Search Engine Usage Study

A study to assess how individuals interact with their search engines.

Requirements

• Node.js, available via Homebrew on macOS
• Mozilla web-ext

Supported NPM commands

The repo comes with a set of pre-defined NPM commands (to run as npm run <command>):

• compile-typescript: Compiles the Typescript source code. The compiled code is saved in the src/ directory.
• build: assembles the final addon. The bundler generated code is saved in the dist/ directory.
• dev: assembles the addon in developer mode. In this mode data doesn't get submitted but, instead, is dumped to the Browser Console. This mode allows for a smoother development process.
• lint: run linting on the add-on code.
• package: packages the final archive containing the bundled addon, is saved in the web-ext-artifacts directory.
• start: build the addon and run a Firefox instance and side-load the add-on for manual testing or debugging purposes.
• test-integration: perform the provided integration test for the final addon.
• watch: assembles the addon in developer mode, then runs the browser and watches the source code for changes, automatically reloading the extension when needed.

Manual testing in the browser

To test, either load as a temporary add-on in Firefox (about:debugging) or Chrome ("developer mode" in chrome://extensions) or use npm run start.

Debugging output is available in Tools → Web Developer → Browser Console. Make sure that the Show Content Messages option is checked. You might find it helpful to set a filter for debugging messages of interest.