Searching Minecraft wiki using Opera browser...

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by ShelLuser, May 19, 2015.

  1. Hi gang!

    I switched browsers not too long ago and here's a fun fact for you: EMC made me do it :D Well, not really made me pick Opera, but EMC was the final straw which made me decide to start looking for alternatives. Up until yesterday I used the combination of SeaMonkey and Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 ("MSIE") to do my things. Looking at that last site I think I know what happened: MS probably wanted me to upgrade to MSIE 11 and when I didn't they started messing with MSIE 10. Sounds crazy? It's true. When an OS reaches its End of Life (EOL) such as XP or more recent: Windows Server 2003, then MS has no issues at all to break their virus scanner (Microsoft Security Essentials) so that it'll warn you about your OS becoming unsupported and worse: also stop working during the process.

    Pure madness in my opinion... (just what we want: more unprotected PC's on the Internet, ready to be taken over by hax0rz).

    So yah, when I suddenly noticed this I knew it was time to get my stuff back in order:

    Well, at least my title somewhat shows clearly...

    I jestingly "blamed" EMC up there but I think it's simply one of MS' many hidden updates which render their own (older) products useless so that people are more likely to upgrade. And amazingly enough; I did:


    Adding custom search engines to Opera

    I was actually preparing to turn this into a blog post when I suddenly realized that you can't easily do this on other browsers. If you want to add a search engine to MSIE, Firefox or SeaMonkey then you'll be taken to an extension centre and you can only pick ready-made options. Not what I'm after: I want to add a custom URL for some really cool effects...

    In Opera and Chrome this is easy. Just open your settings and edit your search engine entries:


    Now for the cool part: Gamepedia (host of the official Minecraft wiki) has an URL which you can use to search their site. And its that URL which you can easily add to Opera and not to most of the other browsers. So, after clicking the highlighted function shown above just add a new search engine and use these entries:


    What this does?

    It allows me to search Gamepedia right from within my browser (using the address / search bar) by merely typing in the search engine keyword ("m") and the topic we're looking for. For example an armor stand:


    I typed this from my speed dial screen but obviously I can type the above from any location I chose. And what this "m armor stand" gets me? Simple, telling my browser to look up the "armor stand" command on Gamepedia. With the following effect:

    Gamepedia search results.

    I'm not 100% certain (though I did look at Firefox more closely) but to my knowledge this kind of customizing control isn't an option on other browsers, which makes this so outstanding to me.

    And of course: Minecraft (gamepedia) is but one example here. You can basically add every online knowledge base as long as it has a search URL which you can identify for usage. I use this same approach to search MS TechNet, MSDN as well as the NetBeans website.

    So yeah, figured I'd share 8)
    AmusedStew likes this.
  2. How do people survive without Chrome?...
  3. We do Jack, we do
    ShelLuser likes this.
  4. Remember when Aikar was showing off that you can do http://getfirefox.com and you simply replied with: "http://chrome.com" :') Priceless memories of how much better Chrome is.
  5. I used opera for a while, I love how you could customize it. But, I switched back to chrome due to the app on the browser...
  6. There's one for chrome as well...

    ShelLuser likes this.
  7. He's saying how can people not use Chrome :p
    ShelLuser likes this.
  8. Firefox actually has less compatibility than internet explorer half the time

    Firefox uses the gecko engine wheras IE mostly uses the tasman engine (which is now looking into using webkit layouts)
    --------

    Next supportability would be safari..which uses the webkit engine which is a fork of the khtml engine by kde
    ---------

    Opera (which used to use presto engine) and chrome are about the same level (and I'd recommend either)... both of them now use the blink engine which is a fork of webkit

    Only drawback is the 64-bit version of chrome is mostly still in beta, and has trouble with allowing downloading files.
    (a virus scan issue)

    Also chrome by default is not available to preview php pages locally ... (nor are the other 3 browsers)

    -if you right click an index.php file... opera is the only one displayed.

