Using search options in HTTP-style links

[Joseph Turner <joseph@ushin.org>]

Hello!

[[info:org#Search Options]] says that search options are intended for
file: type links only.  However, since Org documents can also be loaded
over network protocols like HTTP and hyper://, I'd like to deliberate
if/how search options might be encoded inside HTTP-style link fragments.

HTTP-style links are URL-encoded with "#"-prefixed link fragments:

(let ((domain "https://ushin.org")
      (filename "needs-list.org")
      (search-option "::#care"))
  (format "%s/%s#%s" domain (url-hexify-string filename)
          (url-hexify-string search-option)))

=>  "https://ushin.org/needs-list.org#%3A%3A%23care"

Currently, loading the above URL with EWW...

(eww "https://ushin.org/needs-list.org#%3A%3A%23care")

...loads the file in eww-mode with point at the top of the file.

I think it would be more useful to instead activate org-mode (or a mode
which derives from it - "eww-org-mode"?), decode the link fragment, and
then jump to the location specified by the search option.

Web browsers like Firefox don't handle Org search options in link
fragments, but then again, they don't handle Org documents at all.  On my
machine, loading https://ushin.org/needs-list.org#%3A%3A%23care in
Firefox downloads the file as if the fragment weren't there.

What other issues might arise when encoding search options this way?

Any other comments/questions welcome :)

Thank you!

Joseph