Add Autodiscovery for OpenSearch to gitlab.com
Release notes
Problem to solve
As a user, I want to easily add GitLab as an alternative search engine to my browser, so I can start searching within GitLab from my browser search bar.
Intended users
All users, who want to search something (e.g. projects, issues, milestones, epics, code, wiki, ...) in GitLab
- Parker (Product Manager)
- Delaney (Development Team Lead)
- Sasha (Software Developer)
- Devon (DevOps Engineer)
- Sidney (Systems Administrator)
- Rachel (Release Manager)
- Simone (Software Engineer in Test)
User experience goal
The user should be able to add GitLab as an alternative search engine to their browser to start searching within GitLab from their browser search bar.
Proposal
Using the OpenSearch description format lets GitLab describe a search engine for itself so that a browser or other client application can use that search engine. OpenSearch is supported by (at least) Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Chrome. This improves the Single User Experience.
The OpenSearch description should be made available at <gitlab-url>/opensearch.xml.
To also support autodiscovery, add a <link> element to the <head> of all web pages:
<link rel="search"
type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
title="Search GitLab"
href="/opensearch.xml">Further details
The XML file that describes a search engine could be something allong the basic template:
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/"
xmlns:moz="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/">
<ShortName>GitLab</ShortName>
<Description>Search GitLab</Description>
<InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
<Image width="16" height="16" type="image/x-icon">https://gitlab.com/favicon.ico</Image>
<Url type="text/html" method="get" template="https://gitlab.com/search?search={searchTerms}"/>
<moz:SearchForm>https://gitlab.com/search</moz:SearchForm>
</OpenSearchDescription>Permissions and Security
Permissions required to perform the described action: access to GitLab
Documentation
There is no need for documentation as websites with OpenSearch support are detected automatically and suggested to users by browsers.
Availability & Testing
Available Tier
- Free