    --------
    Though, if you want to make use of an api based on webkit - it only works well in opera and chrome (ironically doesn't work great in safari)
    ShelLuser likes this.
  9. (edit):


    Well, I have some personal bias (and suspicion) regarding Google and some of their products which is why I don't use them. But then again, I'll also be the first to say that they do know how to innovate and share that innovation. As mentioned above and by me below: both browsers use the same engine :)

    (/edit)

    Thanks for the confirmation! I assumed as much because Opera is build on the Chromium project, which is the same foundation for Google Chrome, but since I never used Chrome myself I wasn't sure.

    True that! It's why I favoured SeaMonkey; it used the same 'Mozilla engine' but without the issues which I didn't like about FireFox (such as changing the interface on a whim).

    Ha, ha, funny you should mention that one. I had it installed on my PC because of an old web project I was working on years ago (we were using a test program which used browser engines (MSIE, Firefox, Safari) to show the difference in rendering / setup in a side-by-side comparison).

    If I hadn't liked this then Safari would have been my next pick to try :)
    WCG_Elite likes this.
  10. ...well from late 2014 to a few months ago, there has been some development on a 'newer' browser coming out...

    I've been skeptical about internet explorer - but microsoft has been working on 'Microsoft Edge'

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Edge

    The reason I disliked internet explorer the most through the years - wasn't the security issues... it was the lack of supportability with newer html, css, and javascript...

    Hopefully they'll keep up to date, and support all the newer web releases.
  11. I agree
  12. I think all the modern browsers has this search integration. And they've had it for the past 10~ years too through keyword bookmarks (You put %s in the query string in a bookmark, set a keyword, then typing 'foo <keyword>' searches bookmark named foo)

    I use both chrome and firefox (cause my job and all...), but primarily Firefox because Chromes memory issues are too insane to ever consider as many tabs as I work in, and Firefox has a more flexible UI (namely horizontal tabs which Chrome decided to drop as a feature in development, and addons are too weak for chrome to do it)
  13. Well, not in a way where you can easily add an entry in the form of an URL. Firefox & SeaMonkey for sure; the moment you try to add more search engines you're taken to an external "extension" site. I have no doubt that there is probably a back door (developer mode perhaps?) which can overrule that or where you can edit the settings manually, but its most certainly not as straight forward as "edit search engines" and clicking "add new" :)
  14. It's even easier on Firefox (Phone picture because I couldn't get screenshot with the dang popup out):



    green + lets you know you can add a custom search.
    And the feature you are using in your screenshot is the keyword search thats been there for years :p
    ShelLuser likes this.
  15. Yeah, I have google chrome and I use that a lot. Its really helpful for quick access to the empire website or the minecraft wiki. How can people live without Chrome or Opera?
  16. I beg to disagree. It's easier for you because you knew about this feature, but that doesn't apply to new users.

    This option works if you just searched using a custom engine and then wonder "it would be nice to have this included, lets try accessing the search box again" and at that time start looking into the search box. But that's not how this works for your average user, I've done too much support sessions to experience this.

    The average user goes "I could search on Gamepedia, I want that in my browser, so lets go over the settings to find an option for this" and then they'll fail. There is no need for them to use the search box feature if they're already on the site they wanted to use / find, and that's why a lot of users totally miss this.

    Ergo: this looks easier, but it isn't. It's way too easily missed.
  17. One word: Firefox. We of the Fox Faction support creative growth and innovation rather than massive blargs with ugly layouts that threaten to consume the digital world. :p
    ShelLuser likes this.
  18. My argument was that clicking the green + as a way to "search this site easier in the future" is easier than having to dig into the settings and click a button.

    for new / non technical users... going into the settings menu is NOT a common action. They are usually scared of going in there afraid of breaking something.

    Accessing a search system for a site through the search system of their browser is a much simpler and intuitive design.
    Sure that green + can be overlooked, but anyone looking "change" their ways to make it more effecient is likely to notice that icon changing colors.
    JackBiggin likes this.
  19. I have seen that weird messed up formatting before when my Internet does something weird while loading. Less of a problem with Microsoft tying to control their users and more of a problem with them just being bad at some of the fine tuning. That is a really cool thing you found though and I am glad to see it exists in other brwsers. I use Firefox because chrome refuses to run well on my laptop and can't wait to try what aikar showed.