Dear members,
    [/tab]I'm proud and happy - all under the same breath - to present you with a brand new Search Plugin for Mozilla FireFox browsers. It was created to make your searches on Astahost a mere breeze. It installs itself in the same space as your Google Search Bar in Firefox - and does direct search of the Astahost Forums. This eliminates the need to load the Search page completely, unless you want to use any of the Advanced Search features.

Installation

[tab]All you need to do is visit our Plugins & Extensions page at: http://plugins.astahost.com and select your desired search plugin. Be sure to read the instructions there. When you click on the appropriate plugin name, it gets automatically installed in Firefox. Next, when you click on the dropdown list of available search plugins, you'll clearly see the Astahost Icon.

Here is a Screenshot of Firefox Search bar after you've installed the plugin.



Usage

    [/tab]Simply select the Astahost Search option from the dropdown list, type in your query and press enter. The appropriate results will immediately get listed in your browser.


Update

[tab]The plugin is set to auto-update itself, and checks for updates automatically everyday. In case we announce an update, it'll automatically update itself from the same location the very same day.


Enjoy
Regards,
m^e


P.S.: Don't hesitate to contact me in case of any technical queries/problems in installing the plugin.

Thanks so much m^e. I wish I knew how you did this, but it's probably over my head. Now we can stress searching the forum before posting because it will be so much easier.

~Viz

Awesome M^E, I downloaded firefox a few minutes ago, just to few this search plugin , it's amazing. Maybe you could also make on for IE or Netscape?

I know it would be hard, but could you make the script available to Googlebar users? I use that extension in place of the default search thing of Firefox, and I still want to search astahost with it.

Cool. Thanks for giving me a new objective I was wondering what to do next.. Lets see if I can crack this nut

Oh.. and I also need reviews on this plugin from those who've tried it already.. about speed, ease of use etc. etc.. whatever you have felt after using it. That'll help me improve it.

Ooh, comments...

I think it was quite fast. Much faster than trying to load the search page, then actually search. But, astahost's server is still quite slow, so displaying the results page still takes some time. But that isn't your plugin's fault.

Also, you can add some more functions to it, maybe like when you have "user:" before your searching keywords, it would search posts made by the user with the first keyword of your search. Kinda like the "define:" or "site:" function of Google.

It looks great to me, but i use IE, so is there a plugin to, i would appreciate that much.

admin it really help full for me here after to make posting so i can make out where what i did

M^E, I was wondering if you would be willing to make a tutorial on writing extensions or plugins or whatever category this falls under for Firefox. And also, When I get home next week (this coming Wednessday) I will see if I can start work on an astahost search plugin for IE if you haven't already done so. And netscape for those who use that.

~Viz

Oh how cooool I've no clue about IE plugins - if you can do that.. AWESOMEEEE ... yup.. I'll create a quick tutorial about the search plugins.

Meanwhile, Thanks for the encouragement guys The plugins installation procedure has been updated - check the first post again. Now you don't need to manually download and unzip the plugin. Simply follow the link mentioned there, and click on the appropriate plugin to install it automatically into Firefox - just like Mozilla's own page for Firefox search plugins...

Have fun
Regards,
m^e