Troubles creating an OpenSearch plugin

November 13, 2006 at 11:15 am | In Thoughts | 3 Comments

Recently I created two OpenSearch plugins for the librariesinteract.info blog that I’m fortunate to be able to contribute to. You can read more about them in this post that I put up this morning. The biggest problem I had with them was a compatibility issue between the Firefox and Internet Explorer web browsers.

I followed the documentation on the Mozilla Developer Centre, tested using Firefox 2.0 and was pleased with how easy it all was. I then alerted the other contributed to the librariesinteract.info blog to what I had done to get some feedback. Some are using Internet Explorer 7.0 and reported that the plugin didn’t work.

Investigating further I discovered that the plugin that the documentation says to create doesn’t appear to adhere to the standard. Specifically the <Param> element isn’t listed, as far as I can see, in the OpenSearch documentation for the OpenSearch URL template syntax. I’ve amended the plugins and other LINT contributors have confirmed they now work in Internet Explorer 7.0 as well.

As I’m getting back into website development it’s a well timed reminder for me to check everything I do in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

My thanks to the other LINTers for testing the search plugins for me.

3 Comments

  1. As I understand (speaking as a non-programmer) this is usual for IE, isn’t it? Programmers I know are scathing about IE for this reason…

    Comment by CW — November 13, 2006 #

  2. I must admit I have had issues with IE in the past about all sorts of issues. There are also lots of websites about the CSS issues. Not to mention JavaScript issues as well. However in this case I’m not sure that IE is to blame.

    The official specification, as far as I can see, doesn’t have a element like the Mozilla documentation told you to use. So I can’t help wondering if IE is adhering closer to the standards than Mozilla is.

    Either way, the issue is resolved, both camps are happy, and we have another way to search LINT and our list of Australian Library Blogs.

    Comment by Corey — November 13, 2006 #

  3. I had a look at this the other day. The Mozilla devs took it upon themselves to try and extend the OpenSearch standard with things like the element.

    The non-OpenSearch elements are defined in xmlns:moz=”http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/”. Going to this URL delivers a 404, unfortunately.

    Comment by Matthias — November 14, 2006 #


Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.