Source code – addons.mozilla.org page
This was my first extension and is probably my most popular one. It was done as a request for someone on the Mozillazine forums. The extension allows you to change the selected search engine in the search bar by scrolling the mouse. This saves you from having to click the menu, and then click the engine you want to use. It works both when you’re hovering over the search bar, or when you’ve selected a word and right clicked to search the web for it, then you can scroll when you’re hovering over the “Search google for…” menuitem. You can optionally scroll in a loop although this is not the default behavior. Set it by going to the add-ons window and pressing the options button. As of version 1.0.1 you can also change search engines by using the keyboard shortcut ctrl+k to go forward in the list and ctrl+shift+k to go backwards. The ctrl+k shortcut is the same as the shortcut used to give the search window focus.
Versions 1.0 and up don’t support Firefox 2.* anymore, if you need a version that does, email me and I can send you version 0.5 which supported Firefox 2.* but doesn’t have the loop scroll functionality.
Works with Firefox 3.0 – 3.5.*
Latest version: 1.0.1
Download
Version 1.0.1 – August 15, 2008
- Preferences window for the loop scroll preference
- Added keyboard shortcuts to scroll, ctrl+k to go forward and ctrl+shift+k to go backwards.
- Refactored some of the code.
Version 1.0 – May 23, 2008
This version adds Firefox 3.0 compatibility, the extension no longer supports 2.* versions. The new feature in this version is that you are now able to scroll in a loop instead of stopping at the first and last engine. This is set by going to about:config and setting ‘extensions.scrollsearchengines.loopscroll’ to true. I ditched Firefox 2.0 compatibility in this version because the searchbar code is a bit different and I don’t have time to figure out how to add the loopscroll to Fx 2. For Fx 2 users you can still get version 0.5 in the old versions page.
Version 0.5 – March 19, 2007
This is a total rewrite that should fix incompatibilites with all menu and toolbar manipulation addons. Should now work with MenuEdit, MenuManipulator, Browster and DragNDrop toolbars.
Version 0.4.4 – December 2, 2006
Another fix for Browster compatibility. It turns out that if you don’t show the Browster toolbar (which is completely unneccessary since it only shows the same search box as the searchbar) then the function BrowserSearch.getSearchbar() doesn’t work anymore. So I added a fix for that. The Scroll Search Engines code is now roughly 50% actual scrolling code and 50 % compatibility fix code!
Version 0.4.3 – November 30, 2006
Small update to fix incompatibility with the Browster extension. The scroll over the searchbar stopped working when Browster was installed and only worked on Browsters own toolbar (since they used the same id as the original searchbar). The scroll will now work on the original searchbar as well as Browsters.
Version 0.4.2 – November 20, 2006
This version is to fix an incompatibility with the Menu Editor extension (http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/710). The incompatility was caused by a known bug in Mozilla where nodes that are moved lose all their event handlers. Now you should be able to change your context menu with Menu Editor and still be able to scroll in the context menu. However, you’ll need to restart Firefox after changing your menu in order to get Scroll Search Engines to start working again. This shouldn’t be much of a problem, unless you’re changing your context menu all the time, which I suspect most people don’t do.
Version 0.4.1 – November 4, 2006
This changes back to pre-0.4 functionality where 1 scroll event == one search engine. In 0.4 I tried to take into account the magnitude of the scroll, i.e. if I got the scroll value 3 then I moved to the next one, if I got 6 then I moved down 2 engines, but this seems to cause problems for people because of different scroll wheel settings. So I’ve moved back to each scroll event only changing to the next search engine, not trying to calculate how far down the list we should go.
Version 0.4 – November 3, 2006
Now it’s also possible to scroll when you’ve selected a word and are searching for it with the context menu. Assuming you have Google selected as search engine and have highlighted the word “monkey” on a webpage, you can now rightclick, move your mouse over ‘Search Google for “monkey”‘ and then scroll and you’ll change which engine will be used for the search.
Version 0.3.1 – November 1, 2006
This is just to fix the supported Firefox version numbers. 1.5 should never have been supported, this is strictly for 2.0 and newer.
Version 0.2 – November 1, 2006
Note: These version numbers are incorrect. This only works with Firefox 2.0.* . I’ve uploaded a new version, 0.3 which has the correct version numbers and it’s pending approval.
