How To: Browser open search plug-in for your site

[catchpen]

This is a way for visitors to search your site via "open search" - the toolbar search on your browser supposedly both FF 2.0 and IE7 compatible. There is also a way for it to use Google to give your server a break. First create an .xml file and save it in your root folder (name doesn't matter)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
 <ShortName>short description of your site</ShortName>
 <Description>Name of site</Description>
<Image height="16" width="16" type="image/x-icon">http://yoursite.com/favicon.ico</Image>
 <Tags>Name of site</Tags>
 <Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://yoursite.com/search.php?search={searchTerms}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

If you want them to use Google instead, replace:

<Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://yoursite.com/search.php?search={searchTerms}"/>

With:

<Url type="text/html"
      template="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:[yoursite.com] {searchTerms}"/>

Then add this somewhere in header.tpl or a tools page.

<link rel="search" href="URL of the xml file you just created"
      type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
      title="Your site name" />

NOTE: A visitor won't see it since it's an autodiscovery for your browser so you can just type some instructions for them to check the bottom of their dropdown on their browser toolbar search and click on it to install.