I have been running Rational Software Architect quite happily since the upgrade from Jaunty to Karmic, except for a problem with button clicks (http://petejcullen.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/karmic-first-impressions/). I did however get further problems when attempting to create a new workspace. The following message were written to the .metadata/.log in my workspace directory:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2009-11-25 11:23:49.744
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
org.eclipse.swt.SWTError: XPCOM error -2147467262
at org.eclipse.swt.browser.Mozilla.error(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.browser.Mozilla.setText(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.browser.Browser.setText(Unknown Source)
…

and

!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui.workbench 4 0 2009-11-25 11:23:49.719
!MESSAGE Widget disposed too early!
!STACK 0
java.lang.RuntimeException: Widget disposed too early!
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPartReference$1.widgetDisposed(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TypedListener.handleEvent(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(Unknown Source)
…

The problem is caused by the welcome screen that is displayed when you first create a workspace (the issue is with the version of XULRunner used by Firefox in Karmic). As a workaround you can do the following:

echo “org.eclipse.ui/showIntro=false” > /tmp/noWelcomeScreen.ini
eclipse -pluginCustomization /tmp/noWelcomeScreen.ini

(fix found in the following bug report: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=483832)

OpenDocument Viewer Beta2 (2007-01-17) Daniel Carrera, Alex Hudson, Roman Fordinal, Eugene Prigorodov | OpenDocument Fellowship

OpenDocument Fellowship에서 제공하는 무료 ODF 뷰어.

맥에서는 텍스트 편집기(TextEdit.app)에서 ODT 문서를 열어볼 수 있다.

I sat down today coding away on my XULRunner application when I came across this error:

[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIWebNavigation.sessionHistory]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://global/content/bindings/browser.xml :: :: line 644" data: no]

I couldn’t find anything really useful on Google about it, as most of the posts were about different extensions to Firefox. The code I had was roughly:

vbox.setAttribute("flex", "1000");
vbox.appendChild(browser);
browser.setAttribute("type", "content-targetable");
browser.setAttribute("flex", "1000");
browser.setAttribute("src", uri);

The solution was super-simple. Just set the attributes of the browser object before adding it to its parent element. Ta-da! (At least it worked for me…)

Eccoci tornati a parlare per la prima volta di broswer ed in particolar modo di errori. Quest’oggi vedremo come risolvere l’XULRunner error all’avvio di Mozilla Firefox. Nel messaggio di errore che compare dovreste leggere qualcosa di simile:

I numeri delle versioni possono anche cambiare non vi preoccupate se non è uguale al vostro. E’ un errore che può essere causato dall’aggiornamento del broswer ed è risolvibile in pochissimo tempo, ecco cosa dovete fare:

• Andare nella directory principale e trovare la cartella di installazione di Firefox C:\Programmi\Mozilla Firefox
• Eseguire una copia di backup del file applicatio.ini
• Aprire il file con un editor di testo (blocco note ec…)
• Trovare la riga [Gecko] attribute <MinVersion=1.9.0.6>

• Cambiare l’ultima cifra del numero della versione in <MinVersion=1.9.0.5>
• Salvare il file e riavviare Firefox

Adesso tutto dovrebbe essere tornato nella norma, la procedura prevede di cambiare l’ultimo numero (digit nel gerco informatico) del MinVersion di Firefox. Una procedura facile e veloce che funziona, se avete problemi contattatemi e lasciate un commento. Alla prossima!

Condividi su:

  I’m sure you’ve heard of ChatZilla. If you haven’t, it’s probably the world’s best IRC client (or at least in my opinion :p ). It’s an add-on for Firefox. If you don’t have Firefox, or have no interest in downloading it, <insert generic offensive comment here>, or if you want to run it without Firefox (I hear it drastically slows FF down), you can run it with a magikal program called XULRunner (No h4xx, magic, or pretty ponies required here !)

Installing XULRunner

  XULRunner is a program released by Mozilla that can run certain add-ons that would normally only work for Firefox. I’m not saying you go out and download some theme or toolbar that no1 will ever see because it’s not attached to FF. I’m saying you can run programs like debuggers, FTP clients, etc.

  First off, you need to download XULRunner. I will have instructions for both Windows and Linux.

Note: If you upgrade XULRunner, you need to upgrade ChatZilla too, or ChatZilla WILL NOT WORK.

Note #2: If you see — in any commands, that’s 2 hyphens, not one.

Step 1:

Windows: Download this: XULRunner 1.9.0.11. Then extract the Zip file to your C:\ directory. Then download ChatZilla to anywhere you want. I reccomend your desktop.

Linux: Go to the terminal and type in “aptitude install xulrunner” (without the quotes).
Note: Linux users may have to type “sudo” before the word aptitude in step 1.

Step 2:

Windows: Run command prompt as an administrator by going to Start Menu->Programs->Accessories. Right click on Command Prompt, and click Run As Administrator”. When command prompt comes up, type “cd C:\XULRunner”. Then type “xulrunner –register-global” (without the quotes). After that, XULRunner is installed.

Linux: Now type “wget http://chatzilla.rdmsoft.com/xulrunner/download/chatzilla-0.9.85-xr.zip”

Step 3:

Windows: Now type “xulrunner –install-ap <package location> C:\Program Files”. Replace <package location> with your package location.

