What Is Firefox
Brian King provides a brief look at Firefox's origins and evolution, and then dives into its support for web standards like CSS and XML, its debugging and extension capabilities, and some cool new features in the upcoming 1.5 release. If you're considering a switch to Firefox, this article may help make the decision for you.
Mozilla as a Development Platform: An Interview with Axel Hecht Axel Hecht is a member of Mozilla Europe's board of directors, and a major contributor to the Mozilla project. At O'Reilly's European Open Source Convention (October 17-20), Dr. Hecht will be talking about Mozilla as a development platform. O'Reilly Network interviewed Dr. Hecht to find out if the long-held dream of Mozilla as a development platform was about to come true. [O'Reilly Network]
A Firefox Glossary Brian King, with some help from Nigel McFarlane, covers everything from about:config to "zool" in this fun, fact-filled Firefox glossary. It's by no means exhaustive, but you'll find references to specific chapters or hacks throughout the glossary to Nigel's book, Firefox Hacks. When you're ready to dig deeper, check out his book. [O'Reilly Network]
Important Notice for Mozilla DevCenter Readers About O'Reilly RSS and Atom Feeds O'Reilly Media, Inc. is rolling out a new syndication mechanism that provides greater control over the content we publish online. Here's information to help you update your existing RSS and Atom feeds to O'Reilly content. [Mozilla DevCenter]
Hacking Firefox This excerpt from Firefox Hacks shows you how to use overlays (essentially hunks of UI data) to make something you want to appear in the Firefox default application, perhaps to carry out a particular function of your extension. For example, you might want to add a menu item to the Tools menu to launch your extension. Overlays allow existing Firefox GUIs to be enhanced. [O'Reilly Network]
Mozile: What You See is What You Edit
Most modern browsers don't allow you to hit "edit" and manipulate content as easily as you view it, WYSIWYG-style. Mozile, which stands for Mozilla Inline Editor, is a new Mozilla plug-in for in-browser editing. This article by Conor Dowling provides an overview of Mozile and what in-browser editing means.
[ Mozilla DevCenter]
The Future of Mozilla Application Development Recently, mozilla.org announced a major update to its development roadmap. Some of the changes in the new document represent a fundamental shift in the direction and goals of the Mozilla community. In this article, David Boswell and Brian King analyze the new roadmap, and demonstrate how to convert an existing XPFE-based application into an application that uses the new XUL toolkit. David and Brian are the authors of O'Reilly's Creating Applications with Mozilla. [Mozilla DevCenter]
Remote Application Development with Mozilla, Part 2 In their first article, Brian King, coauthor of Creating Applications with Mozilla, and Myk Melez looked at the benefits of remote application development using Mozilla technologies such as XUL and web services support. In this article, they present a case study of one such application, the Mozilla Amazon Browser, a tool for searching Amazon's catalogs. [Mozilla DevCenter]
Remote Application Development with Mozilla This article explores the uses for remote XUL (loaded from a Web server), contrasts its capabilities with those of local XUL (installed on a user's computer), explains how to deploy remote XUL, and gives examples of existing applications. [Mozilla DevCenter]
Mozdev.org Made Easy Now that mozilla.org is about to release Mozilla 1.2 and Netscape has come out with the latest version of their own Mozilla-based browser, Netscape 7, this is a great time to see what other people are building with Mozilla's cross-platform development framework. Here's a little history about, and a roadmap to, mozdev.org. [Mozilla DevCenter]
XML Transformations with CSS and DOM Mozilla permits XML to be rendered in the browser with CSS and manipulated with DOM. If you're already familiar with CSS and DOM, you're more than halfway to achieving XML transformations in Mozilla. This article demonstrates how to render XML in the browser with a minimum of CSS and JavaScript. [Mozilla DevCenter]
Roll Your Own Browser Here's a look at using the Mozilla toolkit to customize, or even create your own browser. [Mozilla DevCenter]
Let One Hundred Browsers Bloom In this article, David Boswell, coauthor of Creating Applications with Mozilla surveys some of the more interesting, and useful, Mozilla-based browsers available now. [Mozilla DevCenter]
Using the Mozilla SOAP API With the release of Mozilla 1.0, the world now has a browser that supports SOAP natively. This article shows you how Web applications running in Mozilla can now make SOAP calls directly from the client without requiring a browser refresh or additional calls to the server. [Web Development DevCenter]
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David Tenser: Five years ago, Firefox was born When I blogged about the launch of Firefox 1.0 five years ago, I knew it was a big day that we would look back at in the future. However, I would be lying if I said back then that I knew what kind of impact Firefox would have on the web as a whole.
Five years ago, you couldn’t choose what type of computer of device you wanted to use to browse the web because all websites were designed to work with IE on Windows. Something as basic as surfing from your mobile device — we take this for granted today — was completely out of the question. Microsoft was in full control of the Internet and your web experience. This all changed when Firefox was released on November 9th 2004. Finally, web developers could design web sites according to standards instead of designing them to work for IE. Finally, users could experience web sites the way they were meant to be. Finally, the web was accessible to everyone. In a nutshell, Firefox is the reason why we can surf the web using our iPhones, Linux netbooks, or OpenSolaris PCs. Firefox set the web free. [Source: Planet Mozilla] Mark Finkle: Fennec is Firefox, Firefox is Fennec! Firefox for Maemo beta 5 is Firefox! Huh?
