Custom browser homepage

[Spaloupu]

I am considering making my own browser homepage (aka the page you land on when you open up a new tab). Is there a way to do this offline? Or do I need to upload it to my site? cheers!

[Adam]

Hi there!

You can absolutely create an offline start page. You'll just keep the html file on the PC itself and direct your browser to use that file as a start page. In firefox for example, you would go to the "Homepage and New Windows" field, set it to "Custom Url" and then type "file://" followed by the path to the html file on your PC.

Just keep in mind that it will only work on that one PC. If you want it to work on multiple PCs, then the homepage file will need to be hosted somewhere.

[Aurpheus]

This thread is making me want to do that for my pc as well, I've seen that my starting webpage is pretty sucky at the moment when I first boot up my browser... Can you share the result if you do one ? I'm interested into seeing it !

I'll prolly hide mine on my website if I ever get to it, just to get to it easier across my different laptops... >_>

 

[Spaloupu]

You can absolutely create an offline start page. You'll just keep the html file on the PC itself and direct your browser to use that file as a start page. In firefox for example, you would go to the "Homepage and New Windows" field, set it to "Custom Url" and then type "file://" followed by the path to the html file on your PC.

Simpler than expected, thank you!! :D

Can you share the result if you do one ? I'm interested into seeing it !

Yeah sure! Its kind of basic at the moment, just a embedded search engine and some links lol

[Skykristal]

Yeah sure! Its kind of basic at the moment, just a embedded search engine and some links lol

If you don't mind me asking, how does one implement a simple search bar like that that uses a browser of my choice? (not google). I'm not familiar with script

[Spaloupu]

If you don't mind me asking, how does one implement a simple search bar like that that uses a browser of my choice? (not google). I'm not familiar with script

Sorry for the really late reply, I'm not really good at explaining things, nor am I the most familiar with script either as I got the code from somewhere else, but I hope this makes sense
Here is the html code for the search bar

Code

<form id="searchForm" action="https://baresearch.org/" method="get">
<select id="engine">
<option value="marginalia" data-action="https://search.marginalia.nu/search" data-name="query">Marginalia</option>
<option value="wibyme" data-action="https://wiby.me/" data-name="q">Wiby.me</option>
<option value="Duckduckgo" data-action="https://noai.duckduckgo.com/" data-name="q">Duckduckgo</option>
</select>
<input id="q" type="text" autocomplete="off" size="30"><input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>

I don't remember how exactly you are supposed to add in search engines, but I think the data-name is supposed to be what comes after the ? and before the = in the url for the search query, idk I would encourage you to play around with it because I might be forgetting something

And here is the js

Code

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
    const form = document.getElementById('searchForm');
    const input = document.getElementById('q');
    const select = document.getElementById('engine');

    form.onsubmit = function(e) {
        const selectedOption = select.options[select.selectedIndex];
        const action = selectedOption.getAttribute('data-action');
        const direct = selectedOption.getAttribute('data-direct') === 'true';

        if (direct) {
            e.preventDefault();
            window.location = action + encodeURIComponent(input.value);
        } else {
            form.action = action;
            input.name = selectedOption.getAttribute('data-name');
        }
    };

    select.onchange = () => input.name = select.options[select.selectedIndex].getAttribute('data-name');
});

Ps: you can't really use embedded search bars on free neocities sites (atleast from my experience from trying it) I think it's because it counts as using external js? i think?

[Adam]

If you don't need the fancy drop-down menu, you can skip the java script.

You can get a simple search field using something like this:

Code

<form action="https://duckduckgo.com/" method="GET">
    <input type="text" name="q" required>
    <button type="submit">Search</button>
</form>

[noahie]

I've had a custom homepage for a while now. I went a bit extra in terms of setting it up though because instead of just having my browser point to a URL with my computer's file system, I just set up an http server with Python and have my index.html file pointed to localhost:8000. THEN I set up a bash script so that the http server spins up every time I boot up my computer.

I like my homepage though. I think it looks sick.

[Skykristal]

thanks for helping me out with the search bar. This was exactly what I was looking for. works flawlessly