Feature Request: Support URLs with multiple parameters

[tomgeraghty3]

I used to use a program called "Launchy" way back when which allowed you to do very similar to what this plugin is doing here i.e. type text that is then translated into URL query parameters and launch the browser. It's great to see this on a modern app like PowerToys so thanks for this.

Something that I did have previously, which looks to be missing is the ability to support multiple query parameters.
To give you an example, I used to do this in Launchy:
rail WBQ GLC 121224 10 00 which translates to "Lookup trains from Warrington Bank Quay to Glasgow Central on 12/12/24 at 10am"
This would then resolve to the following and open it in the browser:
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/journey-planner/?type=single&origin=WBQ&destination=GLC&leavingType=departing&leavingDate=121224&leavingHour=10&leavingMin=00&adults=1

I was hoping this plugin would be able to support the above too. In the config file your URL could be something like
"Url": "https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/journey-planner/?type=single&origin=%s&destination=%s&leavingType=departing&leavingDate=%s&leavingHour=%s&leavingMin=%s&adults=1"

but if I do that and supply multiple arguments it replaces all of the %s with it
e.g. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/journey-planner/?type=single&origin=WBQ+GLC+121224+10+00&destination=WBQ+GLC+121224+10+00&leavingType=departing&leavingDate=WBQ+GLC+121224+10+00&leavingHour=WBQ+GLC+121224+10+00&leavingMin=WBQ+GLC+121224+10+00&adults=1

Is this something that could be looked at if it's not too big a change?
I'm not too verse in .NET / C# so would struggle but if you point me in the right direction, might be able to work it out

[Daydreamer-riri]

Thank you for liking it.

I believe the main issue here is not about functionality implementation. The feature you described is quite different from the core functionality of WebSearchShortcut. Essentially, WebSearchShortcut is a search box, which means that aside from selecting a search engine, the only input parameter is the "search term."

From the user's perspective, this plugin essentially brings the search engine's search box to PowerToys Run.

In terms of implementation, this means that the "search term" parameter is absolutely crucial. It must support spaces and various symbols. I haven't yet thought of a good design that can support more input parameters without affecting the core functionality. Do you know of any other similar app that have this feature? Perhaps we could use them as a reference.

[tomgeraghty3]

Hi @Daydreamer-riri
Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah I see what you mean, it's a different usecase/possibly plugin required because we're doing more than "searching".

The app it originally came from was "Launchy" which had a number of built in plugins - the one described above was called "Weby". I managed to find a copy of the source code: https://github.com/OpenNingia/Launchy - as you can see it's very old which is why I am looking for a modern replacement - yours is the first I've come across that is as close to that as possible. It looks like it's written in C++

For reference, if you didn't supply all parameters required then it would just leave them blank - ideally you'd want to tell the user in some way (e.g. a popup ""rail" requires 5 input parameters but only 3 were specified") but that's very minor in the list of requirements

[Daydreamer-riri]

How do we distinguish these parameters from the search terms?