Linux: In the terminal, type “xulrunner –install-app chatzilla-0.9.85-xr.zip”.

Step 4:

Windows: ChatZilla is installed now. You can access it through C:\Program Files\ChatZilla\Chatzilla.exe.

Linux: ChatZilla is also installed. It’s at /usr/local/lib/chatzilla/chatzilla.

You now can run ChatZilla without Firefox!

As you can infer from the title, I’m quite excited about my latest progress.

Firstly, Browse can now save bookmarklets. When you trigger the palette (right click) on a bookmarklet, the ‘Download link’ option in the palette is replaced with a ‘Save bookmarklet’ option. A new toolbar appears where all the bookmarklets are lined up as buttons. They work rather well and are saved through to SSBs.

Secondly, userstyles now work. There’s a new button in the edit toolbar (I’m open to suggestions about the UI) that opens a small window with a gtksourceview inside. You can write (or copy/paste) CSS in there and click ‘Save’. The CSS is immediately applied to the page and is saved in a file in the activity preferences.

Thirdly, userscripts almost work. The UI and store are not quite ready, but the main part is that I’ve figured out how to very nicely do javascript injection. Like userstyles, I can make userscripts to be immediately executed, but it’ll be slightly harder.

There’s another small feature I’ve added. When you create an SSB, the activity preferences of Browse (without caches and cookies) are saved in the SSB bundle. When first run, they are copied over to that specific SSB’s activity data.

Here are some screenshots:

You can get this commit and try it out.

En post anterior, mi compañero hablo sobre una extensión que permitia manejar a firefox como si fuera Vim. Ahora les traigo un navegador completo que funciona solo con atajos del teclado, como si fuera el editor Emacs.

Conkeror es una navegador basado en Mozilla Firefox , con la finalidad de ser manejado a traveso de atajos del teclado, inspirado en aplicaciones como Emacs y Vim. Al ser basado en Firefox, también le funcionan las extensiones de este (aunque no todas, checar esta pagina). Al principio solo veras una ventana con el manual para usarlo, sin toolbars, una interfaz limpia.

En sistemas Debian o derivados el programa se encuentra en los repositorios:

sudo apt-get install conkeror

Para Arch Linux:

pacman -Sy conkeror-git

Para otros distribuciones pueden seguir estas instrucciones.

Un navegador, que sirve para los que prefieren manejarlo todo con el teclado o también para pantallas pequeñas.

Espero que les sirva =)

Sayounara

Ultimamente tenho usado python onde posso, na universidade (quando os professores deixam),  no estágio (estamos desenvolvendo aplicações web com Django).

A melhor IDE que experimentei até agora foi o Eclipse + pyDev, mas por algum motivo no meu Debian (Lenny) ele sempre dava um erro referente ao suporte ao browser integrado, na verdade era um popup que dizia: “This Eclipse build doesn’t have support for the integrated browser”.

Então o oráculo me disse que era referente ao pacote xulrunner, mais precisamente, a versão nos repositorios padrão do Lenny não dava suporte, sendo necessária a instalação da versão do pacote presente no debian multimedia, então foi só adicionar:

http://debian-multimedia.org/

à minha lista de repositórios e instalar o xulrunner.

No, it’s not a new AD&D spell. It’s the concept of having application-specific browser windows. It’s funny that I should read a Linux Journal article about Prism today, because I just installed Prism on my computer last night. I tried it once before, when it first came out (or was that when it first got included into Ubuntu?), and was not impressed. I couldn’t figure out why I would want to run multiple Prism apps instead of one multi-tabbed browser. Then I decided that I tend to have so many open tabs, that trying to find my Gmail tab or my Google Reader tab was a bit of a pain.

Of course, it’s still not perfect. The Prism apps are very lean, tailored to just what you need for a particular site. Or what they think you’ll need. I have some RSS feeds of webcomics and pictures in my Google Reader. Occasionally I find a comic or picture I want to save to my hard drive. No way to do that in Prism. Still it seems like a worthwhile, if incomplete, idea. I haven’t benchmarked the memory usage, but it does feel zippier versus loading tabs in Firefox.

I’m using prism-google-mail, prism-google-reader, and prism-google-talk. Ubuntu also has a handful of others like Twitter, Facebook, and some other Google stuff.

Anybody else using it? Thoughts? Hints?

Well its been a long time coming, a lot of research, and a ton of learning, but here it is.  XRap version 1.0.  You can now successfully create a Windows Installer(msi) if you are working on Windows, a tarred bunzip2 (tar.bz2) archive if you are working on Linux, and an Apple Disk Image (dmg) if you are working on a Mac.  I have worked out the bugs which I am aware of, but will definately still be working on any new ones that come up.  

Here are the steps for each platform:

Windows:

1. Open up XRap, and select the root of your XULRunner application directory, and click next.
2. Select the type of License you would like to attach to your application from the drop-down list of available licenses.  You can optionally select your own license, or no license at all. Once you have selected your license option, click next
3. You must now select the type of installer you would like your end-user to have.
   • Automatic Installer – Will automatically install your application on to the end-user computer, with no wizard.
   • Wizard Installer – Will start the Windows Installer wizard, showing your license agreement on a single page, and giving the option for the end-user to install your application to a custom path.
   • Minimal Wizard Installer – Will start the Windows Installer wizard, using only one page, which shows the license agreement, then installs your application to the default directory.
4. Once your have selected the type of installer you want, click next, and XRap will package your application
5. When successfully completed, XRap will go to the last page where you can open the directory of where your new msi will be located, and your can close XRap.

