Hi Dale, It seems that this feature is not being developed with the hope of it turning into a cross-browser autodiscovery of search extensions in the future. With that in mind, I'd like to ask if it is really necessary to expose a new meta tag to the web platform, given the unclear path to the adoption of this feature for another browser engine (e.g. Servo, Blink or WebKit.) Per our API exposure guidelines < https://wiki.mozilla.org/ExposureGuidelines#When_is_a_feature_ready_to_ship.3F> it doesn't appear that this feature meets the criteria for a new platform feature that we should ship.
Were there other alternatives considered which do not require modifying web pages with a new meta tag? For example, one simple idea that comes to mind is allowing extra metadata in the definition of search engine extensions which indicates the URL for the equivalent OpenSearch service and matching that metadata with the OpenSearch annotations found in the existing pages that users browse which have OpenSearch annotations. (This idea itself is probably not useful since I don't know your exact requirements, suggesting it mostly as a way to open a discussion.) I realize that getting this kind of feedback at the time of an intent to ship is at best extremely unsettling, because you've probably done a lot of work on this, and for that I apologize. Thanks for your consideration, Ehsan On Fri, Feb 14, 2020 at 2:50 PM Dale Harvey <dhar...@mozilla.com> wrote: > Summary: Since Firefox 57, users have been able to install additional > search engines in the shape of a WebExtension[1] from addons.mozilla.org > (AMO), whereas this used to only be possible using the OpenSearch XML > format[2]. Since Firefox 68, all the search engines we distribute are > WebExtensions[3]. > > Websites are currently able to advertise their search engine to the > browser[4], but this is not yet possible for WebExtension search engines. > > We’re proposing a new mime-type to be supported for <link rel=“search”> > tags, other than “application/opensearchdescription+xml”: “x-xpinstall” for > WebExtension search engines. Example: <link rel=“search” type=“x-xpinstall” > href=“https://addons.mozilla.org/<locale>/firefox/addon/<addon-name>”/>. > > NB: we are aware that the (pseudo-)mime-type “x-xpinstall” is not > particularly friendly to cross-browser adoption, so we’re very much open to > suggestions! Possible alternatives might be “x-webext” or “x-webextension”. > Please reply in this thread with your ideas. > > NB2: We are collaborating with the addons team at Mozilla to consider > autodiscovery of addons in general, using this mechanism, but haven’t > reached a point where we can announce something concrete. > > Bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1562657 > > Standard: The WebExtension API documentation can be found at [4]. There is > no standard known to us for this feature and we are not collaborating with > other browsers at this point (see ‘Other browsers’ below). > > Platform coverage: This feature will be available on Firefox Desktop, on > all supported platforms. > > Preference: We intend to ship this feature pref'd on by default, but it may > be disabled by setting the “browser.search.webext.discovery.enabled" pref > to ‘false’. > > DevTools bug: N/A. > > Other browsers: We haven’t been in active discussion with other browser > vendors regarding this feature, since our primary motivation for moving to > WebExtensions wholesale is motivated by our fight against malware and > search hijackers. We are open to any type of collaboration with other > browsers regarding this feature and WebExtension search engines in the > broadest sense. > > web-platform-tests: (web-)Search has never been considered an official part > of the web-platform and the OpenSearch specification hasn’t seen any major > updates for over a decade. Test coverage is provided by XPCShell and > Mochitest-browser tests written specifically for the ‘search’ toolkit > component. > > Secure contexts: Yes. > > Is this feature enabled by default in sandboxed iframes? Yes, this feature > does not have any impact on sandboxed iframes. > > As of Firefox 75, the intent is to turn WebExtension search engine > discovery on by default on all platforms. It has been developed behind the > browser.search.webext.discovery.enabled preference. See above for the > shipping status in other browsers. > > Product: Mike Connor. > > Bug to implement and turn on by default: > https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1562657. > > [1] > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/manifest.json/chrome_settings_overrides > > [2] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/OpenSearch > > [3] See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1486820 where we > converted all our own, built-in engines to WebExtensions. > > [4] > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/OpenSearch#Autodiscovery_of_search_plugins > _______________________________________________ > dev-platform mailing list > dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform > -- Ehsan _______________________________________________ dev-platform mailing list dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform
