Things to do when your cap runs out

MyLocal.co.za/google search plugin for Firefox

I only spent a few minutes on this and it works for me, so if it works for you too... bonus.

Aim:
To add a search plugin for mylocal.co.za/google to the plugins in the Firefox search engine drop-down menu.
This is convenient for when you're capped and find yourself missing google.

Notes:
We don't want to place this in the global Firefox searchplugins directory for maintenance reasons, so we need to add this directory to the relevant user config location:

Linux users (tested with Firefox 2.x):
In your home directory, make a directory called searchplugins in your .mozilla/firefox/blahblahblah.default directory.
Windows users (untested):
This would be in "Documents and Settings/<username>/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/blahblahblah.default".

Where blahblahblah is some random name that Firefox generated when you installed it.

Now create an XML file called google_mylocal.xml, or whatever name you fancy.
It is probably advisable not to clobber the default search engine xml filenames.

Here are the contents of the file:
Code: 
<SearchPlugin xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/">
<ShortName>MyLocal.co.za/Google</ShortName>
<Description>MyLocal.co.za Google Search</Description>
<InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
<Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon;base64,AAABAAEAEBAAAAAAAABoBQAAFgAAACgAAAAQAAAAIAAAAAEACAAAAAAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFbQAKBqNQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAICAAAAAAICAAEBAQEBAAACAgAAAAACAgABAQEBAQAAAgIAAAAAAgIAAQEAAAAAAAICAAAAAAICAAEBAAAAAAACAgAAAAACAgABAQAAAAAAAgIAAgIAAgIAAQEAAAAAAAICAgICAgICAAEBAAAAAAACAgICAgICAgABAQAAAAAAAgICAAACAgIAAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP//AAD//wAA//8AAJ5BAACeQQAAnk8AAJ5PAACeTwAAkk8AAIBPAACATwAAjE8AAP//AAD//wAA//8AAP//AAA=</Image>
<Url type="application/x-suggestions+json" method="GET" template="http://www.mylocal.co.za/google/complete/search?output=firefox&amp;client=firefox&amp;qu={searchTerms}"/>
<Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://www.mylocal.co.za/google/search">
  <Param name="q" value="{searchTerms}"/>
  <Param name="ie" value="utf-8"/>
  <Param name="oe" value="utf-8"/>
  <Param name="aq" value="t"/>
</Url>
<SearchForm>http://www.mylocal.co.za/google</SearchForm>
</SearchPlugin>

Paste that in your favourite editor and save it with the filename specified above in the searchplugin directory you added.

Restart Firefox and you should see a new search engine with the "ML" logo in the drop-down menu.
Select and enjoy ;).

EDIT: I removed the two lines of dynamic parameters because it looks like some kind of official branding :o.
I tried removing the xmlns attribute but that just broke the plugin.
I've also made plugins for aardvark.co.za and funnel.co.za and they appear to work. I'll upload them somewhere if anyone is interested.
 
Last edited:
The list has been Updated on 07 October 2008

Please see the notice, if you are interested in helping expand the project.

I might have missed some links, so just send me a pm if you are upset :p
 
This might be somewhat off-topic, but isn't it possible to access international with local-only bandwidth through some kind of VPN service?

This would be useful with eg. Mweb's uncapped local when international runs out.
I would assume it's not possible, or has some major problems. Otherwhise all Mweb subscribers would have cheap uncapped (basically). Or I could be majorly mistaken.
 
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