Linux

1. Open up XRap, and select the root of your XULRunner application directory, and click next.
2. Select the type of License you would like to attach to your application from the drop-down list of available licenses.  You can optionally select your own license, or no license at all. Once you have selected your license option, click next
3. You can optionally select to create a zip file of your application for distribution on Windows.  Click next to continue.
4. XRap will now package your application into a tar.bz2, and optionally a zip file if selected.
5. When successfully completed, XRap will go to the last page where you can open the directory of where your tar.bz2 file will be located, and your can close XRap.

Mac

1. Open up XRap, and select where your XULRunner application (with the .app extension) is located, and click next.
2. Select the type of License you would like to attach to your application from the drop-down list of available licenses.  You can optionally select your own license, or no license at all. Once you have selected your license option, click next
3. XRap will now package your application into a dmg.
4. When successfully completed, XRap will go to the last page where you can open the directory of where your dmg file will be located, and your can close XRap.

I hope to release an updated version where you can create simple packages for different platforms.  Similar to how you can create a zip file on Linux for distribution on Windows.  My current plans are:

Windows:

1. Create a zip file for release on Linux
2. Create a zip file for release on Mac, I will have to refactor the directory structure so that it aligns with the Mac model

Linux

1. Create a zip file for release on Mac, I will have to refactor the directory structure so that it aligns with the Mac model

Mac

1. Create a zip file for release on both Windows and Linux

I plan to work on it over the summer, and hope to be compeleted within the next couple months.  Please post any new bugs found on xrap.sourceforge.net.

Enjoy!

XRap Version 1.0

Lots of changes.  Lots!  Here’s a list:

• Added a license page
• Added a page to validate that you are packaging a XULRunner application
• The wizard automatically goes to the last page once pacakaging is complete
• If there are any errors, they will show on the last page
• Linux release now creates a tar.bz2 file, with an installation script attached to it
• Linux release can create an additional zip package for release on Windows
• Windows release now has a description for each of the MSI Installers
  • The MSI Installers make the end-user view the attached license before they can install the software

At first I added the license page so that the MSI installer can make use of it, but it only makes sense that all users should be able to attach a license to their software.  Here’s another list of the licenses I chose to include:

• Common Public License 1.0 (CPL)
• GNU General Public License (GPL)
• GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3)
• GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
• GNU Lesser General Public License version 3.0
• Common Development and Distribution License
• Mozilla Public License version 1.1

Should these licenses be too restricting (or not enough) the user can attach their own license, or none at all.

The decision to ditch Autotools in my Linux packaging was an easy one.  It was too bloated.  Added all kinds of unnecessary files to a release.  And it just didn’t make any sense.  After having a look at a paper by Mark Finkle, and using his release of the XULExplorer  as a template, I decided to just write a script which will just “tar” up the application.  Yes, it still check to make sure you are packaging a XULRunner app.  To make it slightly appealing, I added a script to each package, which when run will run the ‘–install -app’ command for XULRunner.  It will take the app and copy it into the //usr/lib/vendor_name/application_name/, and then create a bash script which calls the application, and put it into your /usr/bin directory, so that you can call the new application from a single command.  I don’t know how well received it will be, but I haven’t heard any feedback about it yet.

Out of everything I have learned for this release, the one that hurt my brain the most was how complicated it is to make a zip file on Linux.  The reason I wanted to make a zip file was so that users of Linux can have the ability to release their product easily for use on the Windows platform.  Unfortunately, I tried using Mono to compile my WiX (which is built on the .NET platform) files,  it could get as far as using light which is the linker stage (candle works, to compile).  The reason it fails is because you need the msi.dll library, and unfortunately that is only for Windows.  So the next logical move was to zip the application, and let the end-user run it from the unzipped directory.  After a lot of troubleshooting, creating the zip file wasn’t too complicated after all, my scripts were just wrong.  I must admit, that is one more thing that I have learned in this process, how to write shell scripts.

Overall, everything is really looking solid, I have fixed the Mac release, so that it can correctly read .app XUL files, can create a DMG out of them,  Linux can create a tar.bz2 with ease, and Windows can spit out an msi with no problem.  Now just testing, and working out the bugs that people find.

Version 0.9 can be found @ xrap.sourceforge.net

Enjoy, and GIVE ME FEEDBACK!!! I want to know about bugs/features/anything else that is needed

After talking to some guys in the #xulrunner channel on IRC, I foundout that my Mac applications were setup all wrong.  At first I was like, why would they do that?  But after getting it to work, I figured that it was pure genius!  First of all, I was simply copying over my XUL app directly from my Linux box to a Mac, and then running it from Terminal:

//Library/Frameworks/XUL.framework/xulrunner-bin /path/to/app/application.ini

It worked, so I went with it.  To install an app, you just add ‘–install-app’ to the end of ‘xulrunner-bin’, and it will stick it into the Applications folder.  For some reason or another, Once it was installed, I could run it.  But when I tried that same procedure on other machine, it didn’t work.   Hmm.  After some conversations, and reading, notice and article on MDC on Deploying XULRunner 1.8, and there was my answer.
Basically XULRunner on Mac has a different file structure, which is as follows:

MyApp.app/

• Contents/ 
  • Info.plist
  • Frameworks/ 
    • XUL.framework/ 
      • …all the XULRunner files
• Resources/
  • application.ini
  • icon.icns
  • components/
    • everything in your normal component directory
  • chrome/
    •  everything in your normal chrome directory
  • all your additional files and folders
• MacOS/
  • xulrunner (the file copied from the ‘xulrunner’ stub, not the xulrunner-bin)

MyApp.app is actually a directory, with a ‘.app’ extension on it.  All it did was create a directory, put all my files in the correct structure, add the ‘Info.plist’ file, and rename the directory with the ‘.app’ extension.  The Info.plist file was probably the most complicated to recreate.  The example from MDC is not very helpful, especially if you don’t know what your doing, and have to write it by hand.  However there is a “Property List Editor” application on Mac, which will help you create the file.

Property List Editor

These are the properties which must be in your Info.plist file, for your XULRunner application to work.  Key fields which are important are:

The actually XML file looks like this:

<?xml version=“1.0″ encoding=“UTF-8″?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=“1.0″>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>English</string>
<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
<string>XRap</string>
<key>CFBundleGetInfoString</key>
<string>XRap 0.9</string>
<key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
<string>xulwizard-window</string>
<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>net.sourceforge.xrap</string>
<key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
<string>6.0</string>
<key>CFBundleName</key>
<string>XRap</string>
<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
<string>APPL</string>
<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
<string>0.9</string>
<key>CFBundleSignature</key>
<string>Mac</string>
<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>0.9</string>
<key>NSAppleScriptEnabled</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Its best to do all your work in your application directory, before adding the .app extension, because then it is treated like a file, and you will be unable to enter the directory, unless you remove the extension.

In refactoring XRap, I was still able to access the directory even though it was a .app.  Using nsIFile to add files (the License), and read the application.ini, with no problem.  In packaging, using pkg-dmg script, I had to create a staging area (temporary directory) and copy the .app into it, because the script only accepts directories to be imaged.  If I tried to image the .app, it would image it as a directory and add .dmg to the end, defeating the purpose.

Well now I am proud to say that Mac packaging is complete.  You can now package an application as an dmg image.  When a user downloads the image, all they need to do is mount it, and run your app.

I want to eat an apple now.

I finally got around to creating an icon for XRap the other day.  I figured people use a box to package things, so why not use a box!  Then I have been looking at that Mozilla globe, which is the default for XUL apps on Windows, and I noticed that most Mozilla apps have that globe integrated in their icon.  So I pulled the globe from mozilla-central:

Default XUL Icon

I used GIMP to create the box.  Which ended up just being a lot of trial and error with the shading on the sides of the box.  I’m not too sure if the perspective is correct, but it turned out ok for someone that knows very little about graphic design.  

Final XRap icon

To applying the icon to XRap is actually quite easy.  Simply put the icon into:

(application name)/chrome/icons/default/

then for Windows, you will need an icon with the .ico extension, while on Linux you will need an icon with the .xpm extension.  The name of the icon will be the id of your application, which will be located in the <window> element of your xul code.  I believe there is another way to apply your icon to your application, through the branding content package, which must be defined in your manifest.

XRap 0.8 is now completed, and everything is now coming together.  I have managed to merge Mac packaging into XRap, so that it creates a dmg to mount on the Mac file system, and then I have created a script to run xulrunner-bin –install-app, which installs the XULRunner application into the Application folder on  a Mac.  In terms of XRap all this means is that when XRap detects that it is being run on a Mac, it will create all this for the application you want to package.  

The step for creating a package is the same as create one for Linux and Windows, one the first screen open the directory to where your application is stored, click the ‘Next’ button, and XRap will create a script to install your application into the Applications folder, and then create a dmg of the application folder. Done!  

Windows packaging is just about finalized, and running perfectly.  Linux on the other hand might need some last minute refactoring.  After working on the Mac, and talking to some people on IRC, I realized that ‘xulrunner-bin –install-app’ is an awesome script, and that there should be one for Linux.  There is, only it is ‘xulrunner –install-app‘.  So now I might scrap all of the Autotools work (which will also remove the prerequisite of the developer needing autotools installed), and just tarball the application and create an install script for it, which will put it into ‘/usr/lib/’ for all Linux distros.  One of the benefits of dumping Autotools, is that I can now write an install script, and zip it on Windows, the same method can also apply for Mac, since it is not possible to create a dmg without a Mac, I can write an install script and zip.  This will tackle one of the requests, that XRap be able to package for any platform, no matter what you are working on.  It should definatly be done by my 0.9 release.  

