Mycroft
Mycroft is an expanded form of the SGML specification of Apple's Sherlock software . It describes the structure of the Mycroft search plug-ins and is therefore also used to designate the search plug-ins.
functionality
The Mycroft search plug-ins can either be installed directly via a website with a JavaScript or downloaded to the PC and copied manually into the appropriate directory of the web browser . Once installed, the user can use these browser plug-ins to access a search engine directly from the browser without first having to enter its URL in the address field. On the one hand, these plug-ins can be used to search engines like Google or Yahoo! addressed directly. On the other hand, searches can also be carried out directly on Amazon.com or ebay . Many plug-ins are also available for smaller websites, online dictionaries, telephone books, wikis , etc.
Browser
Mycroft search plug-ins can be used by Mozilla- based web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox , Netscape Navigator (version 7 or higher ), and Beonex Communicator .
These browsers either offer an input field directly in the menu bar (e.g. Mozilla Firefox) that can be used to search directly with the currently selected search plug-in. In other browsers such as the Mozilla browser, the search plug-ins can be used via the sidebar , in which a short version of the search results is then immediately displayed.
programming
The search plug-ins consist of a text file with the extension .src and optionally an icon file, which must contain an icon in the 16 × 16 pixel format . The graphics can be in JPEG , GIF or PNG format and must accordingly have one of the file extensions .jpg, .gif or .png.
The .src file contains the source code of the search plug-in and is written in a format similar to XML / HTML . There are four main tags with which the programmer determines how and where a search is carried out and how the search results are interpreted.
Search
The search tag comprises the input and artist tags explained below. These are listed separately because of their special significance. The most important thing in the search tag is the specification of the URI under which the search engine of the website to be searched can be found. The name under which the plug-in is to be displayed and the description are also specified in the search tag.
Input
The input tag specifies which GET variables are to be transferred to the search engine. One of these values is the search term entered by the user. Other values can also be set statically, which make additional settings on the search engine. They usually correspond to the HTML input tags of the search form on the search engine's website.
Interpreter
The interpreter tag defines how the search results are to be interpreted as soon as the plug-in has been called up from the browser's sidebar.
Browser
The browser tag mainly defines the URIs under which updates for the plug-in can be downloaded and how often there should be a look for updates .
Meaning of the name
The name Mycroft refers to the brother of Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes , Mycroft Holmes . This is to allude to the relationship with the Sherlock plug-ins from Apple.