L10n:Integrated Search Instructions

This page contains instructions on how to deal with the consequences of bug 529869 and bug 528655 which have been recently fixed in Fennec (Firefox Mobile).

Abstract

• We have started to make use of the search plug-in's <Description/> field in Fennec.
• <Description/>'s value is now displayed below the search engine name in the add-ons manager.
• For plug-ins that do not have the <Description/> field, a generic "Integrated Search" string is displayed as a fallback.
• The emphasis of this UI change is put on the fact that the search is integrated into the browser. Therefore, we should make sure that we mention this in descriptions of all search plug-ins that we ship for your locale.

L10n implementation

If you're taking an existing plug-in, for example directly from the provider's website or from desktop Firefox, please adapt the <Description/> to the new UI.

Take the French eBay plug-in for example. In desktop Firefox, we use eBay plug-in, which has the following description:

<Description>eBay - Enchères en ligne</Description>

...which means eBay - On-line auctions.

The description that we have in this plug-in right now is not sufficient for Fennec's UI. It doesn't emphasize the fact that the search plug-in is integrated into the browser.

In order to make it right, you can choose one of the following solutions:

• Modify the description to include the integrated part (recommended). In the eBay France example above, you could do:

<Description>Recherche intégrée eBay</Description>

...which means Integrated search on eBay.

• Remove the <Description/> from the plug-in entirely. The generic fallback string will be used.

Wikipedia plug-in

If you're coming to this page because Staś told you to do so in the bug about choosing search engines for Fennec in your locale, then this section is for you.

You will need to edit the Wikipedia plug-in before you commit the patch from the bug. It contains a <Description/> element which should be updated or removed from the plug-in.

For your convenience, I have commented out the <Description/> element from the Wikipedia plugin in the patch in the bug. You can now do one of the following things:

• Update the <Description/> to reflect the fact that the search is integrated and uncomment it in the plug-in. For example, the patch for Polish contains the following line:

<!-- <Description>Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia</Description> -->

If you wish to translate it, you should uncomment it, like so:

<Description>Wbudowana wyszukiwarka Wikipedii</Description>

...which means Integrated search on Wikipedia.

• Remove the <Description/> from the plug-in entirely. The generic fallback string will be used.

Please do not land the patch without making necessary edits to the Wikipedia plug-in.

Note that Google and Twitter plugins coming from en-US don't have <Description/> at all. A generic one is used ("Integrated search"), so that we can continue using the original en-US versions without forking them to provide a localized description.

Rationale

The search plug-ins in Fennec's add-ons manager are listed next to the regular extensions. To be able to tell the difference between search plug-ins and extensions, as well as to provide more detail about the installed search plug-ins, we have started to make use of the <Description/> field, which is present in each search plug-in's XML file. We want to use plug-ins' descriptions to emphasize the fact that the search is integrated into the browser.

This field's value is now displayed below the search engine name in the add-ons manager. For plug-ins that do not have the <Description/> field, a generic "Integrated Search" string is displayed as a fallback. This string was added to browser.properties:

 addonsSearchEngine.description=Integrated Search

Questions?

Please address any questions or comments to Staś.