Overview

Search engines that export OpenSearch RSS should identify their content and search syntax via an OpenSearch Description document.

An example OpenSearch™ Description document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchdescription/1.0/">
  <Url>http://www.unto.net/aws?q={searchTerms}&amp;searchindex=Electronics
   &amp;flavor=osrss&amp;itempage={startPage}</Url>
  <Format>http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/</Format>
  <ShortName>Electronics</ShortName>
  <LongName>Amazon Electronics</LongName>
  <Description>Search for electronics on Amazon.com.</Description>
  <Tags>amazon electronics</Tags>
  <Image>http://www.unto.net/search/amazon_electronics.gif</Image>
  <SampleSearch>ipod</SampleSearch>
  <Developer>DeWitt Clinton</Developer>
  <Contact>dewitt@unto.net</Contact>
  <Attribution>Product and search data &amp;copy; 2005, Amazon, Inc.,
   All Rights Reserved</Attribution>
  <SyndicationRight>open</SyndicationRight>
  <AdultContent>false</AdultContent>
</OpenSearchDescription>

• Note: This document should be made available via HTTP GET at a publicly accessible URL.
• Note: OpenSearch Description documents can not contain HTML.
• Note: The Url and Attribution tags above are shown with line breaks for formatting purposes only.

List of elements:

• OpenSearchDescription – The root node of the OpenSearch Description document.
  • Note: the xmlns attribute must equal http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchdescription/1.0/
  • Required

• Url – The HTTP GET URL at which the search content can be found.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Note: This URL must be written using the OpenSearch Query Syntax.
  • Note: Ampersand characters must be represented as HTML entities (i.e., "&").
  • Note: A9.com requires that the OpenSearch Description be published on the same host as the Url itself.
  • Restrictions: Fully expanded URL (including search terms) must contain 1024 or fewer characters.
  • Required

• Format – The XML schema used by the search engine specified by Url.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Example: http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/
  • Restrictions: Currently, the only valid value is: http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/.
  • Required

• ShortName – A brief name that will appear in buttons, UI elements, etc., that reference this search content provider.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Restrictions: Must contain 16 or fewer characters.
  • Required

• LongName – The name by which this search content provider is referred to in hypertext links, etc.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Restrictions: Must contain 48 or fewer characters.
  • Optional. The ShortName is used if LongName is undefined

• Description – A human readable text description of the search content provider.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Restrictions: Must contain 1024 or fewer characters.
  • Required

• Tags – A space-delimited set of words that are used as keywords to identify and categorize this search content.
  • Restrictions: Must contain 64 or fewer characters.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Required

• Image – A URL that identifies the location of a 64x64 pixel image that can be used in association with this search engine.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Optional

• SampleSearch – A search string that should be used when example searches are done against this Open Search engine.
  • Restrictions: Must contain 64 or fewer characters.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Optional

• Developer – The developer or maintainer of the OpenSearch feed.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Restrictions: Must contain 64 or fewer characters.
  • Note: The Developer is not always the same as the owner, author, or copyright holder, of the source of the content itself.
  • Optional

• Contact – An e-mail address at which the developer can be reached.
  • Restrictions: Must contain 64 or fewer characters.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Required

• Attribution – A list of all content sources or platforms that should be credited.
  • Restrictions: Must contain 256 or fewer characters.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Note: Please include any copyright symbols or descriptive text as appropriate.
  • Optional

• SyndicationRight – The degree to which the search results provided by this search engine can be distributed.
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Values: This element must contain one of the following values (case insensitive):
    • open – search results can be published or re-published without restriction. This is the default.
    • limited – search results can be published on the client site, but not further republished.
    • private – search feed may be queried, but the results may not be displayed at the client site.
    • closed – search feed should not be queried, and will disable the column for searches
  • Note: The SyndicationRight must be either open or limited for the content to appear on the A9.com website.
  • Optional. If this element does not appear, the content will be considered =open=

• AdultContent – A boolean flag that must be set if the content provided is not suitable for minors
  • Parent: OpenSearchDescription
  • Values: "false", "FALSE", "0", "no", and "NO" will all be considered FALSE, all other strings will be considered TRUE
  • Optional. If this element does not appear, the content will be assumed suitable for all ages.