael V.]

Is there any progress with this bug? It was reported 13 years ago? Is there something wrong? Could someone explain what's going on?

Comment 122

[yehoudin]

(In reply to Michael V. from comment #121)

Is there any progress with this bug? It was reported 13 years ago? Is there something wrong? Could someone explain what's going on?

Apparently, even back in october 2007 when this thread was opend, it was essential that it would work on iOS 1 (!) or Android (first published September, 2008). Look above.
And copy and paste isn't as easy as it seems when you do it manually....they say

I asked, without answer yet, what to do to code on your own.
I guess here is where to start: https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/devtools/getting-started/build.html
Maybe that it something someone can confirm or correct?

If others learned to code we can do as well.

Comment 123

[Mathias Homann]

is there any hope for this?

Also: can firefox please stop resetting the search settings to default without asking?

Comment 129

[pop]

(In reply to Michael V. from comment #121)

Is there any progress with this bug? It was reported 13 years ago? Is there something wrong? Could someone explain what's going on?

Must not be high priority.... maybe that has something to do with the Google sponsorship.

Comment 130

[wrobel.przemyslaw]

Any progress on this?

Comment 131

[SommerLuk]

Give that searches via bookmarks (which do sync) do not work any more in Firefox for Android since some years, it would be really, really great to have a functional replacement: Sync search engines INCLUDING their shortcut.

Comment 132

[swanknight]

16 years and still no solution? I couldn't care less about mobile, all I want is my search engines synced across my computers.