April 2007
Intermediate to advanced
511 pages
12h 4m
English
Content preview from Programming FirefoxBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 11. Installation and Deployment
The most common way to implement a Firefox-related solution is through an extension to the Firefox browser. An extension is designed to run within the browser while attaching its interface elements to the browser’s existing window and menu hierarchy.
A second option for applications designed to run outside a browser is to run them as a XULRunner application.
XULRunner is a deployment method that uses the standalone Gecko runtime engine (also known as XULRunner) to launch XUL applications. The XULRunner executable must be downloaded onto the client’s computer. The newly developed XUL application must then be downloaded to the target client and installed through a xulrunner.exe --install-app "myApplicationName" command.
Developers can also distribute plug-ins—snippets of code that augment functionality for the browser but may not have an interface with the user.
Tip
Although plug-in deployment is a process that is generally similar to that of extensions, we do not cover plug-in development in this text.
Finally, developers are free to download new themes and skins, files that can provide a completely customized look to Firefox or other XUL-based applications.
This chapter covers the basics of deploying applications, extensions, and skins, including:
The basic file structure for applications, extensions, and skins
Packaging the files for distribution
Deploying standalone applications for XULRunner
Developing and installing skins
Developing and installing ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.