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Creating OpenSearch Descriptions

Zotero uses OpenSearch 1.1 and OpenURL with some extensions to allow easy specification of locate engines. For a simple OpenURL endpoint, one can use something like:

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<ShortName>CrossRef</ShortName>
<Description>CrossRef Search Engine</Description>
<Image width="16" height="16" type="image/x-icon">http://crossref.org/favicon.ico</Image>
<Url type="text/html" method="GET"
	xmlns:z="http://www.zotero.org/namespaces/openSearch#" 
	template="http://crossref.org/openurl?{z:openURL}"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

For a more complicated service:

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/">
<ShortName>Google Scholar</ShortName>
<Description>Google Scholar Search Engine</Description>
<Image width="16" height="16" type="image/x-icon">http://scholar.google.com/favicon.ico</Image>
<Url type="text/html" method="GET"
	xmlns:rft="info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal" 
	xmlns:z="http://www.zotero.org/namespaces/openSearch#" 
	template="http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=&amp;as_epq={z:title}&amp;as_occt=title&amp;as_sauthors={rft:aufirst?}+{rft:aulast?}&amp;as_ylo={z:year?}&amp;as_yhi={z:year?}&amp;as_sdt=1.&amp;as_sdtp=on&amp;as_sdtf=&amp;as_sdts=22&amp;"/>
</OpenSearchDescription>

For more details, see the OpenURL documentation and the OpenSearch documentation.

Advertising Engines

You can advertise locate engines by adding

<link rel="search" type="application/x-openurl-opensearchdescription+xml" title="Engine Name" href="http://www.example.com/myengine.xml" />

to the <head> section of any webpage (with the title and href attribute contents modified). The user can then install the locate engine under the locate menu when visiting the webpage.