That’s right. We turned on official branding for beta 5. “Fennec” is the codename for Firefox on mobile platforms. We also use “Fennec” as the unofficial branding (name and images) used in our nightly versions. Using a codename helps cut down on confusion when talking to other Mozilla developers
Don’t worry, the lovable little fennec isn’t going away. [Source: Planet Mozilla]Mark Finkle: Fennec – Form Assistant & Password Echo Firefox for Maemo (Fennec) beta 5 has been released! This release packs in a lot of good stuff. I’ve been trying to highlight a few of the new features. This time, I want to tell you about some web form features. Entering data into web forms using a small keyboard on a small screen can be painful. This release of Fennec has a Form Assistant to make it easier to fill in forms. Whenever you tap on an input or select field, Fennec will attempt to zoom in on the element and also display a small UI ribbon for moving between other input fields. If the input field has an associated label, we try to make sure the label is visible too. Context is important when entering text and other data into a form.
Beta 5 also has a new Gecko feature, enabled for mobile platforms – Password Echo. Entering a password can be a tedious task on a mobile device. One common solution is for the system to show the last character you type as plain-text and after a short delay, convert it to a hidden password character. Echoing the last character really helps reduce errors when entering passwords. Take Firefox for Maemo for a spin and let us know what you think. [Source: Planet Mozilla]Meeting Notes from the Mozilla community: Mozilla Project Meeting Minutes: 2009-11-09 WeeklyUpdates/2009-11-09From MozillaWiki« previous week | index | next week »
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This past week we saw the localization community work on the following:
FxFy is a great implementation of the open web, with web dev and localizers working to overlay subtitles using javascript on a open video. Blog post to come.
The Mozilla Blog: Firefox for Maemo Beta 5 Released The Mozlla mobile team has released Firefox for Maemo beta 5. This release is available for the Maemo OS2008 and Maemo 5 software platforms running on the Nokia N810 and N900 Internet Tablets. If you’re viewing this on an N810 or N900, install Firefox for Maemo beta 5. This release brings noticeable improvements to the user experience and UI of the browser. Specifically you’ll see:
These improvements build upon the features set of previous releases.You can find more information by reading the Firefox for Maemo beta 5 Release Notes. Be sure to check out the new Firefox for mobile page that includes ways to stay connected to the Project, information for developers, and a video discussing the user interface, features and vision of Firefox for mobile. [Source: Planet Mozilla]Caitlin Looney: Firefox for Maemo Beta 5 Released
This release brings noticeable improvements to the user experience and UI of the browser. Specifically you’ll see:
      Robert Accettura: 5 Years Already? Has it been 5 years already? The landscape has certainly changed since 2004. I think it’s finally accepted that something can fight back against Microsoft. Size doesn’t guarantee market share on the Internet. In the pre-www world you had to convince a few managers to buy your product and you can be installed on 10k systems. Home users typically used what they knew from work. In 2009 even offices are becoming more accustomed to letting employees use what they feel works best (though not all there yet, easier system re-imaging is helping here). Home users put whatever they want on their computer. The focus is clearly shifting more and more towards the user and making their experience better. Where will things be in another 5 years?  QMO: Testday Reminder: Panning and Zooming with Fennec 1.0 Beta this Week! Come over to our next Testday event on Friday, November 13th, from 7AM - 5PM PST... Gervase Markham: Bugzilla API 0.2 Released Version 0.2 of the Bugzilla REST API has been released. New in this version:
Note that these new capabilities will not be available on the copy of the API pointed at bugzilla.mozilla.org until the upgrade :-( But in the mean time, you can test them on the staging server. Although that seems very slow at the moment. I consider this the first version of the API with which you should be able to write a capable Bugzilla client of some sort. Let me know if you find stuff missing which would be required for this usage. Lastly, there is now a Bugzilla component for you to file bugs in :-) [Source: Planet Mozilla]Blog of Metrics: Firefox Hits 25% Market Share on its Birthday At the very same moment in time that Firefox celebrates its 5th birthday, Firefox has also surpassed 25% worldwide market share for the very first time. This news comes from Net Applications’ report for the week of November 1st (their weekly data requires a subscription). Congrats everyone! For those interested in “before and after” pictures, below is one way to visualize the browser market share landscape (based on Net Applications’ data).
