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Is there anyway to update or remove custom search providers in Firefox? I can add my custom provider dymanically by 

window.external.AddSearchProvider(sUrl)

But I don't find anyway to update it if I need to change things in the future. Asking each user to browse to a folder, delete an xml, restart Firefox and re-add my search provider is a pretty big request! If I could create a button on a website to click it would be great. Even building a full Firefox Addon to live in the background and update the search addon from time to time would be fine, if it's possible.

Ethan_AI
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  • I thought calling that same function again with a new version of your provider will overwrite the old version, is this not true? – Noitidart Dec 09 '14 at 20:52
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    Calling the function again with an updated XML gives the error `Firefox could not install the search plugin from "" because an engine with the same name already exists.` – Ethan_AI Dec 10 '14 at 00:22

2 Answers2

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Is there a reason that you do not use the ability to automatically update the search provider?

You can see the documentation for supporting automatic search plugin updates on MDN at Supporting automatic updates for OpenSearch plugins. That page indicates that automatic updating has been supported since Firefox 3.5. However, if your search plugin is hosted on AMO then automatic updating is not supported.

From the above MDN page, the example to support automatic updating is:

<Url type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
     rel="self"
     template="http://www.foo.com/mysearchdescription.xml" />

The thread "Opensearch plugin automatic update" indicates automatic updating was working on, or before, Jan 23, 2011 with Firefox 3.6.13. The reported period prior to automatic update was about a day. This could be a similar time-frame as that used for checking for extension updates. That time-frame is long for development testing, but is reasonable for an installed base.

As you are probably aware, the specification for OpenSearch 1.1 is located here. The specifications for OpenSearch extensions can be found here.

Makyen
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  • Automatic updates would be great, but they simply don't seem to be updating. Maybe it only checks once per day or week. Even if that works it's hard to make a change and wait until tomorrow to see the result. – Ethan_AI Dec 10 '14 at 01:20
  • The thread "[Opensearch plugin automatic update](https://forums.mozilla.org/viewtopic.php?p=6238&sid=e1476a8ba8f0bb49aaf3bd249358737f)" indicates automatic updating was working on or before Jan 23, 2011. The period appears to be about a day. This could be a similar time-frame for that used for checking for extension updates. This is long for development testing, but reasonable for an installed base. – Makyen Dec 10 '14 at 02:00
  • @Mayken He's probably offering install of the engine from a link on his website. So he makes his link call `window.external.` I did that in the past, but its been awhile. My updates installed over i thought. I cant recall. – Noitidart Dec 10 '14 at 02:48
  • @Makyen Ill wait another 24 hours and see if it updates. If I set it up wrong it's going to take a while to debug. I really wish there was some manual way just for testing. – Ethan_AI Dec 10 '14 at 23:33
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According to this Mozilla page, you can enter this path into the address bar to access the previous search manager which will enable you to actually remove a search provider, without having to undergo various file deleting contortions [tested in Firefox 35.0.5 under Windows 7].

chrome://browser/content/search/engineManager.xul

I'm rather disappointed in the Mozilla developers for making this so difficult.

Community
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rik
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  • It appears that in FireFox 36.0 the developers have brought back the REMOVE button in the default search options tab, at least . – rik Feb 27 '15 at 16:42