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XMonad.Actions.Search

Contents

Usage
Use case: searching with a submap

Description
Synopsis

search :: Browser -> Site -> Query -> X ()
data SearchEngine = SearchEngine Name Site
searchEngine :: Name -> String -> SearchEngine
searchEngineF :: Name -> Site -> SearchEngine
promptSearch :: XPConfig -> SearchEngine -> X ()
promptSearchBrowser :: XPConfig -> Browser -> SearchEngine -> X ()
selectSearch :: SearchEngine -> X ()
selectSearchBrowser :: Browser -> SearchEngine -> X ()
isPrefixOf
escape :: String -> String
use :: SearchEngine -> Site
intelligent :: SearchEngine -> SearchEngine
(!>) :: SearchEngine -> SearchEngine -> SearchEngine
prefixAware :: SearchEngine -> SearchEngine
namedEngine :: Name -> SearchEngine -> SearchEngine
amazon :: SearchEngine
alpha :: SearchEngine
codesearch :: SearchEngine
deb :: SearchEngine
debbts :: SearchEngine
debpts :: SearchEngine
dictionary :: SearchEngine
google :: SearchEngine
hackage :: SearchEngine
hoogle :: SearchEngine
images :: SearchEngine
imdb :: SearchEngine
isohunt :: SearchEngine
lucky :: SearchEngine
maps :: SearchEngine
mathworld :: SearchEngine
scholar :: SearchEngine
thesaurus :: SearchEngine
wayback :: SearchEngine
wikipedia :: SearchEngine
wiktionary :: SearchEngine
youtube :: SearchEngine
multi :: SearchEngine

Usage

This module is intended to allow easy access to databases on the Internet through xmonad's interface. The idea is that one wants to run a search but the query string and the browser to use must come from somewhere. There are two places the query string can come from - the user can type it into a prompt which pops up, or the query could be available already in the X Windows copy/paste buffer (perhaps you just highlighted the string of interest).

Thus, there are two main functions: `promptSearch`, and `selectSearch` (implemented using the more primitive `search`). To each of these is passed an engine function; this is a function that knows how to search a particular site.

For example, the `google` function knows how to search Google, and so on. You pass `promptSearch` and `selectSearch` the engine you want, the browser you want, and anything special they might need; this whole line is then bound to a key of you choosing in your xmonad.hs. For specific examples, see each function. This module is easily extended to new sites by using `searchEngine`.

The currently available search engines are:

- `amazon` -- Amazon keyword search.
- `alpha` -- Wolfram|Alpha query.
- `codesearch` -- Google Labs Code Search search.
- `deb` -- Debian package search.
- `debbts` -- Debian Bug Tracking System.
- `debpts` -- Debian Package Tracking System.
- `dictionary` -- dictionary.reference.com search.
- `google` -- basic Google search.
- `hackage` -- Hackage, the Haskell package database.
- `hoogle` -- Hoogle, the Haskell libraries API search engine.
- `images` -- Google images.
- `imdb` -- the Internet Movie Database.
- `isohunt` -- isoHunt search.
- `lucky` -- Google I'm feeling lucky search.
- `maps` -- Google maps.
- `mathworld` -- Wolfram MathWorld search.
- `scholar` -- Google scholar academic search.
- `thesaurus` -- thesaurus.reference.com search.
- `wayback` -- the Wayback Machine.
- `wikipedia` -- basic Wikipedia search.
- `youtube` -- Youtube video search.
- `multi` -- Search based on the prefix. "amazon:Potter" will use amazon, etc. With no prefix searches google.

Feel free to add more!

search :: Browser -> Site -> Query -> X () | Source

Given a browser, a search engine's transformation function, and a search term, perform the requested search in the browser.

data SearchEngine | Source

Constructors

SearchEngine Name Site |

searchEngine :: Name -> String -> SearchEngine | Source

Given a base URL, create the `SearchEngine` that escapes the query and appends it to the base. You can easily define a new engine locally using exported functions without needing to modify XMonad.Actions.Search:

     myNewEngine = searchEngine "site" "http://site.com/search="

The important thing is that the site has a interface which accepts the escaped query string as part of the URL. Alas, the exact URL to feed searchEngine varies from site to site, often considerably, so there's no general way to cover this.

Generally, examining the resultant URL of a search will allow you to reverse-engineer it if you can't find the necessary URL already described in other projects such as Surfraw.

searchEngineF :: Name -> Site -> SearchEngine | Source

If your search engine is more complex than this (you may want to identify the kind of input and make the search URL dependent on the input or put the query inside of a URL instead of in the end) you can use the alternative `searchEngineF` function.

     searchFunc :: String -> String
     searchFunc s | s `isPrefixOf` "wiki:"   = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" ++ (escape $ tail $ snd $ break (==':') s)
                  | s `isPrefixOf` "http://" = s
                  | otherwise               = (use google) s
     myNewEngine = searchEngineF "mymulti" searchFunc

`searchFunc` here searches for a word in wikipedia if it has a prefix of "wiki:" (you can use the `escape` function to escape any forbidden characters), opens an address directly if it starts with "http://" and otherwise uses the provided google search engine. You can use other engines inside of your own through the `use` function as shown above to make complex searches.