Mary Colvig: Celebrating Five Wonderful Years! Happy 5th Birthday Firefox! Over the last few days I’ve been struggling to distill what this awesome milestone means to me into a single post (Mitchell Baker and Chris Blizzard have some great thoughts). I started working on a top 10 list, but last night as I started to see early pictures come in from Rome it was completely clear. The community that has sprung around Mozilla and Firefox is hands down the most meaningful and absolutely incredible aspect of this anniversary. One of my favorite Firefox Flicks “The Briefcase Syndicate” and the new Firefox video really illustrate the amazing power of our community. We’re all part of a global network, connected by a shared passion and working together to better everyone’s Web experience. It makes me a little weepy-eyed when I think about what we’ve been able to accomplish together and frankly, have fun while we’re doing it. Chris Hofmann says it best: I LOVE this community! I won’t get all maudlin on you. I’ll just close with a snapshot of the wonderfulness that has gone on in less than 24 hours…here’s to “Lighting the World with Firefox!”:  Happy B-day Firefox by lucerosama, The Phillipines  Firefox on the Roman Colesium - need I say more?  Gorjan Jovanovski blankets Skopje, Macedonia with billboards  Firefox + Traffic lights in Zulia, Venezuela courtesy of Alexander Salas  Abhinav Kishore's laptop in India...how did he do this??  Firefox Cake in Sofia, Bulgaria designed by Bogo Shopov       John Slater: Happy Birthday Firefox! On this date in 2004, Firefox was released to an online world that was extremely different from the one we know today. There was no YouTube, no Twitter, no Facebook (at least not in its current form)…it was all very Web 1.0. Things like pop-ups and viruses were accepted facts of life, and the notion of expecting a new browser to challenge the monopolistic IE was the definition of absurd. We’re all familiar with what happened next, of course, but that doesn’t make it any less incredible or inspirational. It’s a truly amazing story, and I am beyond honored to be even a small part of it. At the heart of all this – even when you strip away the amazing technological advancements and features that really have changed the way people use the web – is a social movement comprised of people from around the world with the common interest of making things better. That’s a pretty powerful force, and makes me very optimistic about what we’ll accomplish together over the next five years. With all that in mind, we created a short video to sum up what Firefox really is and why it matters. Check it out (and share it with your friends!), then head over to our Five Years of Firefox microsite to see all the other community festivities. Happy birthday! <object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-ULDH90H530&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-ULDH90H530&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object> [Source: Planet Mozilla]Frederic Wenzel: Firefox on the Coliseum This photo is not photoshopped:
The Mozilla Italia team projected a Firefox wordmark onto Rome’s most famous landmark — and on many other places all over the city. Make sure to check out the picture in its full glory over on flickr. Picture CC by-sa licensed by nois3lab on flickr. [Source: Planet Mozilla]Paul O'Shannessy: Status Update: November 9, 2009 Not much exciting happened this past week. We had some out-of-towners (beltzner, johnath, and dietrich) down in the Mountain View office. It’s good to see the boss face-to-face every once in a while. Otherwise it was business as usual. What I got done last week:
What’s happening this week:
Mitchell Baker: Firefox Turns 5 Five years ago a small-ish group of exhausted, wound-up but excited people began the final preparations for the launch of the Mozilla Firefox web browser. We gathered in many places; with a core of us in Mozilla’s Mountain View office. This was a small, funky room hidden away in the far corner of an office complex, leased to us by friends of the Mozilla project. Our website folks gathered 4000 miles away. Thousands of people joined us virtually. We knew this because we could see the number of pings to the download site going wild in the hours before the release, as people kept checking. We knew we had something big in the works — bigger at least than anyone had expected from Mozilla in a long time. We knew we were coming out of the dark days of “failure” of the Mozilla project. We knew this because some 3 million people were already using the 0.9 version of Firefox, and the number of people paying attention to us in the 6 months before the release had been skyrocketing. We knew we were coming out of dark into a place with light. We had no idea just how bright it would be. Here’s a detailed description of the events of Nov. 9 2004, which I wrote shortly afterward. I can still feel the knotted, sick-to-my-stomach feeling that was a constant part of life in the weeks leading up to the Firefox 1.0 launch. Today, Nov. 9 was no different. Most things were done, but critical pieces still remained. My personal last minute items were finishing our discussions with Yahoo and Google, which were on track but nerve-wracking in the extreme nevertheless. The general stress went beyond the specific tasks, and beyond getting a product out the door. The period leading up to Firefox 1.0 was a time in which we had redefined ourselves, becoming a true consumer-facing organization for the first time. This was a big change. It was absolutely necessary, it was hard, and it was immensely stressful. Today the world is different. Firefox has 25% world-wide market share, 330 million users, and a significant impact on the shape of the internet experience. The idea that a non-profit, public- benefit organization like Mozilla can have such an impact on keeping the Internet open, participatory, and innovation still surprises people, but it’s not longer seen as naive and impossible. Our core approach has not changed though. Now, as then, each individual person remains critical. Each person who contributes to Mozilla, each person who demands that Mozilla represent our hopes for the Internet, each person who helps others find the benefits of Firefox and understand the goals of Mozilla — each one of us is what makes the Mozilla mission successful. Five years is a great marker. And equally important, the future calls. There is great potential for making Firefox and the Internet as a whole even better at empowering people. There are also many threats to the openness of the Internet. Mozilla has a unique voice. We have a unique opportunity to build an Internet where the people using it — us — are safe, secure, in control of our experience, and excited by new possibilities. That’s cause for celebration indeed. [Source: Planet Mozilla] |
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