I haven’t updated my DS mod since I started using the Context Search plugin in July of last year. I find it to be more robust and extendable without having to delve into modifying someone else’s code. Instead of having to parse the URLs of each new search engine you want to add, as long as a Mycroft plugin exists already, installing a new search engine is as easy as clicking a link. If the search engine you want to use hasn’t had a Mycroft plugin created for it yet (e.g. your corporate intranet), creating one is incredibly simple. Open up the “google.src” file located in your Firefox install’s “searchplugins” directory (usually “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins”) and alter the name, description, action, and input fields to match your own desired engine. I would be happy to do this for you if you needed; alternatively I would be happy to describe in simpler terms (maybe even with a blog post, you never know) what the various fields in a Mycroft plugin represent.

If you’ve tried the Context Search plugin and you still think the Dictionary Search plugin fits your needs better, I could be persuaded to update my modification for you if you can tell me exactly why you prefer it. Just let me know.

Hey Chris: My current stylesheet is a direct rip from Movable Style. I give them a little nod in the bottom left of the index page. When I get embarassed enough, I’ll whip up something more original.

I hadn’t posted anything yet because none of the code modifications I tried were successful once I lowered my screen resolution, but given your problem with a higher res, one solution I tried might help you. I’ve dropped a “window.sizeToContent();” into the onload event handler and omitted the fixed pixel size. This doesn’t fix the problem with lower screen res’, but it’s worth a try for your situation. Download here

I still don’t know how to add scrollbars or resize ability to the Dialog box. I’ve tried many things: all unsuccessful. You’d think that having those turned on would be the default behavior (at least the resize ability), and I would only have to look for something in the code to delete or turn off, but alas…

There is a “Help” button now also visable, but it produces a tiny scrunched “window”, with only the Title Bar present. I don’t know if this differs, as this is the 1st time I have been able to view this lower area of the GUI, let alone click “Help”. It doesn’t matter to me, but I thought you might want to know.

Now I can work on figuring out the proper Search strings for AllTheWeb, RottenTomatos, and a couple of others, as well!

Good luck on the job situation, I know what that is like!

Thanks again!

Thanks for your quick response. Screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 on a 19″ CRT. I checked lower settings, and this didn’t change the amount of the truncated area of the GUI much at all, but this certainly was an area ripe for investigation, and thanks for the suggestion.

I had restarted FF a couple of times prior to noticing the lack of extra searches in about:config and Preferential. The good news is that interestingly, they are all there now. I do not know if that only occurred subsequent to my making entries for them. At least they are there now, so I can make any future changes there.

I will check back to see if there have been any developments in the Sizing/Scrolling department. I never understood why folks make GUI’s at a set and unchangeable size, but then again, I have no idea what is involved in coding to make it configurable either!

Thanks again for your great mod, and assistance!

I’m currently looking into the code to see if I can figure out how to add scrollbars or resize ability to the Settings dialog. This would/should solve the “Truncated GUI problem” that you’re seeing.

Unfortunately, I’m probably less of a code expert than you are, so it may take me a little while to figure out. (The mods that I made were done by trial and error combined with a little persistence.) Luckily, though, I’m currently unemployed and I’ve got nothing else to do. I’ll be working on this tonight.

As to why the extra added searches aren’t showing up in about:config or the Preferential extension, I can’t explain. They show up in about:config for me, but I don’t use Preferential, so I can’t check that. Maybe you need to restart your browser in order to refresh the user.js file?