Programming Firefox

Chapter 5. Multiframe XUL

This chapter focuses on the design considerations behind a multiframe XUL application. These types of applications involve one or more “content” documents with which the user interacts. We will look at the following topics to help us understand the graphical and programmatic challenges of keeping application logic “in sync” with user interactions in different frames:

• The use of <iframe> and <splitter> tags to divide content display areas

• Adding a document editor and supporting controls

• The relationship between windows, documents, and content

• Event bubbling and handling

• Keeping interface widgets in sync with the content of different frames

• Adding drop-down menus to manage frame contents

• Adding dialog windows

Dividing the Display Area

Our design objective for the next few chapters is to assemble the main interface for an application that displays web pages, to cite references to web pages, and to keep references to viewed pages in some type of scratchpad.

The first step in making our NewsSearch application look like a real web utility to annotate news articles is to add some substance to the document display and control areas. Because we will be using scripts to modify the interface document (e.g., to change the document source, modify lists, and enable and disable buttons), a good practice is to stage the development by first coding up a static interface file to illustrate what the user will see. We will then incrementally code up the scripts to build the same interface ...