I have got a ton of ideas from my professor on little ideas/features to make XRap a better product.  Here’s a list of things which I have compiled which I expect to be completed for the next release:

• Use a ‘Throbber’ for the Packaging status screen, so that the use knows the application is working.
• On the last page create a link to the destination of the output file.
• On the second page allow the user to import/apply a license into their application, by giving them a list of available licenses to choose from, or apply their own.
• For the Windows version of XRap, give a description of each Installer, and change the dropdown list of Installers to a list of radio buttons
• Automatically go from the ‘Packaging Status’ page to the ‘Completion page’ when packaging is complete
• Create an installation log generator
• Logo (for final release)

Tinkering…

I finally got access to a Mac which I can develop on, and after about 30 minutes of learning how to use it (I haven’t used one since grade school), it was amazing!  Yes I want a Macbook now, but that’s another post.  The first job for creating a dmg on a Mac using the Mozilla code, is actually getting it to run XUL apps.  To do this you must first download and install XULRunner, which conviently for Mac is just a standard installer.   Once installed, the XULRunner runtime is placed in:

/Library/Frameworks/XUL.framework/

This will make available ‘xulrunner-bin’, which will be needed to run the XUL app.  I noticed (and liked) that the XULRunner runtime is installed in a default location similar to Linux and unlike Windows, where it is just where you put it, and you have to set a bunch of environment variable to point to it.  To run a XUL app, is almost just as easy, there are two ways:

Install the application:
 /Library/Frameworks/XUL.framework/xulrunner-bin –install-app /absolute/path/to/app.zip

Run the application (without install):
  /Library/Frameworks/XUL.framework/xulrunner-bin /absolute/path/to/application.ini

If you choose to install the application, it can be a XUL app packaged in a zip file or a folder of a XUL app, but it will conviniently put your installation into the:

/Applications/<vendor>/<appName>/

You can then run the app.  If your developing, it may be a better idea to simply run the application, however there is a warning on MDC that the menu bar and dock icon may be missing.  From experience, on my first run, the command executed, and I got nothing, and the bash prompt appeared, so I ran it again and I received a message that the app was already running.  No window opened or anything, so I just closed the Terminal, refactored my code (I think there were some errors in it), and ran it again, with success.  

Once I got my app working, running the ‘pkg-dmg‘ was simple, and it worked brilliantly!  From mozilla-central, I stored only the folders leading to the ‘pkg-dmg’ file, then all the files in the folder.  So basically, ‘mozilla-central/build/package/mac_osx/‘ , then all the files in /mac_osx.  I made some modifications for my XRap release, by putting ‘pkg-dmg’ command in a script and calling it, but this is basically how it should work:

    var getWorkingDir= Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/directory_service;1"]     .getService(Components.interfaces.nsIProperties)                    .get(“CurProcD”, Components.interfaces.nsIFile);

    var dmgLoc = getWorkingDir.clone();
    dmgLoc.append(“mozilla-central”);
    dmgLoc.append(“build”);
    dmgLoc.append(“package”);
    dmgLoc.append(“mac_osx”);
    dmgLoc.append(“pkg-dmg”);
    process.init(file);
    var args = ["--source ",applicationPath ," --target ",applicationPath + ".dmg"];
    process.run(true,args,args.length);

And work it did!  Here is an example, when I called it from bash

Mount and go!

It finally seems that I found a UI that works!  I managed to mash together both the Windows and Linux packager, into a non-linear wizard.  All the functionality is basically the same, Windows will use WiX to create an msi, and Linux will use autotools to create a tarball, and soon for Mac i’ll be using a Mozilla perl script to create a .dmg file.

When the wizard is started, it scans the system to get what platform it is working under, this will determine which page the wizard will go to next, and what scripts to run.  But before I get ahead of myself, the first page will ask the user to select where the application to be packaged is located.  I’m using the FilePicker dialog to get the end-user to select which folder is a XUL application, is makes it easy because the FilePicker will return the correct path format no matter what platform XRap is running on.

On the second page, it will matter which platform XRap is running on, because this is where the platform-dependent scripts will run to package the application for deployment.  As soon as the page is loaded, the script should start.  I just basically created three separate pages for each platform, and depending on what platform is scanned on the first page, the wizard will go to that page.  I have still been trying to get the progress bar to work, but it just seems to start and never stop, and the status box on the second page needs to be more informative.

The final page is just a ’successful completion’ page, so that the user knows that the application was packaged succesFinally once the packager is complete, there is just a final completion page, just for accepting that the sfully.  I have an ‘error’ page, but I’ll have to refactor certain functions to return a false when there is an error.

Yes.  I need to figure out how to package up a XULRunner app, so that it can be distributed and installed on to a Mac.
From what I have been reading,  there are two methods for installing on a Mac:

1.  
   1. The software publisher has provided an installer, which will automatically install the application
   2. The software is packaged in the form of an application (.app), framework (.framework), plug-in (.plugin), Safari downloads (.download), and installer packages (.pkg)

I have found a manual install method, which simply taking the .app file and putting it into /Applications, any documentation in the /Library/Documentation, and framework into the /Library/Frameworks.  The only problem is that XULRunner apps have a strict directory structure to maintain, which is actually one of the problems I am having for my Linux distribution.  I found the Apple Software Delivery Guide, which is awesome! but I’ll still have to hop on IRC and findout more about XULRunner apps.  I may find myself having to overhaul my Linux distribution of XRap, depending on what I learn about Mac packages.

By using the nsIFilePicker you can get the absolute path to your destination according to the platform you are working on.  The most basic problem in navigating between Windows and Linux is the direction of the slash which separates the directories in the path.

