Open Source

Dive into Mozilla Modifying Firefox using an Extension Lab

Friday, 31 October 2008 19:22 Jason

After doing my 0.1 release, and the previous labs of looking into code, I didn't really learn a lot from this lab. If I hadn't already done most of this, it would have been more interesting.

Labs like this I would reccomend doing earlier in the semester, when those who need to learn what the lab teaches can learn it, making assignments a lot easier. By this point in the course, anybody who needs to know how to make an extension would already have learned to do so, making it a bit pointless.

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My experiences at FSOSS

Wednesday, 29 October 2008 21:00 Jason

Well, I have attended FSOSS, and I must say, it was interesting. It wasn't quite what I was expecting--less fanfare, primarily--but still interesting to go to.

The best presentation I saw was the first, and this primarily because it actually interested me: Extending Eclipse. Before this, I never knew that there were non-IDE apps built on top of the Eclipse platform, or that it had a web interface that could (relatively) easily be implemented for general use.

If there's one thing I learned about it, it's to read the descriptions, not just the titles, opf the presentations. While the last one I saw2 (about legal notices) was interesting, from the title, I had thought it was more about getting the public's attention about a new project. Reading the descriptions, I'm pretty sure one of the other ones going on at the same time was closer to what I was hoping for: the one about building a community. Seeing the last 10 minutes or so of this, I have to say, this guy was likely the best presenter there, though this could easily be skewed by the short period I was watching him for.

I've also realized: don't get sicvk on the Friday morning; I wound up missing out on sessions 3 and 4, ans the lunch in the middle, since I had to go home and sleep, otherwise I'd be sleeping during the presentations.

All in all, I'd say it was worth my while, and I will surely be back next year, especially while I'm still a student.

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NetworkManager Web Authentication: 0.1 Release

Saturday, 18 October 2008 12:05 Jason

This is my official 0.1 release for the NetworkManager Web Authentication program I have been working on. This is a much more formal release than the one I did last night, and as such, will have a lot more information. If you do not know anything about this, there is a page on this wiki detailing the specifics of the idea.

What this release is, at present:

Firefox Extension
Linux-only
C++ XPCOM object to communicate with DBus
Communication between the extension and another running program via DBus
A few prompts and dialog boxes as a proof of concept

A basic how-to to use this extension:

Download and extract the tarball
Install the correct Firefox extension (x86 or x86_64) as they are not cross-platform
Start Firefox. You will be presented with a series of prompts
Run the dbus executable from the tarball in a terminal as follows:
1. To receive a signal: ./dbus receive
2. To send a signal: ./dbus send "message"
Try sending various pieces of information back and forth
When done, disable or uninstall the extension to make sure you don't get the prompts every time it starts

More information on this follows...

Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 February 2009 21:00 Read more...

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networkManager Automatic Web Authentication 0.1: Pre-release

Friday, 17 October 2008 23:36 Jason

This is not yet my official 0.1 release for the NetworkManager Web Authentication I'm working on, but is what I will be releasing for it. I haven't blogged about it for awhile, and figured posting some progress might be in order. The G-Zipped file can be grabbed from here.

Since it uses binary components for the XPCOM/DBus stuff, there is an x86 and x86_64 version at present, and is Linux-only. To test it, do the following:

Install the appropriate extension (autologin-x86.xpi or autologin-x86_64.xpi) into Firefox
Run the dbus executable (compiled on 32-bit, been tested on both).
1. ./dbus receive to receive signals sent by the extension
2. ./dbus send "message" to send signals to the bus to be picked up by the extension
When you start Firefox, a series of prompts will pop up, telling you what to do, This includes signals to be send from the dbus exec from #2
When"done" has been both sent and received, the prompts will end. (WARNING: These will pop up the next time you run Firefox with it installed/enabled)

There are still a few things I want to fix up before I officially release it tomorrow (today?), namely updating the wiki page, and making the action of building it into an extension easier, It's post-midnight right now, and I'm running on little sleep, making this not very productive time. However, I do have a contribution opporunity...

Contribution Opportunity

When I put my source into srcdir/extentions/nmautologin it compiles to objdir/dist/bin/extensions/ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It puts the compiled objects into components/ and I have been able to get my Javascript XPCOM into there as well. The problem is, I also have chrome/content/autoLogin.xul in my source I want to export to it, but when I try, it negates the directory path, and just puts it in objdir/dist/bin/extensions/ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I am currently exporting these files over using DIST_FILES = autoLogin.xul in my Makefile. If anybody knows how to keep the directory structure intact (my chrome.manifest references it relative to itself) the build process would be a lot easier, and I would be much appreciative.

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