6.2. Packaging Mozilla Applications
When you are done with this packaging section, package your Mozilla-based applications in the same way that we packaged the xFly example in Chapter 2. This chapter describes the manifests and other necessary files. Then the Installation section shows how you can put your package in a XPI file and create installation script(s) so it can be distributed and installed.
6.2.1. Package Manifests
The installation script points out the manifest locations so the package can be registered properly. Note that manifests appear in JARs, but they do not appear in XPIs, since the latter is a temporary file that gets deleted once the files it contains, including JARs, are installed (see the Section 6.3 section later in this chapter for more information about XPI install files).
6.2.1.1. Theme package manifests
Example 6-2 shows a manifest for a new theme to be installed in Mozilla. It is simple because it describes only one type of package, the "fly skin," and the existing component it interacts with, the communicator -- the default Mozilla browser (the syntax and structure is the same for all manifests, however). The manifest says, in effect, this is what I have here (the metadata about the theme -- its name, a description, etc.), and this is what it affects (the list of chrome:packages to which the theme should be applied).
6.2.1.2. Language pack manifests
When you look at a package manifest that describes a new locale, as shown in Example 6-3 (which is for a German language pack in Mozilla), you see a similar structure. Again, the manifest describes the new package first and then lists the existing components to which this new package applies.
Note that in Example 6-3's package manifest, all major components are affected by this new locale package. When the package is installed and the manifest is read, the chrome registry is made aware of a German language pack that it can use to display German in the interface of each Mozilla component.
The package manifests for content and new applications -- which may include new content, skin, and locale information -- have an identical syntax and a very similar structure, as you will see in the following sections. The manifest for a full Mozilla-based application like xFly describes the content, the skin, and the locale in a single file that sits at the top of that package.
6.2.1.3. Application manifests
Example 6-4, the package manifest from the XMLTerm Mozilla extension, describes the contents, skin, and locale in a single file, which is most common for Mozilla-based applications.
The structure in Example 6-4 is exactly the same as that in more focused manifests (Example 6-2 and Example 6-3), but all of the skin, content, and locale structures sit together in a single manifest.rdf file. This manifest follows the Mozilla convention of introducing the package contents at the top and then expanding upon the basic listing of each separate sections, providing the necessary metadata about the items in the middle, and then listing the components that are affected by the items at the end. However, the flexibility of the RDF format means you could just as easily order this information differently -- which is why RDF is sometimes described as creating a "soup" of statements about resources.
Note that the overlay section in the middle of the example is part of the content description. It tells the chrome registry that the contents of the file xmltermOverlay.xul should be overlaid into the tasksOverlay.xul file in Mozilla, in which much of the Tools menu is defined. The package manifest for the xFly sample application that we discuss here, also a single file, is very similar to the manifest in Example 6-4.
6.2.2. Registering Packages
Typically, registration occurs during installation, which is why the Section 6.3 section of this chapter goes into more detail about the specific methods and objects available for package registration. The registration process deals with packages and package manifests, however, so the following two sections describe the two types of package registration that are possible in Mozilla. The first provides an overview of how to register a package on installation, as is typically done, and the second describes how to use a special file to register your work with Mozilla as you develop it so that you can view your work as it progresses.
6.2.2.1. Registering packages on installation
Generally, the registration process is a transaction that takes place between your installation scripts, the chrome registry, and the manifests that describe the package. Usually, registration happens upon installation. You can approach this transaction in many ways, but the general relationship is shown in Figure 6-2.
6.2.2.2. Registering packages as you develop them (installed-chrome.txt)
skin,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/modern.jar!/skin/modern/communicator/ skin,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/modern.jar!/skin/modern/editor/ skin,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/modern.jar!/skin/modern/global/ skin,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/modern.jar!/skin/modern/messenger/ skin,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/modern.jar!/skin/modern/navigator/
content,install,url,resource:/chrome/xfly/content/ skin,install,url,resource:/chrome/xfly/skin/ locale,install,url,resource:/chrome/xfly/locale/en-US/
content,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/xfly.jar!/content/ skin,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/xfly.jar!/skin/ locale,install,url,jar:resource:/chrome/xfly.jar!/locale/en-US/
This skin entry seems to indicate that only one set of skin information is available for the xFly sample, and that it always applies. If the xFly skin inherits, as many skins do, from one or another of the preinstalled theme (e.g., Modern), it may look very bad or even break when that theme is not selected. See the section Section 4.3.1.1 in Chapter 4 for a discussion of skin inheritance and tips on how to make sure your skin is structured to best take advantage of it.