Path on Linux

Path on Windows

By using the nsIFilePicker you can avoid having to deal with what platform you are working on.  However, if you want to start manipulating files or subdirectories, then you must attach the nsIFile interface to your path, and use the append() function to add to the path. 

var appRootDir= Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/local;1"]
          .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsILocalFile);
appRootDir.initWithPath(applicationPath);
appRootDir.append(“DirectoryName“);
appRootDir.append(“FileName.txt“);

Probably once of the most simple but useful interfaces that I have come across is the nsIFilePicker. This interface will allow the end-user to use a dialog for loading or saving a file, or getting folder for use in your application. In my case I just need the user to get the path to a directory.

function openDirDialog()
{
const nsIFilePicker = Components.interfaces.nsIFilePicker;
var fp = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/filepicker;1"]
                   .createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIFilePicker);

fp.init(window,”Select Directory”,nsIFilePicker.modeGetFolder);
var ret = fp.show();
if (ret == nsIFilePicker.returnOK || ret == nsIFilePicker.returnReplace) 
{
applicationPath = fp.file.path;
document.getElementById(‘tb_inputPath’).value = applicationPath;
}
}

• nsIFilePicker – The declaration of this const is not needed, but it does make some operations easier as you will see
• fp – Gets the nsIFilePicker interface component, so that you can actually call the File Picker
  • fp.init(nsIDOMWindow, title, mode) – This is where you set the inital settings for the file picker, this needs to be called if you want it to work.  
    • nsIDOMWindow – parameter sets the who will be the parent of the dialog, in my case it is just the main window, so I used ‘window’.  
    • title – Is simply a string, where you would set the Title of the dialog
    • mode – This is where you declare what you want the dialog to actually do, whether it be loading or saving a file, or getting a folder. Here is a table of the different mode options:
      

      modeOpen	0
      modeSave	1
      modeGetFolder	2
      modeOpenMultiple	3

  • fp.show – This call actually shows the File Picker dialog according to the mode you have chosen.  The return types are as follows:
    

    returnOK	0
    returnCancel	1
    returnReplace	2

  • As you can see, by using the nsIFilePicker const at the beginning, I can use its attributes to check the return value from the dialog.
  • There are filters you can append to the File Picker to direct the user to only a specific type of file, by using the .appendFilters(filter).  Here is a set of predifined filters:
    

    filterAll	1
    filterHTML	2
    filterText	4
    filterImages	8
    filterXML	16
    filterXUL	32
    filterApps	64

The File Picker for me was very useful in my cross-platform work with XRap, not only does it make it make it easy for the use to select a folder, but there is no mix-up with the slashes with the use different platforms.

In my quest to create a packager for XULRunner apps, I figured I should use the Autotools to package up the app and distribute it as a tarball. This will allow the developer to distribute on any flavor of Linux, and the end-user will just need to do the standard untar, configure, make, install.

For Autotools, I must use several command-line tools, autoscan, autoconf, and automake, and since im using it through my XUL app, I must reference to /usr/bin/ which is where these tools are stored.

function runAutoscan()

{

var appRootDir= Components.classes["@mozilla.org/file/local;1"]

.createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsILocalFile);

appRootDir.initWithPath(“//”);

appRootDir.append(“usr”);

appRootDir.append(“bin”);

appRootDir.append(“autoscan”);

var process = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/process/util;1"]

.createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsIProcess);

process.init(appRootDir);

var args = [targetPath];

process.run(true, args, args.length);

}

1. Where ‘appRootDir’ is an instance nsILocalFile, Initalize the path as the root directory ‘//’

2. Append the each directory and the command to the root

3. Create an instance of nsIProcess

4. Initalize the process with the path to the command

5. Include any agruments in a separate variable, in this case I used the directory of where I want to package

6. Finally just run the process

This method works perfectly if you want to run command-line utilities in the directory you are working in, or in this case where the command takes in a source. Unfortunatly, autoconf and automake don’t seem to work if you are not in the working directory.

XRap has been making use of a great program called WiX, which is used for packaging applications to deploy on the Windows platform.  The only thing is that there are so many features to the Windows Installer, and WiX does them all, its just a matter of diving through the limited documentation to findout how it all works.  There is an excellent tutorial on WiX maintained by Gábor DeÁk Jahn at http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix for those interested.

Features of XRap 0.4

The focus of the 0.4 release of XRap is adding the UI functionality of WiX to applications which will be

XRap version 0.3 Default Installer

packaged.  There are 3 versions of the UI installer I chose to add, the ‘Minimal’ installer, which will require the end-user to accept the license agreement before installing the program; the ‘Install Directory’ installer, which after accepting the license agreement the end-user will be allowed to select which directory to install the program; and the ‘Mondo’ installer, which after accepting the license agreement, the user will have the option of a ‘Typical’ install, ‘Complete’ install’, and a ‘Custom’ install where the user can select separate packages to be installed, as well as the destination directory.

The added UI functionality also opens up the door for some customization to the person packaging their application.  The welcome page, top banner, and several icons can be changed, by adding custom bitmaps to a new directory in the applications directory (the directory where the application.ini is located).  The name of the directory must be ‘Bitmaps’, and the names and sizes of the new bitmaps are as follows:

In the new installers, there is a license which the end-user must accept to installer the application. The license may be changed by adding ‘License.rtf’ file to the applications directory, if no there is a default Common Public License version 1.0 agreement which will be displayed during installation.

