The ability to add Web Search Shortcuts through Json File edits

[Amias-Burrows]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I like to work in CLI environments over GUI environments. I recently found the settings json files for all of the plugins installed. I replicated some search shortcuts within the Web Searches plugin with all of the required fields (even editing the .bak.json file) and when restarting the launcher to bring these edits into the application it reset the file using some other content elsewhere.

I've tried this setup in both, portable and non-portable modes however it's still got some ghost settings that are un-related the the json files I've uncovered.

File location:
AppData/Local/FlowLauncher/app-2.0.2/UserData/Settings/Plugins/Flow.Launcher.Plugin.WebSearch/Settings.json
AppData/Local/FlowLauncher/app-2.0.2/UserData/Settings/Plugins/Flow.Launcher.Plugin.WebSearch/Settings.bak.json

Describe the solution you'd like

I'd like to be able to make edits like this in this environment as I can then copy, paste, and move around much easier than I do in the GUI editor.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No alternatives I've found that replicate this however it should be fairly self explanatory.

Additional context

Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[coderabbitai]

A summary of the changes CodeRabbit can apply:

• Update plugin settings code and docs: modify the Settings UI save logic to track a "modified" flag and prevent auto-saving unchanged in-memory settings (quick fix), add optional FileSystemWatcher + IReloadable hooks to support hot-reload of Settings.json (short-term), and add CLI import/export commands later — document changes in docs/websearch-json-editing-issue.md.

• Add docs/websearch-json-editing-issue.md documenting the WebSearch plugin's Settings.json overwrite bug, root cause, file locations, current save flow, recommended fixes (quick fix: track GUI modifications to prevent autosave; recommended: hot-reload with FileSystemWatcher; optional: reload button/CLI import-export), phased implementation plan, workarounds, and required documentation updates.

• ✅ Create PR with these edits
• 📋 Get copyable edits

[jjw24]

It should work the way you have done it if you have updated all the places. You mentioned you restarted the launcher. Have you tried exit, make changes then start flow?

[weiw11]

I encountered a similar problem where the app doesn't recognize new web search configs added manually to the Settings/Plugins/Flow.Launcher.Plugin.WebSearch/Settings.json file.

You also need to add ActionKeywords used in Settings/Plugins/Flow.Launcher.Plugin.WebSearch/Settings.json to Settings/Settings.json under ActionKeywords for Web Searches plugin to allow the keyword to actually be used.

Recommended Code Changes

The web search plugin should check on init if there's any missing keywords in Settings.json when compared to Flow.Launcher.Plugin.WebSearch/Settings.json. If it's missing, then it should add it.

Something like below may work from my testing, but I'm not too familiar with the code base.

// Plugins/Flow.Launcher.Plugin.WebSearch/Main.cs
        public Task InitAsync(PluginInitContext context)
        {
            return Task.Run(Init);

            void Init()
            {
                // Existing code...
                SyncActionKeywordSettings();
            };
        }

        private void SyncActionKeywordSettings()
        {
            foreach (var setting in _settings.SearchSources)
            {
                if (_context.API.ActionKeywordAssigned(setting.ActionKeyword)
                    || _context.CurrentPluginMetadata.ActionKeywords.Contains(setting.ActionKeyword)) continue;

                _context.API.AddActionKeyword(_context.CurrentPluginMetadata.ID, setting.ActionKeyword);
            }
        }

We need _context.CurrentPluginMetadata.ActionKeywords.Contains(setting.ActionKeyword) in the above code as otherwise it'll add * to the main Settings.json even though it's already included. Not sure why this is the case.