The Mindzilla Search Plugin Validator is a powerful web-based tool that can save you time as you develop or debug search plugins for Mozilla browsers. The real power of this tool is that you can alter the source code of your plugin and test your changes without stopping and restarting your browser.

Here are some of the common tasks that you can perform using the tool:

Getting started

1. Copy the source code of your plugin to your clipboard.
2. Paste the source into the tool's plugin source code field.
3. You're ready to check out your plugin.

Validate your plugin's syntax

1. To ensure that your plugin is syntactically correct, press the Check Syntax button in the Validate section.
2. As the syntax is validated, the results are displayed in the Results area.
3. If any issues are identified that you think should be resolved, modify your source code in the source code field and continue checking the syntax until you're satisfied.

Perform a search with your plugin

1. To execute a search using your plugin text, type some relevant search text into the Search for: input field. Ensure that the search results radio button is selected in the Show: list and press the Search button.
2. Your search results should display in the Results area.

If you didn't see the search results that you desired, check the URL that is used to request the results:

1. Leave your plugin text in the source code field.
2. Ensure that you have entered a search term.
3. Click the search URL radio button to generate the URL that your browser will create using your current plugin text and your search term.
4. Press the Search button to generate the URL. It is displayed in the Results area as a clickable link.
5. If the URL is not what you expected, alter the plugin text and repeat this process until you get the correct URL.

Simulate sidebar results for your search

1. The form should contain your plugin source code and a phrase to search for.
2. Select the sidebar results radio button and press the Search button.
3. Your sidebar results should display in the Results area.

Do the sidebar results match the links from the results page? If they don't try selecting the sidebar debugging radio button and the tool will describe how it parses the results page using the <interpret> tags in your plugin. When you're debugging, modify the plugin source and resubmit the form until you get the results that you want.

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