Using XRap 0.4

1. It is recomended that you add a License.rtf containing the license you wish to distribute your application under.  If not, the Common Public License version 1.0 will be applied, and distributed with your installer.  Rich Text Files (.rtf) can be created with simple text editors such as Wordpad.
2. Custom bitmaps can be added to the ‘Bitmaps’ directory, with the same filenames and dimensions as stated above, and will be included in your installer.  If none are found, or the names are wrong, the the default bitmaps will be added to your installer.
3. Once XRap has started all you need to do is input the location of the XulRunner application, more specifically where the application.ini file is.
4. In that directory there should be a directory called ‘xulrunner’ with the xulrunner runtime files
5. Once you have entered the valid path, click on ‘Load Application Directory’, which will then load the application.ini file, check for the applications executable, check for the xulrunner runtime, and remove any old .msi files from the directory.
6. Once the application is loaded, you can click the ‘Create Installer’ button to create the default .msi installer, which just installs the application once executed.  However once the ‘Use Advanced Installer’ box is checked, you can select one of the advanced installers:
   • Simple Installer – Once the end-user has accepted the license agreement, they will be allowed select the destination directory of where your application will be installed.    
     

     Simple Installer

   • Minimal Installer – Once end-user has accepted the license agreement, your application will be installed on their system.    
     

     Minimal Installer

   • Customizable Installer (Mondo)- Once the end-user has accepted your license agreement, they will be able to select a “Typical’, ‘Complete’ or ‘Custom’ install, where in the ‘Custom’ install they can select what directory to install to.    
     

     Customizable Installer

7. Once the packaging is complete, XRap will remove all unnecessary files created, and you will be ready to distribute your application!

Current Problems

1. When XRap is creating the .msi file, it takes some time, so it may seem like the program has frozen, but it is actually working.  I’ve been working on adding a progress bar at the bottom of XRap, but I’m having trouble getting it to activate when I need it to.
2. In the Customizable (Mondo) Installer is not fully functional, you can only install the entire application, the end-user will not be able to select certain parts of the app to install, and select some to be installed at a later time.  This feature is taking me long than I thought to code, mainly in part because the person who wants to package their app will need to select either a directory, or specific files which are not totally necessary to be installed for their program to work.  I’m having to refactor a chunk of my file handling code, to keep track of these ‘optional’ files or directories.

XRap Installer and Source Download

Installer Download: XRap version 0.4 Installer

Source Download: XRap version 0.4 Source

If anyone has any suggestions to my problems I am open to help, and please feel free to email or post a comment.  Also please report any bugs or problems you get on this blog.

Hope you enjoy XRap 0.4!

Well its been a long time, a lot of reading, and a lot of learning (JavaScript and XUL), but I’ve managed to finally change over XRap from C# over to a XULRunner Application!  I haven’t quite got the UI just how I like it, but funtionality-wise it works perfectly.

How it works:

1. Once XRap is started, all you must do is enter the directory path of your XULRunner application, more specifically where the application.ini is located.
2. When the path is entered, click on ‘Load Application Directory’ .
3. XRap will read the application.ini file for validity.
4. Once a valid application.ini file is loaded, click on ‘Check Integrity’
5. XRap will check for old XRap created files, and the XULRunner runtime (which must be in your applications directory).
6. Prompts will inform you of any files which will be removed.
7. Once the integrity check is complete, simply click on the ‘Create Installer’.
8. XRap will read through your application’s directory, as well as create the executable from the xulrunner-stub.exe file in the XULRunner runtime.

During the creation of the .msi file, XRap may appear to freeze up, but its actually working, it just takes some time to create the file.  Also I need to figure out how to make the textbox scroll automatically, but its a minor cosmetic issue, and should be fixed by the next release.  If anyone knows please let me know.  Other than that, enjoy! and let me know of any suggestions or fixes needed.

Download:

XRap v 0.3 Windows Installer

XRap v 0.3 Source

Bonjour à tous

Je ne crois pas utile d’élaborer longuement sur les raccourcis que nous utilisons tous ni non plus sur la différence entre les raccourcis locaux (liens) vers vos applications ou les raccourcis url (hyperliens) pour accéder à une page web…

En ce qui concerne les hyperliens chacun sait qu’ils permettent de lancer votre navigateur par défaut pour accéder au site pointé par ce raccourci. Permettez-moi cependant de vous annoncer que ces raccourcis sont, sinon révolus, du moins d’un style pré-Web 2.0 (faute d’un meilleur terme) …

Il est possible désormais de créer des hyperliens qui vous permettent d’accéder à vos sites préférés via un navigateur spécialisé pour cette page web avec PRISM.

PRISM est un navigateur simplifié basé sur XULRunner et fondé sur le concept du SSB:

Site-Specific Browsers. Un SSB est conçu pour permettre l’utilisation exclusive d’une application Web sans les menus, barres d’outils et autres gadgets des navigateurs traditionnels.Un SSB permet de plus une meilleure intégration au système d’exploitation et au Bureau qu’une application Web exécutée via un navigateur “tout usage”…

.

Un SSB permet d’avoir les avantages d’une application “Desktop” et d’une application Web…

AVANTAGES

Processus séparé

Les applications Web peuvent parfois surconsommer de la mémoire ou des cycles de l’UCT  allant même, dans les cas les plus extrêmes, jusqu’à faire planter le navigateur. En exécutant chaque application dans un processus séparé, l’impact de tels dysfonctionnements est minimisé. Il permet de plus de vérifier la consommation de mémoire/cycles UCT pour chacune  des applications.