When you make these additions to the installed-chrome.txt file and restart Mozilla, the chrome registry looks for manifests in the directories you specify and registers the packages described there. The installed-chrome.txt entries in this section do not necessarily need to be included on your final XPI resource, but you will see them in some XPIs bundled in their own installed-chrome.txt file separate form the main one. See the section Section 6.2.4 for more information about this process.
6.2.3. Creating a Package
The xFly sample package is a relatively straightforward arrangement of content, skin, and locale. You have already seen how to set up most preliminaries you need to make it a package in Chapter 2, but this section will discuss the process in detail.
6.2.3.1. Setting up xFly
chrome xfly content skin locale
chrome/modern.jar!/skins/modern/communicator/ chrome/comm.jar!/content/communicator/ chrome/en-US.jar!/locale/en-US/communicator/
 | When you develop your application, it's typical to work within a regular directory. As you finish the application and make it available for distribution and installation, however, you may want to use one of the installation archive formats to package your work, such as a JAR file. See the section Section 6.3.1 later in this chapter for more details. |
6.2.3.2. Hacking the installed-chrome.txt file
The entries you made to the installed-chrome.txt in Chapter 2 tell the chrome registry that a new package must be registered:
content,install,url,resource:/chrome/xfly/content/ skin,install,url,resource:/chrome/xfly/skin/ locale,install,url,resource:/chrome/xfly/locale/en-US/
These entries tell the chrome registry that, in addition to all of the packages that make up the main Mozilla browser (e.g., the communicator skin in the Modern theme, the en-US locale, and the content that makes up the navigator), the xFly content, skin, and locale should be registered as components of a new package. When the chrome registry reads these entries, it tries to find the manifests for these parts of the xFly package. When it finds them, it registers the package, overlays any files it finds in that package (see the next section), and makes it accessible via the special chrome:// URLs given in the manifests.
6.2.3.3. Adding the xFly application to the Mozilla Tools menu
Adding your application to one of the Mozilla browser menus (so users can easily launch your application once it is installed) makes your application feel official. Figure 6-3 shows the presence of the xFly item in the Tools menu. The Tools menu lists various extra components in Mozilla, including the DOM Inspector and the JavaScript Debugger (if they are installed).
Here we describe how you can use special constructions in your package's manifest to tell the chrome registry about files from your package that should be overlaid into the main browser. Overlaying these files lets you add interface items, such as this link to xFly, in an existing application. Example 6-5 shows the simple overlay file that puts xFly in the Tools menu.
The top-level element is an <overlay/> rather than a <window/>. Direct children of the overlay are associated with certain elements in the main browser (in this case, the <menupopup/> of the Tools menu) and their contents are interpolated into the list of children there. This file overlays an extra <menuitem/> into the Tools menu. In this case, the menuitem has an oncommand event handler that calls toOpenWindowByType -- a function for opening new chrome defined in the tasksOverlay.js that much of the chrome in the Mozilla UI imports.
But how does the overlay know where to overlay itself? The IDs of the overlay children and the original XUL are matched to find the target within the files, but the manifest that accompanies the overlay in your package tells Mozilla which overlays are associated with which XUL files. The part of the manifest that deals with an overlay looks like the code in Example 6-6. This code is put in the contents.rdf file in the content directory of the xFly package.
6.2.3.4. Overlaying Mozilla files into your application
But overlays can also add interface elements and other data from Mozilla into the application itself. In fact, each component in Mozilla imports a lot of its own user interface from such XUL overlay mainstays as globalOverlay.xul, tasksOverlay.xul (the file into which the xFly menuitem is overlaid), and navigatorOverlay.xul. As you can see when you look at the main browser file, navigator.xul, shown in Example 6-7, most user interface is actually brought in from these reusable overlays. A relatively small percentage of all that appears in the browser is defined within that particular navigator.xul file.
Once files are divided into subdirectories and the manifests for each subdirectory, your application is technically a package -- although until you compress it and create an install script, it's a package only for your computer and the environment in which it was created. See the section Section 6.4 later in this chapter to see how you can use the file format and installation information to make the xFly something you can put on a web server and have users install with a single click on a web page.
6.2.4. The Chrome Registry
6.2.4.1. Where is the chrome registry?
In some cases, especially when you create and debug your Mozilla application, you may want to edit the RDF files that make up the chrome registry directly. But more often, you can use external scripts, inline JavaScript, or the installed-chrome.txt file to get what you need from the registry. Procedures for doing so are described in the section Section 6.2.2 earlier in this chapter, and in the section Section 6.3.2 later in this chapter.
6.2.4.2. Accessing the chrome registry in installation scripts
registerChrome(PACKAGE | DELAYED_CHROME, getFolder("Chrome", "help"), "content/");
initInstall( ) // initialize the overall installation // add items to installed using: // addFolder, addDirectory, getFolder, and others registerChrome(TYPE, dir, subdir) performInstall( );