diff --git a/PHP.ini b/PHP.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea90e32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/PHP.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+display_errors = "stderr"
+display_startup_errors = true
+html_errors = true
+error_reporting = 'E_ALL'
+zlib.output_compression = 1
+zlib.output_compression_level = 9
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/data/xml/default.flags.xml b/data/xml/default.flags.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dd259e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/xml/default.flags.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
+<flags>
+  <any>
+    <sbox>
+      <input_type valid="text;search;" default="text">text</input_type>
+    </sbox>
+  </any>
+</flags>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 0e8fd43..c9b25db 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 <?php
+  libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
   // load config
   $cfg=parse_ini_file("serve.ini", true);
 
   // load locale
   #$lang=locale_accept_from_http($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']);
-
   $lang="en_US";
   $strings=parse_ini_file("data/locale/".$lang."/strings/main.ini");
 
+
   // cookies
   if(!isset($_COOKIE['sts_theme'])){
     setcookie('sts_theme','default');
@@ -17,6 +18,22 @@
     setcookie('sts_scripting','none');
     $_COOKIE['sts_scripting'] = 'none';
   }
+  if(!isset($_COOKIE['sts_flags'])){
+    setcookie('sts_flags',file_get_contents('data/xml/default.flags.xml'));
+    $_COOKIE['sts_flags'] = simplexml_load_file('data/xml/default.flags.xml') or die('failed loading an xml file!');
+  }else{
+    $_COOKIE['sts_flags'] = simplexml_load_string($_COOKIE['sts_flags']);
+  }
+
+  if ($_COOKIE['sts_flags'] === false) {
+    http_response_code(500);
+    header('Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');
+    echo "An error occured within superTinySearch!\n\nWhat happened:\tfailed to parse cookie 'sts_flags'!\n\nAdditional info:\n";
+    foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $error) {
+      echo "\n\t", $error->message;
+    }
+    die(sprintf("\n\ncontact %s @ %s",$cfg['MAINTAINERS_0']['name'],$cfg['MAINTAINERS_0']['email']));  
+  }
 ?>
 <html>
   <head>
@@ -33,11 +50,14 @@
     ?>
     <?php
       echo "<div class=\"searchbox\"><form id=\"searchbox\">\n";
-      echo "<input class=\"sbox\" type=\"text\" placeholder=\"".$strings['interactions_searcharea_hint']."\" name=\"query\">";
+      echo "<input class=\"sbox\" type=\"".$_COOKIE['sts_flags']['index']['sbox_type']."\" placeholder=\"".$strings['interactions_searcharea_hint']."\" name=\"query\">";
       echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"".$strings['interactions_basic_search']."\">\n";
       echo "</form></div>"
     ?>
 
     <iframe style="position:absolute;bottom:30px;right:10px;" src="dynamicGen.php?content=aboutserver" width="376" height="276"></iframe>
+    <div class="footer">
+      <div class="footeri right">
+        <a 
   </body>
 </html>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/search.php b/search.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/src/validateSTSXML.php b/src/validateSTSXML.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..084861a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/validateSTSXML.php
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+<?php
+  libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
+  function validateXML($xmlstr,$type): bool{
+    if($type=="flags"){
+      $_xml=simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);
+      if($_xml===false){
+        return false;
+      }
+      return true;
+    }
+  }
+?>
\ No newline at end of file