Google Reader via Prism

Interface minimale

Un navigateur tout-usage n’est pas nécessairement le mieux adapté pour plusieurs applications  Web. Il est souvent plus efficace d’avoir à sa disposition une interface spécifique à celle-ci.  Cela permet aussi de gagner en ergonomie en mettant terme aux distractions visuelles causée par  les multiples sollicitations visuelles d’options ou de gadgets ± utiles.

Google Reader via Prism

Intégration au Bureau

Le support des caractéristiques Bureau telles que les raccourcis bureau, le lancement rapide    la minimisation dans la barre des tâches ou l’affichage des fenêtres rend l’application Web plus    pratique pour les utilisateurs.

Personnalisation

Il est de plus possible pour des utilisateurs avancés de personnaliser le lancement des SSBs
avec des scripts analogues à ceux de Greasemonkey. Des feuilles de style personnalisées peuvent   aussi être utilisées afin de modifier l’apparence de  l’interface utilisateur.

Une autre fois...

COMMENT?

Il suffit simplement d’installer l’extension PRISM dans Firefox:

CLIQUEZ ICI pour le Module Complémentaire

.

.

..

POUR EN SAVOIR PLUS

Développeurs Mozilla

Prism

XULRunner

Quelques ” Wik’hyperliens ” pour devenir savant:

Xul

Xulrunner

Raccourci (lien)

Url

Hyperlien

UCT (CPU)

Greasemonkey

Feuilles de style

Web 2.0

XPInstall

.

Remarques et … une demande (exceptionnelle)

À la suite des essais que j’ai fait de Refractor pour Prism, j’ai constaté que cela marche bien avec la plupart des applications Web sauf pour quelques exceptions, notamment, les Actualités Google qui exigent de se connecter au compte Google pour avoir les actualités personnalisées (dans mon cas les actualités Canada en français et en anglais). Ça ne marche pas: l’accès à la page de connexion lance Firefox et ne se fait pas dans Refractor…

Si vous appréciez (ou non) cet article (ou les autres du site),  j’apprécierais  si vous me donniez un “signe de vie”… 

• En vous abonnant au flux RSS des Propos et Commentaires du Climenole avec votre lecteur RSS préféré (lequel est-ce au juste?)
• En votant pour donner votre note sur le site et d’une façon anonyme avec le module de vote à gauche de l’écran…
• En suivant les nouveaux articles et en votant pour le site sur Technorati ou Wikio…
• En ajoutant le lien vers les Propos et Commentaires dans votre blogoliste (et en me le signalant) car je “revoie toujours l’ascenseur”…
• En laissant un commentaire… (émoticône, suggestion, critique, question…)
• En me contactant via mon @ de courriel

Merci 

Since there seems to be many people out there having problems with Prism on Linux, I’m writing this in English so  most of you can understand it.

With Prism you can make Web applications such as Zoho Writer, bubbl.us, Google Mail, your WordPress Dashboard… available offline. When working offline, your changes will be uploaded/applied the moment you go onlie. While working online, Prism is not much more than some kind of distractionless browser.
One great thing about Prism is, that you can integrate your webapps with your normal desktop. Like having a starter for Google Mail or Zoho Mail in your menu instead (or in addition if you like) of Evolution, Kontact or Thunderbird (whatever you use). This especially helps, if you’re working on different computers and want to use the same apps and the same documents everywhere without portable apps, a live USB or a USB, where you carry all your data with you (since both data and programs are in the cloud) and on old hardware (since Prism Apps do have a very small fingerprint).

Now as many have noticed, the Firefox Prism Plugin isn’t working the way it should. Even though you can create prism apps from within your browser, evreytime you want to start those apps, your normal Firefox opens up with your home page. Doh! Using the standalone Prism application isn’t the best solution since the one in the repos (at least the ubuntu repos, don’t know bout Suse) is outdated.

Now let’s have a closer look at the problem. If we open up the apps preference dialog, we see, that the command is something like:

“/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.4/firefox” -app “/home/martin/.mozilla/firefoxXXXX//extensions/refractor@developer.mozilla.org/prism/application.ini” -override “/home/martin/.webapps/XXXXX/override.ini” -webapp XXXXX@prism.app

The problem here is, that the version of Firefox that ships with ubuntu (I think they call it ubufox) does not accept the –app parameter so everything behind it ends up being ignored. Now of course the part after the –app is the crucial part!

Fortunately the origilan xulrunner is still there (and still accepts the –app flag). So everything you have to do in order for your Prism Apps to work again is to simply change the /usr/lib/firefox-3.x.x/firefox at the beginning to /usr/bin/xulrunner! Just make sure you do not touch anything behind the –app flag!

That’s all! Hope it helped!

Pencil 1.0.4 (2008-10-15) Dương Thành An

인터페이스 스케치(UI Prototyping) 프로그램. Firefox 확장 기능으로 작동.

웹인터페이스나 XUL도 아니고 GTK, MS윈도우 어플리케이션 인터페이스를 Firefox 에서 디자인 할 필요가 있을까? 2008년 최고의 괴작 Firefox 확장기능 아닐까 생각한다. XULRunner로 실행되는 버전도 있다.

• Mozila Labs: Announcing the Extend Firefox 3 Contest Winners