The user input will be automatically escaped in search engines created with `searchEngine`, `searchEngineF`, however, completely depends on the transformation function passed to it.

promptSearch :: XPConfig -> SearchEngine -> X () | Source

Like `search`, but in this case, the string is not specified but grabbed from the user's response to a prompt. Example:

     , ((modm, xK_g), promptSearch greenXPConfig google)

This specializes promptSearchBrowser by supplying the browser argument as supplied by `getBrowser` from XMonad.Prompt.Shell.

promptSearchBrowser :: XPConfig -> Browser -> SearchEngine -> X () | Source

Like `search`, but for use with the output from a Prompt; it grabs the Prompt's result, passes it to a given searchEngine and opens it in a given browser.

selectSearch :: SearchEngine -> X () | Source

Like `search`, but for use with the X selection; it grabs the selection, passes it to a given searchEngine and opens it in the default browser . Example:

     , ((modm .|. shiftMask, xK_g), selectSearch google)

This specializes selectSearchBrowser by supplying the browser argument as supplied by `getBrowser` from XMonad.Prompt.Shell.

selectSearchBrowser :: Browser -> SearchEngine -> X () | Source

Like `search`, but for use with the X selection; it grabs the selection, passes it to a given searchEngine and opens it in a given browser.
isPrefixOf

escape :: String -> String | Source

Escape the search string so search engines understand it. Note that everything is escaped; we could be smarter and use isAllowedInURI but then that'd be hard enough to copy-and-paste we'd need to depend on `network`.

use :: SearchEngine -> Site | Source

Given an already defined search engine, extracts its transformation function, making it easy to create compound search engines. For an instance you can use `use google` to get a function which makes the same transformation as the google search engine would.

intelligent :: SearchEngine -> SearchEngine | Source

This function wraps up a search engine and creates a new one, which works like the argument, but goes directly to a URL if one is given rather than searching.

     myIntelligentGoogleEngine = intelligent google

Now if you search for http://xmonad.org it will directly open in your browser

(!>) :: SearchEngine -> SearchEngine -> SearchEngine | Source

Connects a few search engines into one. If the search engines' names are "s1", "s2" and "s3", then the resulting engine will use s1 if the query is `s1:word`, s2 if you type `s2:word` and s3 in all other cases.

Example:

     multiEngine = intelligent (wikipedia !> mathworld !> (prefixAware google))

Now if you type "wiki:Haskell" it will search for "Haskell" in Wikipedia, "mathworld:integral" will search mathworld, and everything else will fall back to google. The use of intelligent will make sure that URLs are opened directly.

prefixAware :: SearchEngine -> SearchEngine | Source

Makes a search engine prefix-aware. Especially useful together with `!>`. It will automatically remove the prefix from a query so that you don't end up searching for google:xmonad if google is your fallback engine and you explicitly add the prefix.

namedEngine :: Name -> SearchEngine -> SearchEngine | Source

Changes search engine's name

amazon :: SearchEngine | Source

alpha :: SearchEngine | Source

codesearch :: SearchEngine | Source

deb :: SearchEngine | Source

debbts :: SearchEngine | Source

debpts :: SearchEngine | Source

dictionary :: SearchEngine | Source

google :: SearchEngine | Source

hackage :: SearchEngine | Source

hoogle :: SearchEngine | Source

images :: SearchEngine | Source

imdb :: SearchEngine | Source

isohunt :: SearchEngine | Source

lucky :: SearchEngine | Source

maps :: SearchEngine | Source

mathworld :: SearchEngine | Source

scholar :: SearchEngine | Source

thesaurus :: SearchEngine | Source

wayback :: SearchEngine | Source

wikipedia :: SearchEngine | Source

wiktionary :: SearchEngine | Source

youtube :: SearchEngine | Source

multi :: SearchEngine | Source

Use case: searching with a submap

In combination with XMonad.Actions.Submap you can create a powerful and easy way to search without adding a whole bunch of bindings.

First import the necessary modules:

     import qualified XMonad.Prompt         as P
     import qualified XMonad.Actions.Submap as SM
     import qualified XMonad.Actions.Search as S

Then add the following to your key bindings:

     ...
     -- Search commands
     , ((modm, xK_s), SM.submap $ searchEngineMap $ S.promptSearch P.defaultXPConfig)
     , ((modm .|. shiftMask, xK_s), SM.submap $ searchEngineMap $ S.selectSearch)

     ...

     searchEngineMap method = M.fromList $
           [ ((0, xK_g), method S.google)
           , ((0, xK_h), method S.hoogle)
           , ((0, xK_w), method S.wikipedia)
           ]

Or in combination with XMonad.Util.EZConfig:

     ...
     ] -- end of regular keybindings
     -- Search commands
     ++ [("M-s " ++ k, S.promptSearch P.defaultXPConfig f) | (k,f) <- searchList ]
     ++ [("M-S-s " ++ k, S.selectSearch f) | (k,f) <- searchList ]

     ...

     searchList :: [(String, S.SearchEngine)]
     searchList = [ ("g", S.google)
                  , ("h", S.hoohle)
                  , ("w", S.wikipedia)
                  ]

Make sure to set firefox to open new pages in a new window instead of in a new tab: `Firefox -> Edit -> Preferences -> Tabs -> New pages should be opened in...`

Now mod-s + g/h/w prompts you for a search string, then opens a new firefox window that performs the search on Google, Hoogle or Wikipedia respectively.

If you select something in whatever application and hit mod-shift-s + g/h/w it will search the selected string with the specified engine.

Happy searching!

Produced by Haddock version 2.4.2