I've seen an XUL-based application recently that supposedly works on the desktop. Isn't XUL the Firefox language? I thought it wouldn't work on anything other that Firefox and certainly wouldn't work as a desktop application.
Can someone who knows more about XUL confirm its compatibility with other browsers (IE, Chrome, etc.) and if it runs as a desktop application, its compatibility with operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux)
check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XULRunner. it was created to run xul applications like firefox. songbird is also based in XUL. for more detail see this SO question.
to actually answer the real question, yes, desktop apps can be built in xul, as firefox is. the wiki page i linked to even points to a video game being built using it. at its core its just another application framework.
XUL is a descriptive language for UI used in Firefox but also used in other mozilla apps, like Thunderbird for example
There is a projet named Xul Runner which allow using XUL for desktop apps (see Pencil for example).
AFAIK, all Mozilla apps are compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux and other system for some.
XUL is a user interface language. It was created originally for mozilla/firefox, but is also used by thunderbird.
The Gecko layout engine is what renders XUL and any application that uses this engine can be built with it. See XUL Runner.
The layout engine has been written with cross platform concerns, so it runs on Windows, Linux and Macs.
XUL only works on xulrunner, and Firefox is built on top of xulrunner. Other applications are built on xulrunner (e.g. Thunderbird). You can also build applications on top of xulrunner.
Related
We have firebug or chropath or inspect element methods to find locators of a web application. Similarly, how to identify element of a Mac desktop application (for example, iTunes desktop app)?
Thanks in advance.
Use Accessibility Inspector,just type in Inspector in the spotlight. So far, its able to get class, text and labels, but not well recognize using it with Appium. I am hoping for a better more accurate tool.
You can use pyatom (python library for automated testing on MAC).
PyAtom is Python library to fully enable GUI testing of Mac applications via the Apple Accessibility API.
Github link - https://github.com/pyatom/pyatom
I have an application with web interface. Unfortunately, it has all disadvantages of being a web page:
It doesn't have a standalone window, so users cannot manage it via the taskbar.
Users see the address line with something like 'http://localhost:8080' that is not a good idea for home users.
If users click on a tray icon, there is no way to activate the tab in a browser, which contain the application interface.
So, it would be nice to have a wrapper application with a browser within.
In case of IE I know it's possible to create a window with Trident ActiveX component. But what if it's Windows XP with IE6 but installed latest Chrome? I'd like to prefer Chrome since it supports a lot more features which the user will never see.
So, is there a way to wrap a page into Chrome/Firefox and make it look like a standalone application, if one of them is presented in the user's system? (The application shouldn't install anything large, so Chromium build is not an option).
P.S. I'm not interested in supporting other platforms than Windows.
Regards,
Take a look at Chrome Apps.
I hope helps you.
I am getting started with Firefox addon development and have got myself acquainted with the Add-on Builder. Is this wizard all I need to get deep into Firefox addon development (if so, where would I create the XUL files and how would I create a custom toolbar?). Or is it that one cannot implement all features using this Add-on Builder? Also are there any good tutorials which explain how to get started with Firefox addon development using the Add-on Builder (because it seems so much easier).
Tutorials which I already have referred to:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Extensions
http://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2009/
But these are not specific to using the Add-on Builder. I would please like someone to point me to where I can find help to develop using the Add-on Builder.
Also if I am developing the addon locally using the SDK is there any good editor which I can use which will show me the list of commands that I can execute (like Eclipse in Java).
The red line is where i want my icon to appear. Is it possible to do it using the addon builder.
There are currently two kinds of Firefox extensions:
Classic extensions use a XUL-based user interface. They can do almost anything but it might take a bit until you see some results with your extension. For documentation on classic add-ons see How do I write a Firefox Addon?
Extensions based on Add-on SDK use HTML for user interface. The SDK provides a simple but limited API. In particular, it explicitly won't let you create toolbars, only single toolbar icons (which makes sense, extensions shouldn't be wasting so much screen space). It won't let you determine the icon placement either - as of Firefox 4 all extension icons are supposed to appear in the add-on bar (the user can customize the toolbars and change the placement however). You can get low-level platform access with chrome authority however. The official Add-on SDK documentation is pretty much all you've got here I think.Edit: Ok, the information on limitations of the Add-on SDK is somewhat outdated. As of Firefox 30, adding toolbars is possible. Also, as of Firefox 29 the icons are placed in the main toolbar by default - the add-on bar is no more. So the only real limitation remaining is the icon placement.
The Add-on Builder is merely a web interface to the SDK - it allows you to edit the extensions conveniently but otherwise it uses Add-on SDK to generate the extensions.
To put an icon directly in the toolbar currently, your best bet is to use Erik Vold's toolbar module ( available in Builder as a package ). here is an example that does that:
https://builder.addons.mozilla.org/addon/1044724/latest/
I would like to know whether there is any app similar to webrunner(formerly prism). this firefox addon allows web applications to be launched from the desktop and configured independently of the default web browser , somewhat similar to chrome's application shortcut.
In chrome it will not allow to have multiple tabs inside the same instance but webrunner can. That's the main reason why I stick with webrunner . Now the problem is that the creators of webrunner discontinued its development, So it will not support on latest versions of firefox. Please suggest me some app similar to webrunner .
Chrome + Profile Manager extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pobhfaiabikkbaheoohmojdkkdmladgo#detail/pobhfaiabikkbaheoohmojdkkdmladgo) provides an OK substitute.
I have a web app that works fine on desktop browsers, but struggles on the palm pre browser (via the emulator). How do I debug the app on the palm pre browser? There doesn't seem to be any error console, dom inspector, etc... I'd expect such tools from a web-app oriented phone.
The debugging tools on the webOS platform are generally still poor, and thats speaking for the application development.
I dont think there is any debugger for the web browser. You're stuck with document.write and related.
And for applications themselves, its better, but not by much. There is a command line debugger that you can use to set break points and inspect. There is also an inspector based on Safari that you can use to inspect the dom and such. And there is basic info/warn/error debugging to syslog. But these are for applications using the Mojo framework, and not exposed to web pages.
That said, the browser is based on Webkit, so its fairly close to Safari 4. There are some good sized chunks missing in Canvas and advanced CSS support. Browsing the developer forums will help see what CSS and Canvas features are missing or broken.