Opera Search Plugins Help Page
Browsing and Installing a new Search engine
The search plugins are available for installation into your search preferences, or as simpler drag'n'drop fields/buttons. For the drag'n'drop mechanism, you just need to click once on Button or Field under the Link column and you will get a page that allows you to drag'n'drop that search engine into opera (currently not all search engines can be drag'n'dopped yet).
For more integration, you need to install the search plugin into your search preferences using the Plugin link - but first you should install OpSed, and run it whileOPERA IS CLOSED (make sure your OpSed preferences > click and install options are ON). This will install the specific file-type settings that allows Opera to automatically call OpSED when you click on a Plugin link. Now whenever you click on one of these links, Opera will use OpSed to open them, and it will allow you to add to search.ini directly (and give it a position), and/or save it in the user database. Due to a limitation that Opera only reads search.ini at start-up, you need to restart Opera before you can use your new shiny search. Thats IT!
Searching the database ([⊗])
The database contains plugins in both SE7 and SRC format, and allows you to search for specific plugins, here are the options:[⊗]
- Filter term: a word or text fragment you want to search for. The name, description AND language are searched. So if you want to find Polish plugins, simply use the filter "polish".[⊗]
- Regular Expression: If you select this checkbox, you can use a regular expression (RegExp's) to powerfully search within the database. The regular expression uses the mySQL format, which you can review here. For example "^m" searches for all texts that start with "m". Unlike normal regular expressions, they are not case sensitive.[⊗]
- Limit Category: Only view plugins belonging to a particular category.[⊗]
- Returned: Choose how many results you want to see. [⊗]
- Sort By: Sort the returned data.
For example if you wanted to see the 10 most downloaded Reference plugins, set "Limit Category" to "Reference", "Returned" to 10 and "Sort By" to "downloaded"
Plugin format
There are two formats of plugins:
- SE7 - The SE7 format is a semi-native search.ini format, and is what OpSed outputs when you export a search engine via the export interface. It allows both GET and POST format queries and is UTF-8 friendly. NOTE: You must use Opsed to export your search engine, copying and pasting from search.ini is not SE7 compatible yet... Technical note: SE7 files use the 'application/x-opera-configuration-search' MIME type to auto-install.
- SRC - This format derives from the MyCroft project for Mozilla (which itself is an extension of Apple's Sherlock plugins). It is not as capable as the SE7 format (no POST queries are allowed), and much of the plugin data is concerned with Mozilla display specific code. SRC files are supported because there is a large database of regularly updated plugins available. Technical note: SRC files use the 'application/x-wais-source' MIME type to auto-install.
Adding a New Plugin
Adding a new plugin is simple. At the bottom of the SearchPlugins page is a form for you to fill in. If you are using SE7 format, use OpSed to generate it, simply cutting and pasting from search.ini may not work:
- The Search Engine Name: The name of the the search engine you wish to add.
- General English Description: A description of the search engine.
- Local Language Description: If it is a non-English resource, write a description in the language it relates to here.
- Category: The type of search engine it is.
- Language: The predominant language
- Type of Plugin: Wether it is in SE7 or SRC format (read above).
- Add the Plugin data as text below: Copy and paste in the raw plugin text here.
The upload will add the plugin to the database. That's it!
Writing your own plugin
See Plugins
Categories:
CategoryOpera CategoryTutorial
Back Links:
- Plugins
- SearchPlugins