521980 - [ar] Choose search plug-ins for Fennec in Arabic

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Mozilla Localizations :: ar / Arabic, 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 Arabic. 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/Productization. You're welcome to suggest engines already shipped in desktop Firefox for Arabic, 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, Amazon, 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

[Anas Husseini [:linostar]]

Hi Stas,

The following are the recommended for Arabic Firefox Mobile.

- Global general search: Google

- Reference search: Wikipedia (ar.wikipedia.org)

- Specific interest search: Youtube

- Social search: Linkedin (otherwise Twitter)

- Local Search: Google maps
 

I didn't a global search engine for Arabic mobile softwares/themes/wallpapers/tones that fits with what we have discussed earlier, so I didn't mentioned it here.

These 5 search engines are classified by order of importance for Arabic mobile  users, so consider this if you want to filter one out.

Comment 2

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

Thanks for these suggestions. They look great. I prefer to keep this bug open until we have the permissions from all providers. Also, I'm not sure if Fennec handles YouTube videos. I'll test it and comment here with the results.

Thanks, Anas!

Comment 3

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

Attachment: Bootstrapping search engines with Google and localized Wikipedia

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, we don't have to copy the XML file 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 4

[Anas Husseini [:linostar]]

Done in the following revision:
http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/l10n-mozilla-1.9.2/ar/rev/2e7269d57bcb

Comment 5

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

Linostar: Thanks for landing that, but please note that the patch removed wikipedia.xml entirely and added wikipedia-ar.xml instead. I your landing, it looks like you edited wikipedia.xml.

Mind taking the wikpedia-ar.xml from the patch and landing that? Or, rename wikipedia.xml to wikipedia-ar.xml and update the icon with the image from the patch.

Thanks.

Comment 6

[Anas Husseini [:linostar]]

Sorry Stas. I was not on my machine, that's why I made those changes manually.

I renamed the file and updated the image in the following revision:
http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/l10n-mozilla-1.9.2/ar/rev/edefa45aba33

Comment 7

[Staś Małolepszy :stas]

Thanks Linostar. http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/l10n-mozilla-1.9.2/ar/rev/edefa45aba33 looks good, although it seems like there's unnecessary line break inside the <Image/> tag. Not breaking the XML, obviously, but would be nice to fix that for cosmetic reasons :)

Comment 8

[Anas Husseini [:linostar]]

I know. I saw that cosmetic flaw, but I failed in fixing it (though I copied it from your diff file). The space is breaking the line with no obvious reasons. I am obliged to bear it although I hate it.