I want to compile a portable version of Firefox 3 on a low cost Intel Celeron Windows Xp machine to run as a kiosk computer. So i just want the browsing functionality since i'll be running it on the fullscreen mode. What are the steps to do a minimal rebuild from the sources?
Also what is firefox's command line parameters to open a site from the cmd?
A "Stripped down minimal build" doesn't really make any sense. You can't really exclude any functionality that would make it run faster or be any smaller, since most of the code that Firefox needs to render webpages is the same code that it uses to render its user interface. Forget about trying to "strip down" the code.
That being said, it sounds like you probably want to use XULRunner, which will let you use all the web browsing functionality of Firefox, but wrap it in your own GUI. You can find an ultra-minimalist browser XUL application here:
http://benjamin.smedbergs.us/xulrunner/mybrowser-0.2.2.xulapp
There is a Kiosk mode addon (more for a lock-down) for Firefox.
You may be in general interested in this other question here:
How to lock down Windows XP for use as an internet kiosk?
Here is a gHacks reference for custom builds.
and, a Prism reference.
http://webconverger.com/ provides a minimalistic OS build featuring Firefox. There is also build instructions if you want to build your own customised images.
Related
I've been working on a XULRunner based program for quite long. Since XULRunner isn't actively supported anymore, I kept running my program via Firefox with its -app switch. Now I'd like to build a standalone program, with an installer to distribute, but I cannot find any relating information. Is that even possible?
What you want to do is really pretty much the original use case. I've only personally seen it done with NSIS, but also Inno is mentioned in the documentation.
Here are some helpful links...
Deploying XULRunner
Gives a high level overview.
The short version is that you need to bring your own installer solution, but one example is detailed here:
Windows Into setup installer
Or, using NSIS, this stub:
Sample NSIS script for XULRunner
I'm using node-webkit to build a self-contained web app demo, and for some reason, the -webkit-backface-visibility CSS3 property doesn't work – but only when I run the app on Windows, not on Mac.
When I say it doesn't work, I mean it's exactly as if the property isn't supported: when I flip an element over on its back, I see it reversed, rather than hidden.
The issue isn't only with my particular code, either, as online demos of -webkit-backface-visibility (like this one) don't work when I run them in the app on Windows:
Is this a bug in node-webkit? Is there any way I can get this to work?
Well, it sounds like a bug. It might be the same issue that causes WebGL not to be available with specific hardware/driver combinations on Windows:
https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit/wiki/Webgl-support-on-windows
On Windows with some hardware and driver, WebGL won't work until you copy D3DCompiler_43.dll and d3dx9_43.dll to node-webkit's directory, or install DirectX 9 redistributable.
For license reasons we cannot ship those DLLs.
This seems to have fixed a similar problem with backface-visibility reported here:
CSS: backface-visibility and perspective doesn't work
It WORKS! Thanks a lot! I've added two dll files two node-webkit package and it works!
I am a web developer. I don't know how to build native Windows applications. I recently built a Mac desktop application (using MacRuby) which is a WebKit wrapper around one of my web applications. I'd like to do the same thing for Windows (preferably in Ruby, but whatever is easiest).
Since this is not the core of the application, I'd rather not spend a lot of time trying to build and maintain it. I just need a Windows application that can:
Open a specific website on application launch using an embedded WebKit WebView
Trigger Growl notifications via JavaScript (with some sort of named bridge)
What is the easiest, fastest, cleanest way to do this?
Update: So far I've come across some frameworks like Qt and Awesomium. I don't know how these frameworks compare to other options available, so if you have any opinions or advice, I would appreciate it.
Check out http://appjs.org/ it's built with NodeJS at its core! And it uses chromium webkit at it's core :D
Well, this is a very old question, but if you are still interested...
I'd recommend Qt. There are some very good books available with a lot of boilerplate code and wizard-type tools. You will be able to find example code demonstrating the embedded Webkit that you can modify to suit your needs. It is free and redistribution is free (last I knew). You won't have to know anything about native Windows development, nor even use any native Windows dev tools.
Good luck!
I am not sure even of a starting point with this.. however knowing that Silverlight works across win/mac platforms (as far as I know!), is it possible to create a silverlight based screensaver?
If not, are there any tools (no flash skills unfortunately!)
Any starter points would be cool..
Thanks!
By now Silvelight is being deprecated, but if you need to run web pages as a screensaver, my startup is creating a product to do exactly that, it's called Screensaver Ninja and you can find more about it at https://screensaver.ninja. That means that all you have to do is develop the web app and leave the screensaver part to us.
Here's a screenshot of how you configure it:
Silverlight is only usable as a web browser plugin on Mac OS X. It cannot be practically used to build screensavers.
Additionally, there's good reason to believe that Silverlight is being abandoned by Microsoft. I'd avoid it for any new development.
I need to write quickly this application: a simple window that wraps
a web browser control, that runs html pages.
The Browser UI (e.g. Navigation buttons) should be suppressed.
As a .net developer, I would embed the WebBrowser OCX in a Windows Form.
But this has to run on Mac as well!
I found the following cross-platform candidates.
Which one would you choose (in terms of simplicity, stableness, community support, etc.):
wxWidgets: http://www.kirix.com/labs/wxwebconnect.html
QT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee8eRwjbcFk&feature=related
MONO: http://www.mono-project.com/WebBrowser
Why not to use embedded Webkit?
QtWebkit:
The Qt port of WebKit currently compiles and runs on Linux (including Maemo), Windows, Mac OS X and Symbian.
Click here for build instructions.
A very simple test browser is built along with the port.
Since you have (assumption made from your post) .Net experience I'd go with Mono.
Have you considered Adobe AIR?
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/
Mono is probably the best choice if you're primarily a .NET developer and don't care very much about making a well-integrated Mac app (one that behaves like a Mac app in all the many ways Mac users expect). Given your problem space, that sounds like where you are. That said, pay special attention to this limitation from the WebBrowser page if it applies to your problem:
The Mono Webbrowser currently lacks
support for window.external, the
bridge that allows Javascript code
embedded in the browser to communicate
with the managed world using the
ObjectForScripting.
QT is very well established, and a great platform if you want to develop this in C++. Remember that there are licensing fees if this is a commercial app.
I've played a bit with wxWidgets. It's big advantage here is that it's probably going to be the smallest distribution, since you only have to include what you need. If all you need is the web browser, I'd look at this, but in my experience it's hard to make wxWidgets programs look good or act correctly on Mac (or on Windows for that matter).
Another option may be to write it as a Java app using the Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit. This includes a browser control that embeds IE, Safari or Firefox, depending on the current platform, and generally behaves well on OS X.