---
title: Window.sidebar
slug: Web/API/Window/sidebar
tags:
  - DOM
  - NeedsTranslation
  - Non-standard
  - Property
  - Reference
  - TopicStub
  - Window
translation_of: Web/API/Window/sidebar
---
<div>{{APIRef}} {{Non-standard_header}}</div>

<p>Returns a sidebar object, which contains several methods for registering add-ons with the browser.</p>

<h2 id="Notes" name="Notes">Notes</h2>

<p>The sidebar object returned has the following methods:</p>

<table class="fullwidth-table">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <th>Method</th>
   <th>Description (SeaMonkey)</th>
   <th>Description (Firefox)</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td><code>addPanel(<var>title</var>, <var>contentURL</var>, "")</code></td>
   <td>Adds a sidebar panel.</td>
   <td rowspan="2">Obsolete since Firefox 23 (only present in SeaMonkey).<br>
    End users can use the "load this bookmark in the sidebar" option instead. Also see <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Creating_a_Firefox_sidebar">Creating a Firefox sidebar.</a></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td><code>addPersistentPanel(<var>title</var>, <var>contentURL</var>, "")</code></td>
   <td>Adds a sidebar panel, which is able to work in the background.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td><code>AddSearchProvider(<em>descriptionURL)</em></code></td>
   <td colspan="2">Installs a search provider (OpenSearch). <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/sidebar/Adding_search_engines_from_Web_pages#Installing_OpenSearch_plugins" title="Adding_search_engines_from_web_pages">Adding OpenSearch search engines </a>contains more details. Added in Firefox 2.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td><code>addSearchEngine(<var>engineURL</var>, <var>iconURL</var>, <var>suggestedTitle</var>, <var>suggestedCategory</var>)</code> {{Obsolete_inline(44)}}</td>
   <td colspan="2">Installs a search engine (Sherlock). <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/sidebar/Adding_search_engines_from_Web_pages#Installing_Sherlock_plugins" title="Adding_search_engines_from_web_pages">Adding Sherlock search engines </a>contains more details.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td><code>IsSearchProviderInstalled(<em>descriptionURL)</em></code></td>
   <td colspan="2">Indicates if a specific search provider (OpenSearch) is installed.</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Specification" name="Specification">Specification</h2>

<p>Mozilla-specific. Not part of any standard.</p>