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This enhanced feature is very useful. thank you.
When you shut the navigation toolbar, I want to use this function.
Please build version for firefox 3.0b4. Your exestion very good, I like it!!!
I like this extension very much! I have one idea for an enhancement, however. At present, it scrolls up and down in a list, stopping at beginning and end. I’d like it to be able to cycle through the list in either direction–that is, to treat the list like a loop, without beginning or end. I use few enough search engines that it wouldn’t take long to roll the mouse wheel to find the one I want. It’s a little frustrating when I scroll and nothing happens, because I’m already at the beginning or end of the list. If the list were a loop I wouldn’t have to think about the direction I scroll. I would simply scroll until I saw the icon I wanted. Actually, I would probably always scroll down; if the list were a loop, I’d still be able to get to the engine I wanted eventually, without hitting the end of the list and having to reverse the scroll.
Thanks!
@Avalon, Walter: I’ll build a version for Firefox 3 when it’s released. Due to the review process at AMO I’m reluctant to build a new version for every beta but I’ll get one out for the actual 3.0 release. And I’ll try to put in an option in it to scroll in a circle.
or the actual 3.0 release. And I’ll try to p
Well FF3 RC1 is out, there won’t be any real changes now – just the odd bug fixes.
I know most people in the tech world have started the switch (heck it’s all I hear about on social sites like digg etc.)
Any chance you could update this truly fantastic extension?
Cheers,
Panda
Version 1.0 is here, with firefox 3 compatibility and loop scrolling. Enjoy.
It’s great to see a new version, especially with the looping function. This is a very useful add-on.
I’m using Fx3b5 under Ubuntu 8.04 (upgrade to RC has not been sent yet). Although your site and the AMO page say that version 1.0 should be compatible with Fx3, I’m not able to install it. The download button at AMO appears white (it would be appear green, usually), and when I download and try to install it from this site, I get a message say that it’s incompatible.
Hi Navneeth
I’m not completely sure how the numbering scheme works but I think the 3.0 – 3.0.* does not include beta versions, for that it would have to be 3.0b5 – 3.0.* or something like that. You can try downloading the .xpi file to your computer, opening it with some zip program and editing the file install.rdf to include support for 3.0b5 and then try re-installing. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that send me an email and I can build and send you a custom version that you can use until you get rc1. I don’t want to change at AMO cause it’s a big hassle and I don’t have b5 installed myself. Please let me know if you want a custom build.
Thanks for adding the loop feature! But why not make it an option in Add-on management, where I think most people would expect to find it? Better yet, it should be the default behavior, I think. Nonetheless, a useful add-on.
+1 on having the option show in Add-on manager. It might be nitpicking but it might help new users IMHO. Also IMHO this should be default functionality for Firefox.
Keep up the great work.
Version 1.0.1 adds an options window accessible through the add-ons window, and the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to select engines. Enjoy!
Keyboard shortcuts seems dont work with Firefox 3.0.1 on Mac OS X 10.5.4 PPC.
Any solutions ??
Keep the good work.
This extension is very useful. I like it. Thank you.
I found a problem with Scroll Search Engines 1.0.1 on Firefox 3.0.1.
When I use full screen mode, this extension doesn’t work (I can’t change search engines by scrolling the mouse).
When there’re many search engines installed, scrolling mouse to find one specific engine is uneasy over a bunch of engines. How about auto popup the engine list when mouse is hovered over it for easy user selecting an engine?
Fantastic add-on. Particularly the ability to right click and scroll through the search engines.
If I may make a suggestion, the ability to add quotes around the search terms would be very useful. Perhaps with Ctrl + click and/or middle click.
This feature is very nice, but not indispensable. BUT what is absolutely needed and what all other Internet Browser do is a scroller for the actual search line every time i go to “search” I want to see what I searched before, otherwise I have to type the words again and again! Thansk a lot giving a site web, where this exists.
Reagards,
PAUL
I agree with “r”…this would be almost perfect if there was an option to select the search engine in the context menu from a drop-down list.
Maybe provide an option for the context menu mode: the user could then select “scrolling” or “drop-down list”. That would be ideal IMO.
Will this be working with FF 3.5? I really miss it!