Setting OpenSearch ShortName to ease deployment of Virtuoso Faceted Browser (FCT) as search engine

What

Virtuoso's Faceted Browser can be used as a search engine by any OpenSearch-compliant browser.

All the user needs to do is click on the add this engine link on the FCT page, e.g., http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/fct/, which will automatically add that Faceted Browser to their browser's list of search engines:





The name shown in the browser's search engine menu will be the human-readable "ShortName" from the OpenSearch Description Document, automatically generated by FCT's built-in opensearchdescription.vsp.

Why

Unless otherwise configured, Virtuoso will use the DefaultHost value from the [URIQA] section of the INI file as this ShortName.

However, OpenSearch dictates that this plain-text value be no more than 16 characters long, which is often exceeded by the DefaultHost value (e.g., linkeddata.uriburner.com).

When the DefaultHost value is longer than 16 characters, the following warning will be presented in the Virtuoso log: 


14:47:21 PL LOG: facets: ShortName from URIQA too long. Please set 'fct_opensearch_shortname' in registry

How

To avoid or resolve the warning above, a command of the following form should be executed in iSQL or through your local Virtuoso instance Conductor (at http://{virtuoso-host-FQDN[:{listen-port}]}/conductor, e.g., http://my-host.example.com:8890/conductor): 


set registry_set ('fct_opensearch_shortname', '16 or fewer chars')

For example, 


set registry_set ('fct_opensearch_shortname', 'URIBurner FCT')

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